Today was a really tough day at the office. One of our senior officers from Corporate came by with a full day’s presentation (broken up into blocks, thankfully). It required more than my usual effort and an earlier than normal rise time to get all the prep work done before her arrival. I was somewhat reticent about the day’s events, but I have to say, it was actually valuable in its entirety. The discussion surrounded our quality efforts and it was apparent, those efforts were achieving tangible results company-wide. I love my company.
I’m also blessed with an excellent boss. He came into our lives after a tumultuous tenure under the previous general manager, whom I still think is a freakin’ awesome person. The painful transition now in the past, the "new guy" is an “idea guy” who does a great job coming up with innovative ways to improve our business. The only reason I am willing to sound like a total kiss-ass is I’m reasonably sure he will never read this. It would go against the personae I’ve carefully crafted at the office to actually admire and respect my boss. I play the role of the jaded cynic who shouts at every turn, “Yeah right, whatever, but it’s not in the budget.”
I had a one-on-one session with our visitor and she was commenting on the uncharacteristic maturity I displayed, apparently well beyond my years. Now, she is obviously in her late 50s, so I’m thinking, “Huh?” Plus, she obviously doesn’t know me very well at all. Just how old do you think people have to be to show some maturity, I’m thinking, especially when the boss is going to get a report on the meeting? What slipped out of my smart mouth was, “I’m almost 45, BABE.” Her eyes grew wide, but she shook off my familiarity with aplomb. She said, "Well, you don't look a day over 38!"--apparently the official age where one is allowed to be both still young and immature.
One of the main reasons I decided not to move to Tucson was that I have the singular pleasure of working with such a great and talented staff; all of whom are at least 8 years younger than me. I work in an industry full of youngsters. Sometimes I question their work ethic--had I done this or that back in the day, I'd have been kicked to the curb. The irony of this series of meetings is my young managers sat around today and talked about the work ethic, or lack thereof, of the generation of employees below them. I giggled mightily inside. And, it reminded me heartily of Monty Python’s “Four Yorkshiremen” skit. Kids, these days.
So, though this is but a brief homage to my “colleagues”—Ang, that one’s for you—I’m just tickled pink that I get to go back tomorrow and be the old lady providing sage counsel to the young whipper snappers, and to be able to do it looking like I’m only 38!
To hold the same views at forty as we held at twenty is to have been stupefied for a score of years, and take rank, not as a prophet, but as an unteachable brat, well birched and none the wiser.
~ Robert Louis Stevenson
Published on: Mar 14, 2006
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