It's All About Me

Over on AlmostGotIt, which chronicles the day-to-day of a job hunter who almost got the job... I've been tagged to come up with 8 random facts about me.

Now "me" is always a fun topic. Random's harder - I categorize pretty much everything. And since I've been tagged by this one a couple of times before, I thought I'd come up with 8 tidbits about things that have happened to me while at work.

1. One day, when I was walking down the hall to get a cup of tea, my skirt (navy blue wool) dropped down around my ankles. Fortunately, I was wearing a slip. More fortunately, it was 7:30 a.m. and there was no one in my area who was yet at work. (At least no one ever let one that they'd seen me standing there trying to figure out how my skirt fell off.)
2. After having worked about 3 weeks straight without taking a day off, I burst into tears when, at "an important meeting" my boss asked me where something or other was that I was supposed to have completed for the meeting. The only other woman at the meeting burst into sympathetic tears. Thanks, Annie W, wherever you are.
3. In the ladies room at Genuity, I once found a turd on the floor. I was going to call the building people but then I said, what the hell, I've changed diapers. I've scooped dog poop. I took care of the mess. (The turd was small-ish but not teeny-tiny.) I laughed my way back to my office and immediately called my friend Judy to report my finding.
4. At Softbridge I was the only woman on the management team. One time at our weekly meeting, one of my peers - whom I had helped out with something he was having a hard time with - thanked me for being his "wetnurse". This same individual was always doodling objects that looked suspiciously like breasts. I was both disturbed and amused by the slip. I corrected the fellow, pointing out that he meant "nursemaid."
5. I took a 15% paycut to leave Wang. It was worth it.
6. At a big meeting, I sneezed suddenly and violently and a small spray of blood mist flew all over the conference table.
7. I was once the target of an anonymous poison pen letter complaining that incompetent women were getting ahead at his expense. He shouldn't have worried. The company was shut down two weeks later.
8. The first time I ever had a management position, I ended up doing my one and only direct report's work over so that my boss wouldn't find out how lazy and lax he was.

So, that's 8 things that have happened to me at work.

And here's a bonus fact, that has nothing to do with work: Every chain letter I ever received stopped with me. Maybe it was my Catholic background. As kids, after all, we were told that to continue on with a chain letter was a mortal sin. Now I know better, but I still don't carry chain "things" on very well. If at all.

Everyone I know who blogs may well have been tagged already on this one, or, I suspect, wouldn't appreciate my tagging them. Although I don't really no why I feel this way, since I really don't mind being tagged. In fact, on a sweltering August day, it's nice to have a blog idea JUST HANDED TO ME. But the tag ends here. Any readers who want to add their 8 cents, please feel free to do so in a Comment or on there own blogs. I'd love to hear from you.

And I do want to thank AlmostGotIt for her including me in her tag list and for her Pink Slip readership. For obvious reasons - she's looking for a job and squawking about the process (and her former employer) in fine high dudgeon - Almost is anonymous. Which is too bad, because I'd love to put a name with a blog.

Anyway, reading her blog makes me very happy that I'm not job hunting. I have certainly had job searches where I felt that I would never work again. I'm almost positive that this will not happen to Almost.