Pick your Battles
by Mumpy
In case you hadn’t picked up on it, the Mumpy is a sensitive soul, and gets offended at the slightest provocation. When you look up the phrase “water off a duck’s back” in the dictionary, you will never see a photo of the Mumpy.
I told a Product Manager last week that he had offended me by telling me that he had arranged for me to go to a Training session for new employees. To be honest, it wasn’t that so much that he had arranged it for me – it was the fact that he said “It’s important for you to go” with a condescending, sympathetic, testosterone-packed nod of the head - as if he hadn’t just joined the company a month ago and as if I hadn’t practically written the entire bloody Training material myself!
Did I handle the situation well, I hear you ask yourselves? No – I did not. The situation quickly degenerated into a shouting match and local R&D representatives had to arrange a cease-fire. I agreed to it – but am secretly stocking up on verbal ammunition for the next round.
The point is that I cannot bear it when people patronize me. I – just – cannot – bear – it. The irony, if irony is the right word, is that when my boss saw me sitting in the Training session this morning, he was like “what on earth are you doing in a training session for new employees?” I experienced a short sweet taste of victory – but that could have been last night’s Baileys Irish coming back up. I think what would make me really, really happy is if I could smash this guy’s face in. I am not entirely sure if that is permitted behavior in my hi-tech company, I shall have to ask HR.
In the meantime, I shall carry on putting in page references to corrections I have made in the User Manual and slowly, carefully take notes, keep score and bide my time.
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This reminds me of how when, after my Ph.D. in Physics, I went to register for MBA studies, the secretary had me take a math test and was surprised when I declined her suggestion that I study for the test before taking it. I did take the test and found two mistakes in the test paper. The lecturer did call the next day however to apologize! So sometimes not making a scene could get you the upper hand.