Meetings

[W3WN]

So, my company's Annual Meeting is this afternoon.

Mandatory attendance, Business Attire mandatory. (I HATE wearing a tie!)

Guest speaker to the company today will be: Mr. Bob Nutting. Principal Owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

I have had an even dozen people ask me if I was going to tell Mr. Nutting what I thought of his ownership style & decisions, especially the first few years when it looked like they were doing everything on the cheap (and they were).

Tempting, tempting. :twisted:

However, 2 weeks ago, one of the owners of my company made mention of Mr. Nutting's invitation. And asked if I had any such plans. Now, the words he said were friendly... but the look and the tone made it very clear...

As my boss told me, "Tom has gotten tired of certain people's reactions to celebrities around here." (Not that I consider Mr. Nutting a celebrity, but I got the gist). That, and "employees who embarrass the owners around high profile guests don't tend to stay employees for much longer."

In other words...

[W3WN]

Well, someone asked an embarrassing question. 'twasn't me. I kept my mouth shut, and made it a point to not even go near the man.

Found out on the way home that right after I left the post-meeting cocktail meet-and-greet, someone went looking for me... because he'd overheard one of the owners caution me to be nice. This after the schmuck had already had three beers and a couple of glasses of wine... all within 30 minutes. I sure hope he wasn't driving himself home.

Bob Nutting may be a nice guy in person... but when it comes to giving a talk, boy, is he dull and boring. He stood at the podium for 20 minutes and almost put everyone to sleep. (He also has to learn how to talk into a microphone)

[KG4NEL]

As my boss told me, "Tom has gotten tired of certain people's reactions to celebrities around here." (Not that I consider Mr. Nutting a celebrity, but I got the gist).

Get better celebrities?

yuk yuk yuk

[KG4CGC]

When speaking into a microphone ...

[WØTKX]

[koØm]

So, my company's Annual Meeting is this afternoon.

Mandatory attendance, Business Attire mandatory. (I HATE wearing a tie!)

Guest speaker to the company today will be: Mr. Bob Nutting. Principal Owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

I have had an even dozen people ask me if I was going to tell Mr. Nutting what I thought of his ownership style & decisions, especially the first few years when it looked like they were doing everything on the cheap (and they were).

Tempting, tempting. :twisted:

However, 2 weeks ago, one of the owners of my company made mention of Mr. Nutting's invitation. And asked if I had any such plans. Now, the words he said were friendly... but the look and the tone made it very clear...

As my boss told me, "Tom has gotten tired of certain people's reactions to celebrities around here." (Not that I consider Mr. Nutting a celebrity, but I got the gist). That, and "employees who embarrass the owners around high profile guests don't tend to stay employees for much longer."

In other words...

Every so often, my manager would call, "Tech-Check" and we would have to show up at the office at 8:00 a.m. for some inane meeting.

I hated going into the office, every "Field Engineer" hated going into the office even to restock our parts supply. TRIC (Technical Representative Inventory Control) sheets were due in by Thursday 1700 hours for auto restock; I got so good, I had my stock dropped shipped to my house.

I always left a call open in the afternoon so that the next morning, I always had "somewhere" to be.

Have you ever heard a "Daisy Wheel" printer in operation; tat-tat-tatty tat-tat-tat or a "Band Printer", ziiiit-ziiiit-ziiit? Well, I carried a portable cassette recorder with me so that when I called the office, with the tape recorder playing in the background, it always sounded as if I was onsite even though I was down at Quatman's or Keiner's Pub chilling out.

Dispatch was by pager (late 70's early 80's) and the call center was in Chicago; those were the "Good 'Ol Days".

.

[W3WN]

Nice. But those little tricks wouldn't work with the Annual Meeting. Both owners were present, and they (quietly) WERE keeping tabs on who showed up -- and more importantly, who didn't.

Oh, suffice to say... the not-so-subtle hints were taken to heart. I made certain that I quietly avoided Mr. Nutting the entire evening, and the word got back to me via my boss that my, ah, discretion was appreciated.