Putting the Icing on the Cake

Friday was my last day of work. Nothing much out of the ordinary for most of the day. A portfolio manager also announced that it would be his last day, as well, so that emerging crisis largely overshadowed my departure.

I noticed during the weekly investment meeting that I had a pretty good read on the personalities of a lot of my co-workers. After all, I’ve been in this posting for about 8 months now. But I didn’t really expect to see things so clearly displayed as I zoned out and gazed around the room.

That’s when I noticed that how my colleagues arrange their meeting materials in front of them closely corresponds to how I would characterize their overall work style and personality.

Andrei has all his papers spread out on the table in a mess in front of him. Despite the logical and chronological progression of the meeting, he always seems to be hunting through the pile for the next paper. It closely resembles the state of his disastrous office.

The other Andrei has a somewhat messy stack in front of him, but unlike his similarly named colleague, the overall mess is much more contained in a smaller footprint.

Pavel’s meeting materials are in a neat stack, corners always squared up. He inverts the reports we’ve already covered and places them at the bottom of the pile. You’d probably guess this if you watched him at work at his orderly desk. It really belies his training as an engineer.

The boss has his stack in a generally orderly state, but the materials quickly get mixed in with all the other papers that he usually brings into the meeting with him. Not terribly surprising, given all the topics he has to cover during the course of a day.

Alex is somewhat messy when he gives his part of the presentation, but always very thorough. He squares up the stack when he’s done, and then prefers to just listen while everyone else gives their reports. He looks inattentive, but he’s actually pretty keenly aware of what’s being said.

The new boss has all his papers fanned out in front of him in a neat row. He appears to be reading all of them at once, and some of his questions indicate that he actually is making connections between disparate parts of the presentations.

Anyway, just a quick observation of what 8 months of observation also told me. Still, it was surprising to see it all so clearly.

In the afternoon, I brought some torts to the office and invited everyone to the kitchen to celebrate my last day. Cake is a very effective social tool, it seems. People who hadn’t given me the time of day during my tenure suddenly said very nice things to me about how they would miss me and my cheery attitude. Certainly, I question some of the sincerity. But it’s nice to hear nice things about yourself sometimes – even if the previously frosty secretarial staff's pronouncements about how handsome and smart and funny you are are more surprising than endearing.

I guess I picked the right torts.