Weird

Chris, unfortunately, got sick this weekend. Actually, that's not true. He got sick two weeks ago; got better last week; and then relapsed on Saturday. So, naturally, when Monday morning rolled around, guess who else started to feel achy and sniffly?

Me.

But I think the real indicator that I'm on my way to a potentially severe cold and/or sickness is the insane dream I had last night.

I was working the front gate of a mansion--checking packages and signing for deliveries. This usually isn't too difficult, but all of a sudden an enormous armored car showed up with a whopping 249 packages that needed to be signed and accounted for. They were all valuable pieces from an auction that the mansion owner had purchased; most of it was jewelry.

So, I start counting and labeling and sorting and what have you, when I see my coworker let about 100 packages through the gate--without counting or labeling.

"What are you doing?" I cry. "You can't just let them through."
She raised an eyebrow and then laughed.
"Did I not tell you? I only count and label for deliveries that are 5 packages or less. You know, as an exercise to pass the time. You don't have to do it for massive deliveries like this."

Because this was a dream, I have no idea how long I was working--or if I was happy or annoyed by this revelation. But I remember giving the driver permission to enter, and watching the enormous truck wind along the driveway and disappear.

All of a sudden I was transported to my mom's old suburban. The one she used to drive when I was in 8th grade. It was teal with grey interior.

Sitting in the front seat was my uncle Henry, who passed away when I was fourteen. I couldn't see who was driving. This is all I remember:

"Oh my god! What are you doing here?"
"I got some time to come back."
"What are you going to do?"
"I'd really like to see Aunt Betty."

Then the driver dropped me off outside my grandmother's house, who died in October of last year. Uncle Henry and Mom's teal suburban slowly drove away, and so I decided to enter the house. When I walked into her living room--there she was, clear as day.

"Oma?"
"Yes, schott. [This is a dutch term of endearment.] Have a seat."

I don't remember her exact words, but she proceeded to tell me that she'd been in Hell for 5 minutes. But she was out and really enjoying heaven.

Then I woke up.

I scare myself sometimes.

a New Year, a New Post

Alas and alack, I have some updates. Sorry for the delay.

As most of you know, America is in a Recession. That's Recession with a capitol 'R', meaning an actual Recession. This is not to be confused with recession, meaning a scare tactic used by people in politics to frighten their constituents into voting for/against said person/opponent.

I started to feel the first grumblings of this Recession when I was laid off at the end of June. At my new company (where I feel pieces of my soul die a little each day), we've already had two rounds of layoffs in the last 6 months. The latest occurred on January 19, 2009.

Yes, that was not only the day before Obama's historic inauguration, it was also Martin Luther King, Jr. Day--a holiday--and a Monday, to boot.

The worst part was that the HR manager didn't begin laying people off until around 10:30 am, which meant the unsuspecting souls (and roughly 10% of our office) who were let go, did between 2 and 3 hours of work before they were escorted out of the building. Escorted out of the building.

I didn't even know anything was going on until a friend of mine sent me a message on gchat:

"Are you still with the company?!" she wrote.
"WHAT? Yes--I think so. Are you? Are people getting laid off right now???" I replied.
"Yes! And Yes!" she typed.

This is how our company communicates important pieces of information.

To use a word from my former company's CEO, it's an "organic" way to do things. I don't know what organic means to you, but to me it means delicious fruit and vegetables that contain no preservatives. Synonym: natural. When used in the context of business, I think it means that higher ups would rather have people gossip and speculate than talk frankly with their staff.

Keep in mind, when I asked my boss what was going on she replied, "It's a layoff. You just have to get through it."

Which, of course, left me wondering if I was one of the people who'd be let go in the next hour.

To me, there is nothing natural about this type of behavior. Maybe it's because the big wigs are afraid of people going aggro. But if it were up to me, after I laid off 10% of my office, I would do everything I could to ensure the peace of mind of my remaining employees.

But, just like Michael Scott on last night's episode of The Office, I would have a really hard time handing over the client list of Prince Paper, too.

I guess Corporate America and I just don't see eye to eye. And in the wake of a staggering number of people on unemployment, I wonder who does.