Friday, January 25, 2008

Meeting Blog 1/25

Here we are for the first super meeting in a long time. We’ve got a full crew here – A-Rod, Cano, Giambi, Posada, Jeter, Forro, I, and even Matsui and Melky Cabrera. We currently don’t have anyone in right field, but we have a guy who’s in here for just a bit who we’ll call Abrera.
10:15 AM – A-Rod gets us started. The only person currently missing is Jeter, our team captain. But that’s the status quo.
10:20 AM – A-Rod suggests the office stenographer as the stenographer for our meetings. That’s idiotic as she’s the last person on the planet I want in here due to her penchant for gossip and the fact that it’s one more excuse for her to be slow.
11:05 AM – I’m done with budgets. One thing that I have noticed though, both during Abrera’s presentation and during mine is that Matsui is indeed in left field. He loves to pipe in at random times with things that really don’t work. Oh, also sometime between this and my last entry Jeter arrived.
11:07 AM – Posada is saying things that totally back up how we’re doing things, even though Jeter doesn’t like it. I think that this might reach a tipping point where Jeter finally decides that what we’re doing with our electronic system is actually helpful.
11:20 AM – Posada puts a plug in randomly for another employee even though he doesn’t need one. For some reason or another, he feels like more employees = more power
11:30 AM – Sorry about the pathetic recap so far. I’ve been busy trying to get Forro’s computer taken care of because of some network issues he’s having. One thing I will say is that no matter who is talking, Matsui will not just shut up and listen. He feels like he’s got to be right in the thick of things.
11:40 AM – I don’t understand why people are so antsy about W-4s. We’re legally bound to get them out by the end of January, but I’ve gotten probably 10 people asking about it regularly. Now it was just mentioned by Giambi that people are asking him. Seriously, chill out. January 31st – count on it!
11:45 AM – Here’s an interesting thing: Giambi knows more about Matsui’s branch than Matsui does. I think that this shows right there why we’ve got problems there.
11:55 AM – Cano is talking and Matsui’s jumping right over him. It’s crazy. Matsui really is the most mental person in this meeting, he can’t shut his yap for even a second.
12:05 PM – A-Rod says his presentation will be only 15 minutes. I believe him about as much as I believe Ron Paul will be President. He has NEVER and I mean never been able to shut himself up before the 15 minute mark. 15 hours yes, but not 15 minutes. Let me also take this moment in time to highly recommend Cloverfield. It was great, even though the Handicam footage on a big screen made me motion sick. I think I should move from the 150 foot screen to the 13-60 inch range on my next viewing. Nevertheless, you should see it.
12:16 PM – We’re a scant 4 minutes from the deadline. Just thought I’d let you know. One interesting thing is that A-Rod is a consultant by trade. Usually when you have one of those guys parachute in to a company, you have some interaction. Here though because he didn’t jump in and then back out so nobody really listens to him anymore. We just sit here and stare and stay silent. I think it’s because the action he proposes has never been followed up with actual action
12:25 PM – Yeah, we passed the time. On the other hand, A-Rod is trying to move towards changing our culture. If he pulls this off, he’s totally almost maybe redeemed himself. He’s dancing around some things because he’s waiting for round 2. Yes, we will be here forever. I really should have brought in some water.
12:27 PM – Here’s a direct quote “I took Johnson and Johnson, a great company already, and the CEO loved what I did.” Not to brag or anything.
12:40 PM – I’m back. For some reason my computer freaked out. Annoying. Anyway, A-Rod’s doing a pretty good job right now even though we’re up over 30 mins.
1:00 PM – We’re in theory close to being done, but we’re going on the merry-go-round again over pretty ridiculous stuff.
1:05 PM – Cano and A-Rod talk and Matsui can’t help but just run them over, even though they aren’t stopping. The last 5 minutes she continually talks right over the top of them, despite the fact that they aren’t stopping
1:11 PM – We’re trying to schedule a meeting for the whole company and it is literally impossible.
1:17 PM – Round 1 is done. Now we’re on to Round 2. Say goodbye to Matsui and Cabrera, they’re both on their way to greener pastures.
2:00 PM – Well it hasn’t started yet
2:10 PM – A-Rod is dinking around with marketing stuff instead of buckling down and having this meeting. I do have a job to do!
2:11 PM – Forro’s gotten up to start this thing since everyone’s finished eating, except A-Rod who for some unknown reason disappeared and then reappeared after everybody ate. Now he’s eating and delaying us
2:30 PM – After asking around about growth goals, A-Rod tosses out a bogus number (10x the companies we’re competing against, which is completely, utterly wrong) to say how hard things are.
2:35 PM – We’re discussing goals, and Jeter’s not here. Unfortunately, it’s kind of important to have Jeter on board with this as he is the team captain. It’s like all the people at Intel sitting down and making a goal without Paul Otellini in the room.
2:37 PM – Posada is talking, but I really don’t know why he’s saying what he’s saying. I think he decided to take the role of Matsui.
2:52 PM – It’s actually pretty good so far, so nothing much to report other than we’re never leaving.
3:00 PM – More random “I’m so cool” comments from Posada. He’s making comments about our goals, but generally in a “man, I’m great” kind of way.
3:15 PM – I wish I had some snide comments, but even though this has gone on for ages, it’s been good and therefore less interesting.
3:22 PM – So let it be written from the mouth of A-Rod “In the area of performance management, I have done a poor job.”
3:49 PM – Giambi just mentioned that some people expect someone to be here 40-50 hours a day. Wow, that’s terrible, just terrible. I’d never want to be in that position (where I have to work 40-50 hours a day because there's only 24).
3:59 PM – We’re done. This was an epic length, but despite that it wasn’t nearly as bloggable as I had hoped, mainly because it wasn’t bad. That’s good for me, but not as good for you.

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