Monday, February 02, 2009

Just Wondering ...

If this is what a nervous breakdown feels like?

CBL was in town all last week. I was in the office every day. She needs me there, you see. We spent the whole week together.

Then we had a 90 minute phonecall today. Half of it she spent telling me that I need to get our (read my, although technically it should be "her") planning done by Thursday am. Another portion of it was spent listening to her bitch about various and sundry co-workers. Yet another portion was spent listening to her plan and think out loud and provide validation and affirmation of how brilliant and wise she is.

OK, maybe I exaggerate a tad. But not much. One day, I will tape these phonecalls.

So, as she noted, I have a lot of planning to do. I'm not actually supposed to be doing this planning. It's technically not in my job description. But CBL has admitted that she's "numerically an idiot." Those are her words, btw. So, I have planning to do. Not that I really mind. Although it's my least favorite part of the job, it does make me more indispensible and, frankly, people know where the documentation is coming from. Still, I do have a life to lead...

After we hung up, at 2:15 pm, I proceeded to get -- I kid you not -- 47 emails from her. A bunch of these were about her travel options for a meeting we have scheduled in March in New York. Some of them were asking me my thoughts on queuing up more press releases (we have 6 in the hopper). And the remainder were asking me to resend her documents that I've already sent and posted on our Sharepoint site.

Finally, in exasperation, I sent her an email. "I really need to hunker down and get this planning done. So tomorrow I'm going to go offline for most of the day and just crank through it. Cool?"

This was the response.

"Of course. That's your number one priorty. Unless of course you get an email about SalesLogix or our presentation or the pipeline reports."

Wow.

That was 25 emails ago.

It's 10:15 at night. I just finally shut my VPN down.

If there is a story in The Globe tomorrow about a crazy, naked woman jumping off the Annisquam Bridge into the icy waters below, you heard it here first, kids. Nervous breakdown.