Too little, too late?

In the past, I have taken great pains to be diplomatic in conveying feedback to El Jefe. The results have been poor. For example, during a meeting, he presented a scary graph based on incomplete and misunderstood (by him) information. In the original context, it was merely annoying. I asked him not to do that again. A few weeks later, in a completely inappropriate context, he showed it again.

I had many problems with this. At the top: his presentation makes the audience think his group was incapable of finding their collective asses even if given a map and a flashlight and that his benevolent leadership will Save Them. It’s his team, yet he seemed bent on not looking out for them.

Fast forward, a lot, to yesterday, when he asked me about the efficacy of the ThermoMeter. No sugar was wasted coating the response. His reaction was textbook: He denied it. He was upset. He tried shifting blame. Then, finally, the sad puppy look. But he left everyone alone for the rest of the day!

Today, after a review meeting, he asked me for my feedback. “On what? The Apostrophe Nazi did all of the work. He kept the presentation on track. He operated the PowerPoint deck, preventing you from nervously flipping among slides. The cheesy clip art and soundtrack encouraging people to applaud at “56% success” was mostly gone. And, all extraneous apostrophes were removed (No “font’s”). The presentation was much better than in the past.” Knowing how his information filtering works, he will view this as a personal success.

Grace mentioned she, too, was asked for “feedback” on something. Bless her: she didn’t hold back either. I haven’t seen her this happy in weeks.

The sudden up-suckage is no coincidence: the “steering committee” convenes today to finalize its proposal on restructuring his division… without his input. I’m still wondering why he hasn’t self-selected himself out of the organization.