Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Book publisher wanted!

I continued to consider leaving Gamma Supplies, but because of my financial situation, I could not afford to just pack up and leave. Despite the finances involved, I continued to look for ways to find a new job rapidly. I made some inquiring phone calls with no success. I also finally expressed my problems to Anita and during our discussion, I stressed that despite all the problems, the Delta job still offered me exposure to the other business facets such as sales, accounting, marketing and production that I could not get with larger companies. And that exposure fit into my long term plans. At that moment it was the one reason I could see for staying at Gamma Supplies.

The next day at work, late in the afternoon, Darth wandered into my office and started a discussion which rapidly turned into a sales pitch on the merits of working for Gamma Supplies. I had had another bad day with Ravi and John, and I was not buying any of it. By now I considered Darth as much or more to blame for my problems than I did Ravi. It was becoming obvious to Darth that I wasn't buying his pitch when he said, “You know, Delta offers you exposure to other facets of the business such as sales, accounting, marketing, and production that you wouldn't get in another company.”

I blurted out, “That's EXACTLY what I said to my wife last night.”

I was somewhat take back by his statement, but I just dismissed it as a coincident. The coincidences at Gamma Supplies began to occur with more and more frequency and several occasion they seemed truly bizarre. At one of the management meetings, Darth had briefly mentioned psychologist Maslow's hierarchy of needs which states that a person's needs can be grouped into five categories, and that the categories are pyramidal in nature. That is, one need must be satisfied before the next higher need can be fulfilled. The third level need is belonging or association.

During a routine office conversation with Ralph Sampson, I jokingly said, “ I know what's the matter with me. My Maslow's sense of belonging is not being fulfilled.” Then I went back to my lab and continued working.

Within a couple of minutes of my conversation with Ralph, Darth came into the lab and slapped me on the back. Then he put his arm over my shoulder as if we were old buddies and said, “How are you doing Russ?”

The conversation continued for a couple of minutes, then Darth removed his arm from my shoulder and went on his way. The timing of Darth's action in relation to my comment to Ralph Sampson was uncanny. Darth had never acted like that before. In fact, Darth was always the isolated power figure. His actions seemed amateur like as if he were deliberately trying to make me feel that I belonged at Gamma Supplies.

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