El Capitan

June 17, 2004 | Category: On The Job

Being comfortable with my job comes only in lulls. Sometimes I think that is because I am the only woman around. But sometimes I think maybe everyone feels this way at some time or another.

With the budget bump of my new program came a new supervising executive I hadn't worked with before. I call him "El Capitan". He's focused; imagine Martin Sheen's character, on West Wing, as he cuts off another character by saying "OK, What's next?"

Before El Capitan, my status meetings and communication plans tended to go smoothly. I prepare exhaustively - distilling the tentacles of the subprojects to points of risk, achievement, challenge and overall progress (plan, schedule, and budget).

But El Capitan charges into slide decks with a scythe. He's been clearly unsatisfied but with no visible reason why: drilling me on minutiae with terse comments on low-chance risks.

I asked one of my mentors, Sage Reasoner, for advice.

SR: "Learn to get along with El Capitan."

Me: "Uh, thanks."

Tonight, the vendor called me during dinner, to ask me if I knew that he and El were flying into town tomorrow.

If I say yes, I'm a liar.
If I say no, I look like an out-of-the-loop idiot.

What to do?

I said, breezily, "Tomorrow? We'd talked about a face-to-face soon... well, that works for me. Email me a schedule, tonight if you can."

Then I called SR.

Me: "Argggggggghhhhhhhhhh! Sneak Attack! Bwuddah, hudduh, dibbah, doo!"

SR: "OK. What did I tell you?"

Me: "Learn to get along?"

SR: "There you go."

I could actually freaking feel SR laughing at me.

Taking a deep breath, I opened the Vendor's forwarded schedule. I could see by the email trail that he and EC had been plotting it for over a week. That other folks had been aware. I fought back frustration at having so much responsibility yet being left out of the loop.

It took 3 phone calls to set up on-sites with key personnel. I checked that my favorite slacks were back from the cleaners, the weather forecast, and then compiled an agenda, and attached a swiftly created slide deck.

At 10PM, I started closing everything up - satisfied I'd done the best I could. That I was ready for whatever got thrown my way next.

I should have known better.

The vendor called. "El Capitan and I just skimmed the deck you sent. It answers any questions we may have had. So we're going to spend tomorrow with the folks over at VendorB to see if we can hammer out a new cooperative agreement for a different program."

After he hung up, I stared at the phone for a long time.

Then I began to systematically bang my head on my desk.

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