2003-01-14 - 10:37 p.m.

New Boss And Weight Loss

My new boss is here.  He is a nice guy.  Very soft.  He is the total opposite of my last backslapping, loud laughing boss.  I'll need a name for him in my diary.  I think I'll call him Troy.

I felt bad because I knew the first thing I was going to do when he got in the office today was ask for a week off.  This is the week off I have been wanting since October. I was not able to take it during December as I had planned because my last boss would not let me.  But he was nice enough to let me carry the time over to the new year.  I want to get it out of the way as soon as possible, so I am taking next week off.

So Troy came into the office and we all talked for a few minutes.  I warned him about one of our worst clients.  I think he will be ok.  He has been doing this sort of thing for a long time and I am sure he will not be thrown by our insane customer.  I gave him my request for time off.  He talked to the president about it.  I don't think the president wants me to take it, he has all but said no, but everyone else in my department, including me, is ok with it.

Troy said that if I wanted I could just take a cash payment for the week.  I told him no.  I need the time off. I don't think I could last much longer without some quality vacation time.  I have been working very hard for a while, and the recent holidays just added to the stress and pressure.  I want time off.  I want it now. They keep giving it to us, weeks and weeks of it, but they don't ever want us to take it.

They will be ok.  Today Tommy started cleaning out all of his old computer equipment and he lined the hallway with free giveaway items. It is stuff he can't use anymore.  Ben got a few motherboards, Kevin got a power pack, I think someone got a cd drive and I got a printer.  It is an old inkjet printer. I figured my sister might be able to use it now that she is up and running with a pc she put together.  I also got a mouse for Joleen.  It is new and still in the box.

So at the end of the day I picked up the printer, Ben got his box of computer parts and we started heading down the hall to leave.  I felt really self-conscious about carrying away what looks like important office equipment.  As we passed by the office of our new boss I stopped and said, "Well, I'm leaving now!  I'm taking a few things with me.  Please don't tell anyone one.  I could get into real trouble if anyone found out I'm stealing!"

He looked really shocked for a moment and started laughing.  I told him that this was really stuff Tommy was giving away and he could help himself to anything left in the hall.  I have been laughing about it ever since.  This is why I really can't help myself sometimes.  I say things that normal people would not say to a stranger who is the new boss.  But there it is.

I am a joker.  How can anyone take me seriously?  Do I want people to take me seriously?  It is easier to be more relaxed in my job because I know people come to me with questions and know that I do my job well.

The sales guy would not look at me or talk to me today.  Score!  Ben said he was the same to him.  Yesterday the sales guy was out of the office.  He called to talk to Kevin but Kevin was busy helping someone so I put the sales guy on hold.  A few minutes passed and I went back to the sales guy and said Kevin was still not available, it would just be a moment.  Sales guy said it would only take a minute and I should get Kevin's attention and put him on the phone.

I put sales guy on hold again, told Kevin he was on hold and Kevin continued helping the guy he was helping.  After a few minutes I went back to the sales guy on hold and asked if he wanted to leave a message and the sales guys said, "No.  Put him on the phone now!  Tell him 'no excuses.'"

Uh, yeah. Hold on.  I put him on hold again, waited for Kevin to finish doing what he was doing, then transferred the call.  I hate being ordered by the sales guy, so I did the opposite of what he ordered me to do.  The sales guy gets angry for no reason.  The sales guy has an agenda and no respect for the agenda of the other person.  He feels that whatever he needs is more important than what anyone else is doing.

The important call?  Turns out he just needed to tell Kevin to be ready to visit a new client the next day.  That was it.  He could have left a message.  The sales guy is an ass.

The sales guy is responsible for hiring my new boss and my coworker Ben.  The sales guy is very good at his job and he likes to help other people quite unaccountably.  He would be a good person to know for networking purposes.  I burned that bridge a while back.

So he did not talk to me or look at me.

He is a grown man, mind you.

After work today Kevin and I went to the gym to work out.  He is a good workout coach.  He can tell what I am doing wrong and help me exercise better.  He is making good progress.  And it is good to hang out with him after work.  He is a very funny guy and I consider him to be my friend now.  When I took this job two years ago I promised myself that I would keep my work life and my real life separate.  I was not going to make friends with any of my coworkers.  But I could not help it.  Kevin is a great guy and we get along very well. I consider David a friend, too.  A lot of the guys I work with, I guess I should say all of the guys I work with, are great (sales guy not withstanding), I am friendly toward all of them, but I am closest to Kevin and David.

We worked out, looked at all the eye candy, went our separate ways.  When I got home my sister had cooked a roast and veggies.  So I ate a big plate of that.  It was very good.

Which brings me to the weight loss contest. Tommy decided that we would weigh today and see how we were all doing and who was ahead in the contest.  According to the scales at work I have lost only 5 and a half pounds.  That puts me in 2nd place behind Jamie who lost 6 pounds.  Everyone else has lost 2 or 3 pounds.  Good for everyone.

Jamie is still watching me very closely.  I am his main competition because I have so much weight to lose.  He told me today that if I pull ahead by more than 6 pounds he will just give up.

I don't know how much more I will lose.  This week I stopped eating bread with meat.  That should cut down on the fried hamburger consumption.  And I'm not eating potatoes, God help me.

Jimmy
 
 

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