Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Screwed Again

Early that afternoon Darth came around to my office and explained that I would be
reporting to Carl, and that he would oversee the technical area and production. In other words, Carl would be taking over Ravi's job and my function would be to be responsible for the upper lab. Since the major responsibility of the upper lab was to develop “Quick Set”, there was no real change in my status. The promise from Darth in October that I would take over Ravi's position was not realized.

Then as Darth was leaving my office, Jay and Carl caught him and started discussing the memo. I joined in and took the opportunity to inquire about the “joint venture”.

“What about this joint venture business with Tenneland?” I inquired.

Darth became very nervous and annoyed. He said, “Arnold can't get anything right. I told him exactly what to say and he fouled it up.”

Darth then changed the subject, and our joint venture with Tenneland was never mentioned again.

That afternoon, Carl called everyone in the laboratory and announced that Ravi would no longer be active in the operations of the laboratory, but he would still be allowed to use his office because he had a contract with Gamma which was good for another six months. He also announced that I would be responsible for the laboratory, but that he would make all the decisions concerning research and production. His entire announcement left my position very nebulous and left me with the image of having no decision making power. I hardly had what could be termed management responsibilities, and although Carl had an elusive title, it was clear that he was taking over Ravi's duties. I was upset and depressed at the turn of events.

The next day was the annual Christmas party. I was not in a very jovial mood, and I was angry with Darth. By now, I knew it did no good to discuss anything with him because his word was worthless. The only consolation was that even though things had not worked out at Gamma Supplies, the work I was doing was also a benefit to Tenneland and the people there had treated me well so far. The party did not last very long and most people seemed more interested in leaving and spending time with their families. As I was leaving, Darth yelled across the room, “Russ, would you like to come down to my farm for Christmas dinner. Buzz and John are coming.”

I had already mad a commitment for Christmas with Anita's sister the prior evening on the phone, and I no longer felt any obligation to try to further my career at Gamma Supplies. I couldn't help feel that Darth already knew that I had a prior commitment when he made his belated offer.

I just said “No thank you, I already have other plans.” This type of
“scheduled conflict” would also become a common occurrence. Several years later, I would read an article about "psychological double-binds" or "no win" situations. These conflicts which have "no win" solutions are believed to cause schizophrenic behavior.


Several other changes became became apparent the week following Christmas. John was no longer working in the upper laboratory, but was now located in the lower lab out of my sight. He also now reported to Jay Wells. Buzhoha Yazzi had moved to the upper laboratory and was now working where I could see him. The net effect was the John and Buzz had switched positions. With the movement of Buzz to the upper lab, I was able to converse with him more and find out a little about the work he was doing.

One day while I was trying to make conversation with Buzz, he exclaimed, “Oh, I want to apologize for kidding you about not having any children. I didn't know your wife couldn't have any.”

At first I just accepted his apology and then after a moment of thought I said, “How do you know that?!”

Fuzzy calmly replied, “Darth told me.”

Now I was confused. How did Darth know? The only explanation I could think of was that the evening Anita and I went to dinner with Paul Johnson and his wife, Anita had discovered that Paul's wife had a similar medical problem and Paul had told Darth about Anita's problem. But why and how did that conversation go from Paul's wife to Buzz? It did not make sense, but how else could Buzz have known.

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