Got an SOS call today from AgentOrange who resides in a related lab office.
I need lunch... horrible day she said.
So we went. Like all jobs, the people of the company are split up, to me at least ,into groups: allies, enemies, by-standers, innocent sufferers, stuffed toys etc.
If the company was a Comic book, this is what people at lunch today would look like:
AgentOrange. Affiliation: allies
Age at the company: 4 years
Powers: Practitioner of Alchemy; many failed experiments has led to her being slightly eccentric. It's the vapors and fumes. Lone ranger of vanishing alchemy sect that actually believes in niceness. Possesses the ability to exhume vapors of truth, either causing flailing il-logic, or sad bitter grudging whimsical acceptance.
RadioHead. Affiliation: allies
Age at the company: 1 year
Powers: A profound understanding of the system combined with consistent bitterness results in the ability to shapeshift at will. Shapeshifing ability slightly volatile and occasionally uncontrollable, resulting in hilarious yet slightly embarassing moments. An attunement to the environment of the company results in the ability to tap into information from electromagnetic fluctuations in the air.
And of course, there's me.
EigenGetHappyIfEitri. Affiliation: allies
Age at the company: 1 year
Powers: None. Once immensely powerful with abilities to control space-time at will; depowered since entry into the company. Novel and new feelings of complete powerlessness has left him to be the only one capable of human emotions.
Lunch involved claypot rice, which was surprisingly yummy. Mmm mmm. And conversations revolved around the recent D-day (read: performance review) and what people got out of it.
Two of my projects got a 'D'. And yeah it's like college quality grades, so that gives you a grade point of 1.0. Amazing.
So in total, my grade point average for my projects amount to about 1.666/4.0
Which is alright, since most projects get rated C. But the deal is this:
Project "haha you got a D" Apple started April 2009. The review was for last FY. The reason I got for the abyssmal review was: "Oh... you didn't opt out of the review and the review was done in June."
Fine. We did nothing for the project last FY cause it started this FY and we forgot to remove it from the list. Alright. We therefore get a D for that. I can accept that.
Except that Project "buwahaha another D you suck" Bananas which started yonks ago involved me working my ass off for the past one year. Adapting myself to become an engineer (the depths I've sunk), sourcing out clue-ful collaborators from under the rocks, vendors blah blah.
So it really doesn't matter if I work on the project or not.
AgentOrange brought up the image of the Demigods and Saints that determine your grades... scratching their armpits and deciding your grade on random whims.
I thought I liked that quite a bit, and contemplated it with sad bitter grudging whimsical acceptance.
