ice, ice baby

Over our Jersey Shore weekend Spaghetti ruminated about a Times article she had read singing the praises of cold brewed coffee. Supposedly the nectar of gods, far superior to the regular brew just tossed over some ice.

With a little research I came across the recipe. Simply add grounds and ice water to a container. Stir. Leave overnight. Next morning filter out the grounds, and mix one part water to one part cold brewed coffee.

Simple as pie. But me? Ha. "Why dilute with water?" I scoff to myself.

So by god I drank my jumbo mug full of the straight stuff. And it was DELICIOUS. Very tasty. The cold brewing really brought out all the subtle flavors that you don't get with a hot cuppa joe.

Oh, but then the caffeine.

Heh.

ROCKET FUEL. I did not stop moving at lightning speed until 3:30. My coworkers were afraid of me. (Really, they were.) I was a force not to be reckoned with.

Which came in damn handy today to tell you the truth. First of all, the CEO of my company retired today. Not too much of a surprise, but oh the drama.

Sure they named his successor. But at the last gig I saw what happens when a changeover at this level happens. It tends to be the aftershocks that will getcha. A successor is named, and some juggling is done to replace or restructure whatever gap needs to be filled. But the real question that sits on everyone's lips concerns the loyalties.

In my experience I have seen people with over 20 years at a company get tossed out of the door head over feet because of the political ‘favorites’ game. This is the time when you see how battle lines that are drawn over time really come to fruition. Because at a certain pay grade job performance is more a matter of opinion than measurability.

So the extra legal drug was an aid in the drama. But also, by god, there have been a lot of fires to put out as of late. The last two nights I was at work until seven, tonight until nine. Don't ask how many hours my employees worked. Because I might twitch.

Therein lies the ethical question. How hard do you work, and why?

I work hard because I identify myself with my job. If my job is not in order, my responsibilities not handled well, I consider myself a failure. Therefore I have to stay until I know everything is taken care of that needs to be because I refuse the concept that I could not succeed.

To do my job well I must make sure all issues that need action have been moved upon or reminded to the person lacking response by me. The regular duties must of course be maintained, minimum daily and weekly tasks. My boss must not be in need of my assistance. I can't tell you how many times at the mighty bird I would try to help Seattle Jane or Brown Sugar. Not that they would give me much, but at the very least if they were overworked I was taking on every extra thing I could to get them out from under their load.

So of course I can't expect my employees to try as hard or be as intuitive as me. But if there is anything I have learned it is that I need to delegate more. And maybe explain exactly how I measure their basic levels of success. Because a lot of the extra work has been compensating for where they did not act as they should.

So even though this week looks like it, I don't plan on repeating my same work patterns as last year. Putting in sixty to seventy hours while the people under me feel overworked at forty-five.

Now how the hell do I explain that to them?? Crap. Having employees sucks.

But at least I know do dilute my damn coffee before I have a talk with any of them. Could you just imagine me on an illegal drug? Yeah. No.