Employee Mind Meld

The FBR Tucked herself into her Parents' bed Yesterday in Vain Attempt to Avoid Nap Time

I’ve had a funny couple days at work. A number of employees came up to me and congratulated me on my impending retirement. When I looked confused they said they heard I was leaving shortly. Once I corrected them and asked where they were getting their information I was able to track the rumors back to a disgruntled bunch who don’t like some of the standards I enforce – like working for a living. I think part of the millennial way of thinking is to start a rumor and hope that it takes form and eventually reality. I send out a daily mass email to most of my employees, it’s a voluntary thing but most have signed up for it. I call it the morning “Info Blast”. It’s proved to be an effective way to share information with my widespread, very mobile employees. This morning I included the following in the blast:  “GM Note:  I know someone is out there spreading rumors that I am leaving shortly.  To clear up the confusion of this obviously wishful thinking of some, I will be there at least another year and have no plans on leaving. You should seriously question the credibility of the people spreading this rumor because it is a complete fabrication. You’re stuck with me for the foreseeable future.”  Apparently I hit a nerve because a number of the really good employees came up to me this morning and said, “Perfect!” after seeing it and hoped it would shut some of the worst offenders up.

I had short conversations with my far flung lady friends yesterday. The FBR hadn’t eaten yet and seemed more interested in giving direction to her parents in that area than talking with me. She would also run over and lock herself in the bathroom for no apparent reason. After we finished talking my daughter usually hands the IPad to the FBR because she likes to give me a hug. As soon as she did last night the FBR again ran into the bathroom and we said goodbye in there. So I can cross that off my bucket list. My other distant lady, the Favorite Panamanian, reported in totally exhausted. Her frenetic pace of the past couple weeks furnishing the condo and hosting parties there seems to have caught up with her. She uttered something I never thought I would hear come from her lips. She actually stated, and friends her know her will share my shock, that she was tired of shopping. The apocalypse may be upon us.

I was predictably back at the movie theater last night and saw The Snowman. This has been uniformly scoured by critics but I love a murder mystery and I really like both of the lead actors so I went anyway. It is not as bad as some would have you think. The plot veers all over the place and the editor should be shot for the lack of continuity but there are some good performances. Especially Michael Fassbender, who plays a seriously flawed Norwegian police investigator tracking down a serial killer between his drunken binges. The killer only emerges when it snows, which in Norway, is problematic. Rebecca Ferguson continues her strong series of roles as his young assistant with a hidden story of her own. There are some very interesting shots of the stark and beautiful Norwegian countryside. There’s always a problem bringing a dense book to the screen and the filmmakers may have tried to do too much but I think the problems can be laid at the feet of the editor. JK Simmons is comically bad in a red herring role trying some kind of weird accent because the Norwegians must have an English accent, don’tcha know. So, not as bad as many would have you think but certainly not as good as you would hope with this cast.

The Bad Cinema project count rises to #42 out of 100, with Prehistoric Women, a “thrilling” look at prehistoric mating rituals.