Feb. 15th, 2025

canyonwalker: wiseguy (Default)
Friday we wrapped up our 4 days of SKO and TKO. There was way less shine on the event by day 4 than the first two days. Partly that was the lower budget and shorter planning cycle for TKO vs. SKO. Partly it was also that people were dropping out.

Some of the dropping out was people physically not being there. One of my colleagues decided there was too much chance their flight Friday evening would be delayed so they rebooked to an 11am flight. That meant leaving the hotel by 9am, missing virtually the entirety of the day's program. They blew off the entire day of participation to "safe" their travel. I don't know if they asked management for permission on that or simply told management. ...And this is one of the colleagues who was not fired last month when a more motivated and hard-working coworker of mine was fired in a performance cut.

Others were there physically but seemed mentally checked out. About a third of my colleagues were just sitting passively in collaboration and brainstorming sessions. They'd contribute only when the facilitator called them by name. And even then they'd give brief and slightly off the mark answers, like they were only half listening to the conversation.

I know I was feeling ragged.  I considered doing the passive-mode thing myself but it's just not my character not to participate. I mean, if the topic is at all relevant to me, I will be an active participant. I will be engaged. If the topic is so irrelevant to me that I don't have an interest in engaging then I don't have an interest in even being there. I'd leave.

And I did leave... for a bit. When it got to a point that the person at the front of the room seemed to be droning on, like all I could hear was "Wab-wah wab-wah" like Charlie Brown's teacher speaking via intercom, I excused myself to the hallway. But not simply to leave. Rather it was to do something more relevant than try to figure out what the droning was about. I had a prospective customer who was frustrated I wasn't doing enough for them while I was busy at an offsite all week. Out in the hallway I took about 30 minutes to consider my response to them and seek input from a manager they'd escalated to.

By the time I finished that, the droning had stopped and the crowd had split into groups to work on projects. It took me 5 minutes to figure out which group I should join. Basically I had to walk into each breakout room, listen to what they were talking about and observe who was there, and decide if that matched my needs and abilities. Wouldn't you know it, it was the fourth group (of 4) that was my match. But I quickly caught up on the topic and became an active participant again.

By mid-afternoon more people were starting to feel ragged. Our VP evidently could tell.. and maybe he was feeling ragged, too. He wrapped things up an hour early, letting us end on a relatively high note. ...Okay, it wasn't exactly a high note. A lot of people were disengaged, and even many of the more enthusiastic people were running out of steam. We didn't exactly end with a bang... but at least it wasn't a whimper.


canyonwalker: Walking through the desert together (2010) (through the desert)
Non-Vegas Vegas Weekend Travelog #1
Henderson, NV - Fri, 14 Feb 2025, 9pm

After 4½ days of work meetings wrapped on Friday afternoon it was time to shift gears. I shifted from being in Las Vegas and ignoring all the glamor and gambling for work, to being in Las Vegas and ignoring all the glamor and gambling for leisure! Instead of me flying home Friday evening I had bought a ticket for Hawk to come out and join me. And it was even Valentine's Day.

"Wait," you might wonder, "Don't you mostly ignore Valentine's Day?"

Working on Valentine's Day (image from Readers Digest)

Yes, I do! The main thing I've done on Valentine's Day the past several years is go to work. And that's partly because my company nearly always schedules SKO on the week of Valentine's Day. I guess they get a cheaper rate or something as other companies are trying to give their employees a break by not scheduling mandatory offsites that week. Mine even ridicules Valentine's Day as fake holiday.

It's a good thing Hawk and I agree. 😂

But even so, just because I roll my eyes at Valentine's Day doesn't mean I want to stay at work on Valentine's Day. Especially on a Friday after a long week! I skipped out from a post-meeting round of drinks with my department head at 5:05pm and boarded a Lyft car to the airport.

At LAS I met Hawk in the baggage area. Her flight had landed 10 minutes earlier. We scooped up our large bag once it hit the conveyor belt, called another Lyft car, and rode to our hotel for the next 3 nights.

We're totally off-Strip for the weekend. We're out in Henderson, at a Marriott Residence Inn. The closest thing to gambling around here would be trying the runny scrambled eggs at the breakfast buffet in the morning. 🤣

For dinner this evening we walked to a Mexican restaurant a block or two away. The walk was actually more than we bargained for as the temperature was dropping and wind was gusting. Oh, and the sidewalks out here aren't meant actually to be used. But the food was good. We both enjoyed the dish of guacamole we split as an appetizer. It was as good as our best homemade. And when they brought more out with her taco she set the remainder of first dish aside to take back to the hotel. I had quesabirria which was way more filling than I expected, so I took some of that back, too, to save for breakfast tomorrow.

We're back at the hotel now, and I'm crashing hard. Even though it's only 9pm I'm not too surprised as it's been a hard week for me. I haven't gotten to bed before midnight or gotten more than 5½ hours of sleep a night the past several days. So, going to sleep at 9:30? I'm due.


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