Thursday, October 18, 2007

The cube farm is quiet...

The cube farm is quiet, even the glass tower.  My little corner at work has very little traffic.  There are at least 4 global employees, some transients, and a few regulars like me who have our own disappearing acts too.  There is one who after 2 weeks of negotiating, his project got cancelled, is on his way to Abu Dhabi for a 3 month TDY and maybe looking at SFO or SEA for a longer term, one is in Atlanta, 2 on separate trips to Australia, and the rest I don't know.  I get emails and phone messages with no indication of their whereabouts I thought that they are still around.  The office set up these days, does not leave room for privacy, I can hear their music, their sighs, smell their lunches, and still not be connected on  a personal level.

I like to maintain that thing that they call professional distance, being proper. I thought I was doing that.  Not seeing this PM in a long time, we have written a lot of work plans and safety plans together for his project, for which we earned an Army coin.  When I saw him last week,  we hugged like old friends, updated, the proud grandpa telling stories of his grandchildren, his project ending at the end of the year. As we walked away, smiling, I realized whoops, that was not a business handshake, when I was not looking somehow the detached business persona has transformed into the friendly neighborly association.  I'm not complaining..

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