December 21/15
So yesterday was one of those interesting days that you live through and at some point down the road go back and reflect upon on a part or even all of.
My son wasn't thrilled with my 9 AM wake up but he had some Xmas shopping to do and there was no way I was going to brave trying to find parking at Bayshore anytime after 11 AM so we were there for the 10 AM opening. Now I had an ulterior motive in that I used the opportunity to get him to show me some clothes he liked as his taste has changed once again and I dare not risk buying anything without being forearmed with knowledge. We wandered around a few shops before he stopped to make his two purchases and by that time it was getting close to 11:30 so we headed out to get some lunch.
Lunch was the surprise as I made the drive out to Gloucester as I found out Popeye's Chicken has recently opened a site and he loves Popeye's and it's always the first place we hit when we are down in Orlando. He didn't have a clue and was wondering if I was taking him to Pizza Pizza as that was the store he saw as I made the turn into the parking lot and the smile on his face when it dawned on him where we were was priceless. We ordered and grabbed a booth to eat our meals while talking about soccer and the things going on with our favourite teams. He offered up his condolences on the downward spiral my beloved Manchester United is experiencing and we talked about manager options as they are sure to make a move in the next week or two with both Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola now available and more than qualified to lead the club. My son would like to see Carlo Ancelotti as manager but preference is for Pep as I think Jose thinks a bit too highly of his skills and tends to throw his players under the bus when things don't go his way. I guess time will tell who is right on this one.
The frank discussion came up when we talked about careers on the drive home and he asked me to tell him about my best and worst jobs. As we talked I realized that my best and worst were really the same position/company and it wasn't my old job. The old job was stressful but not something that made me miserable or left me feeling sullied. No, that honour goes to the steakhouse chain I worked for many years ago in Southern California. I won't get into many of the details other than to say I worked for an amazing CEO who was a true mentor and an equally horrible CFO who felt any growth on my part was a direct challenge to him and an attempt to secure his job. My son asked me if I could have done my bosses job and I told him honestly no, maybe in 5 years I could have carried it off but at that time my skill set wasn't sufficient to do so for a +$100M revenue company.
I told him the whole story and he was amazed that I was as patient as I was with the antics pulled on by my boss. I laughed and said "Your dad hasn't always been an alpha male and it was this sequence of events that sort of changed how I viewed things moving forward".
I mentioned to him that funnily enough I was absolutely adored by all the senior managers as I didn't look at my position as being defined by what was written down but by what I needed to do to help people meet objectives. He asked what I meant and I explained that while my position was responsible for monthly projections and reports to our parent company in Hawaii that I was also the one person the restaurant general managers knew they could call if something was wrong even if it wasn't my area of expertise. I used to get calls about garbage pick ups not getting done, linens being late, to questions about promotional pricing strategies a GM wanted to discuss with the VP of Sales and Marketing to see if his analysis made sense. I loved that part of my job as much as my own spreadsheets!!
I explained how I wasn't my CFO's first choice for the job but that candidate turned down the job offer and that made my son ask why. I said I didn't really know but maybe they had a gut instinct that the CFO was a total douche bag and bailed out whereas it took me some time to figure that one out for myself. He asked me if I knew in advance the shit he'd pull on me if I'd have taken the job in the first place and I answered him without any hesitation "Absolutely".
He said that makes no sense. I smiled at him and replied "Welcome to life my son"
I could tell that wasn't cutting it for him so expanded a bit by saying that job was awesome in more ways than not and it was also all that shit that led me to quit and move onto my next position where I met his mother and ended up moving to Ottawa. He sat there sort of wide eyed. I went onto say that without that job who is to say I move onto the next one, meet his mom, adopt his sister as my own, and eventually have a had in his creation. I said I'm sure he'd have been born in one way or another but on his mom's end it would have been with someone else and the same on my end in Los Angeles.
He sat there for a few moments without saying anything and as he turned to look out the window as we passed by the National Capital Equestrian Centre he said "I'm so glad that guy was an ass to you dad"
We ended up hitting Golf Town, oh don't be so shocked as you knew it was going to happen sooner or later, to round out his shopping for his mom. While there we had a debate on the correct sizes for her and it turns out I was way off in my guess, and not to her benefit either lol
I dropped him off at home and went to watch his sister's indoor soccer game and got some good natured ribbing from his mom about my sizing problems, hard to believe given I've known her for over 20 years now but in my defense I am a guy........
The night ended with a family movie at Landmark watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Awesome movie and getting the seat assigned tickets online made it so much nicer as we didn't have to wait in line or get there too early.
All in all a really good Sunday and one that reaffirmed that while things don't always turn out like we hope at a particular moment, they do sometimes work out to our benefit down the road.
So belated thanks to that douche bag CFO as who knows if I end up with my daughter and son if he doesn't treat me like a jerk :)
No comments:
Post a Comment