Roblog

I drove myself into work a few times last month, mostly so that I would have my car to drive myself home after the myriad office holiday parties I went to. Since Houston's local NPR station stops their NPR programming at 7:00 PM, I got a Beatles CD to listen to on the way home. I picked the Beatles Anthology, Volume 2

This compilation of rough cuts reminded me of some of the more avante garde songs on the White Album. I instantly recalled a summer evening when I was about 12...

I needed to get to work really early on Tuesday - earlier than the buses started to run - so I drove myself into work. It was an unexpected shock, though, to experience the rush-hour traffic I usually bypass on the HOV lane when I take the bus. I sometimes get annoyed if I have to wait for the bus for more than 10 minutes, but Tuesday's experience showed me that a 10-minute wait is made up at least twice over when the bus hits that HOV lane.

I'll be sure to appreciate the bus rides a little more from now on.

A recent (temporary?) shift in roles at work means that I know have direct reports, for only the second time in my career. The first time was during the "dot-com" boom when there was a large amount of turnover and a highly-competitive recruiting environment. Within the space of a month, two people left my small group of 6, and I was the only person who could inherit their roles. Greatly overworked, that 5-month experience was not pleasant and made me feel like I did not do a good job as a supervisor.

This time, I feel more comfortable in the role and don't feel as overwhelmed, but at the same time most of my responsibilities are not as a supervisor. Mostly, I'm liaison to our client management, working on presentations or analyses, and interfacing with our India team on various escalated issues. So I haven't really been able to devote a whole lot of time to being a supervisor to my direct reports; instead, I am relying on their abilities to self-manage most of their day-to-day activities. That has worked out OK.

I have noticed one curious thing - I think one of my new direct reports is giving me the "boss laugh". I like to think I'm reasonably amusing at times, but sometimes I think this person is laughing too readily at my only marginally funny comments. It may be this person is an easy laugher, but that's not the impression I get.