1988 to 1990
Stealing second: I felt like I was trying to manage chaos. Then, after less than a year, Northrop announces a re-organization. They’re combining departments and eliminating levels of management. Since I was the newest kid on the block, I was on the phone with recruiters almost every day. Everyone was panicking. No one knew where the chips were going to fall. Even though I had submitted my budget plan, it was frozen. Then ka-boom, they decide to retain managers based on a system of merit rather than seniority (and it helped that I had a college degree which many of the senior managers didn't). What didn’t help was that many of those senior managers were now reporting to me and I had no idea how to deal with it. I was responsible for departments I’d never heard of: Facilities (building and maintenance. Record Keeping (document retention), Security, Video Teleconferencing (cool) and Data Entry. Basically every department except the ones I thought would benefit most from buyer workstations, which is what started me down this path in the first place. In the words of Karen Blixen “This is not what I thought would happen to me now.”
and continues ~> [ link ]
8 comments:
Holy Shit! I haven't checked back in on your job stories in quite some time, and whoa! what a life! You seem to be, not only a possible genius, but a very brave one, at that! In my humble opinion, a true genius incorporates one very important characteristic... they are usually someone who doesn't know that something may not be possible, because they are intelligent and open enough to see so many possibilities... and are innocent as babes, as you seemed to have been. You did not let "it cannot be done" keep you from accomplishing the task. You also had enough foresight to build your skills. Where we land is not always where we were headed, but one thing is for sure, we will arrive where the Journey takes us. There can be nothing wrong with that. I truly enjoy reading your life's stories.
Shimmerrings ~ You read all of them ..? ((wow)). Thank you ..! I write them when I have a break in amnesia.
Genius ..? Definitely not. Naivety ..? Probably so. Chance and circumstance ..? Definitely so. I happen to benefit from people who are smarter than me. For instance, Nick had more to do with buyer workstations than I give him credit for (but that’s his story to tell).
We were friends before that ..we used to go down to the marina after work ..find an idle sailboat ..and sit on the deck drinking beer. He taught me everything I knew about computer networks ..geeks that we were. One day I got a call back from one of the places I contacted ..they were in Santa Barbara ..which sounded much sweeter than Los Angeles ..I had to go. And that’s where the story continues ..
Lee, we all learn from someone... mostly, anyways. I find extremely intelligent people to be oh-so-interesting... I'm sure the feeling is not mutual, because I have nothing new that I can add to their great big basket of goodies, but I soooo love picking a brain and extracting information. And yes, I read all of the stories! I could feel your fear, it was palpable... sometimes we just have to fake it till we make it. I'm going through a spell of that right now, myself. You've done well, Lee William. You have a lot to be proud of. I've wasted so much of my brain, lost in so much stupidity and emotion, through the years. Thanks for sharing of your stories :)
That Tony guy... he wasn't from San Diego was he? Probably not, that would be a long shot.
Tony Dragonetti ..? Probably not. He was from the Los Angeles area.
Shimmerrings ~ Thanks so much for your interest in my job stories.
When I first began telling the story about grad school ~ some people got stuck on the part about how Japanese children outperform American children on reading tests. They took offense ..stopped listening and started arguing. I had taken for granted that it was common knowledge ~ and so I took that part out (it was part of the study on childhood inference-making).
Anyway, it got me thinking .. now might be a good time to apply ‘entrepreneurship’ to education ~ and start looking at better ways of teaching children (and adults). So, I decided to take a break from telling old job stories and use this space to post new job ideas.
Thanks for you support ~ Lee
Nope. Tony Beecher. I left the comment over on my blog :)
Here's what I left at my place.
It's too bad people take offense at the truth, eh. I think it's wonderful, your idea for looking into better ways of teaching, though I do really like reading about your job stories, too. Take that inspiration and run with it! And, I remember you said you don't have emails that let you know when someone has posted a response. Well, I've been looking through some of the older posts and did make a comment or two. Synesthesia... and Tom Trabasso. I have found one of his seminars, online, that I am enjoying, Black English. I've had my nose to the Navigational Rules of The Road, lately, though, so other reading materials are coming along very slowly.
8/31/2008
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