I had dinner with Inge de Bruin on Tuesday night - half price steaks at the Herdy! - and we were reminiscing about the good old days when we used to work together. We shared an office and had to put together a lot of events. I don't know how Inge could stand working with me: I was a in a constant state of freaking out, mostly due to a pile of work I hadn't bothered doing, while she worked quietly and steadily away and in her spare time picked up me and my shattered pieces.
We were about two days away from one particularly huge event and things were still incredibly disorganised and I had a major melt down, yelling and screaming and wailing and bemoaning my fate. Inge stayed very calm and helped me sort out yet another mess. I kept screaming and screaming and pointing out more problems - of my own creation - that proved we were doomed, doomed!, and Inge kept rationally pointing out ways they could be solved. A couple of hours later I was feeling much better, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and was utterly astonished when Inge said she was exhausted and was going home early. After all, I felt great - didn't everyone?
Since then we've both moved on to different jobs. I've had reason to call her a couple of times over the years and say, "There's a job going here - are you interested? We could work together again!"
Polite but firm, Inge has made it clear: no really does mean no.
No comments:
Post a Comment