Thursday, July 24, 2008

Dynamics of doc review

Document review: An unimportant job with little power, no business interactions outside the tiny group working, big egos, odd personality quirks= drama.
My second project put 15 people in 2 rooms in a rental office space. We were all told the project would last 3 months, and it was a 60 hr/week job. First major discussion happened over whether we would change the work schedule from 6-10 hr days or go for 5-12 hr days. I was a big fan of cramming it into 5 days, leaving weekends free. Others were concerned about commuting. Valid concern, except they also said it was hard to get in at the stated start time with train schedules. I may be corp america's bitch, but when the job states start time and you take job you make it work!
Character analysis: NYU wants to be included and be thought of as witty. Not smart or efficient, he minimizes those. He repeats his witty sayings until he believes someone important has heard and given him some sort of feedback. To create dissonance and unease, do not pay attention to the contributions.
Corner chick is easily unbalanced. Talk about her, or have her think others are talking about her, pick on her, and then provide the persuasive message. She is easily isolated to allow me to step in and be her "1 true friend".
New girl wants to be part of the cool crowd and is brave about contributing when her knowledge level is low.
Queen Bee, who relocated for this project. Makes a huge point on telling everyone her sexual orientation, as if she was back in the midwest and people might care. Our training on the technical aspects of the content of the review was pathetic, she has been instrumental in getting more detail from engineers she knows. But she is also crazy. Seriously. The reason why we had a talking to from PM about inappropriate touching. She was "let go" and the morning of her firing the PM showed up in the big room to tell us if we saw her in the building to call her immediately. She never did come back and go postal.
5-pack, who has a stack of show tune cds at his workspace. Goes out at lunch everyday to buy more. Definite asperger's. So named bc he came in one day after lunch with a bag from Long's Drugs with wine coolers. I heard bottles clanking, looked over my shoulder, and saw a distinctive wine cooler bottle on the table next to his computer. I mentioned this to the PM, she then made and announcement to the rooms that there can be no alcohol at work. He admitted to have wine coolers, but "only 5." They come in packs of 4. Where did the 3 go? He was "let go."
Corner cunts are 4 women fresh out of law school who talk about shopping and TV shows all day. Every afternoon at 5 (we still had 2.5 hrs to go at work) they would have a Friends trivia game. They talked loudly, as if everyone was interested. Or they whispered. They tried to organize a birthday party list, potluck, and then take over what we would have for Friday's lunch (paid for by agency). They will make very good administrative assistants when they screw up being attorneys. AKA "the Heathers."

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