Intern Investigation

Since yesterday was Wednesday I was looking forward to my weekly lunch with my son.  Wednesday’s have also come to mean I will be walking into an absolute buzz saw at work as soon as I show up.  Tuesday had been so quiet that I was lulled into a false sense of security. 

I was in the office less than 5 minutes before my boss (the great one) walked into my office and appointed me as an investigator for an alleged incident of inappropriate employee conduct.  That was followed by a barrage of emails from our tech consultant who needed reams of information, before noon.  The techie is a great guy but totally lost in managing his time and seeks to become a donor of that attribute.

While I was calming him down, a series of employees wandered into my office to offer suggestions on a wide range of subjects.  I think a good manager has to keep his door open so employees feel they’ve got a voice in the process.  While all of this was going on my wife called because she wanted to discuss the invite list for an upcoming party.  I was nervously watching the clock climb towards the time I was supposed to leave for my lunch while keeping all these glass balls circling in the air.    

Lunch Savior Yesterday

I was able to make the lunch barely and it was exactly what I needed.  Both of my kids have the ability to immediately put me in a good mood – probably the opposite effect I had on them growing up but there it is.  My son, along with a couple emails from my daughter, provided me with the boost I needed to get through the rest of the day.

The afternoon was spent diving into the investigation which I actually enjoy.  My last assignment in the Army involved high level investigations and I prided myself at being kind of good at it.  In another life I’ll probably be a detective.  I’ve done several investigations here at work and at least two of them have been instrumental in winning arbitrations.  This one is going to be a little hairy because it involves an allegation of racism.  I was asking some tough questions yesterday afternoon.  The very worst thing that can happen to racism to have light shined on it. 

I was so happy to get home and link up with the wife and the wonder pooch.  Squirrels have invaded the back deck bird feeders and Buddy almost caught one that gave him a merry chase completely around the house to the front yard.  The ballsy little rodent returned an hour later and when I gave Buddy the warning order he anxiously posed at the door for a lethal attack.  He charged out of the door not bothering to locate where the squirrel was.  The squirrel noted his passing and went back to eating bird seeds.  Buddy returned from a lap around both the neighbor’s house and ours looking extremely pleased with himself.  He’s not an exceptionally bright canine, but lovable.

To escape the Boston sports debacles of last night I went solo to a movie – The Internship.  My wife claimed it looked “stupid” and I was thinking well, yeah – that’s why I want to see it.  It was stupid and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson have the same chemistry they exhibited in the much funnier Wedding Crashers and portrayed the same kind of lovable losers, which is kind of sneakily endearing.  A middle ager such as myself could certainly identify with the struggle these two older characters had as summer interns at Google struggling to survive in a crowd of tech savvy young ’uns.  Really light stuff, and kind of stupid but exactly what I needed after a typical Wednesday.