Meetings, or How I never get anything done in a day.

I was stuck in meetings all day today. That sucks for a guy like me. I understand the need to meet with clients and get an understanding of their work flow and processes, but damn…my whole day was shot. I'm a hands on, get it done and stop talking about it kind of guy.

The last meeting was the stickiest.

As you know, my loyal readers, I work at a warehousing and transportation business. The last meeting of the day was with one of our already existing accounts that wants to expand on the business and give us some kit building fulfillment. (Kits = assembly of components to make a whole unit) This customer is a supplier of computer accessories to another supplier of a large computer manufacturer. It’s a complicated tree of back scratching that is surprisingly legal.

Anyway…I came in towards the tail end of the meeting and missed most of the process explanations and systems requirements. Basically, everything that I needed to know. As usual, our salesman vomited commitments and promises to our client that we can’t do…but that’s not what I’m writing about today.

This client is just…icky. He’s the kind of guy that makes you want to take a shower after talking with him. He gave off this strange vibe that I’m still not sure if I can explain it correctly.

It was like talking to a merchant in some dusty middle eastern bazaar. One where the peddler is subtly haggling while telling you stories of his family and experiences…there’s this constant undertone that you’re in the middle of a deal, yet he’s making small talk and getting very personal. We continued to bounce in and out of business, serious then joking, it was almost hypnotic…except I was revolted by the whole deal.

At one point, right after some off the cuff joke, he looks across the table at me very seriously. He tells me he does not want the other supplier to see the inventory for this new business. He starts making several assumptions that this other supplier and I are “tight”.

I laughed. He was talking about another guy who lives 5 states away that I’ve never even spoken to directly. Yet…we’re so tight that I’d just divulge proprietary information like some babbling little 14 year old girl talking to her girlfriends on the phone. What eh-ver.

Still the client stays serious and goes on and on about how it’s none of the other supplier’s business…blah,blah,blah.

It was very “Cloak and Dagger.” I’m thinking to myself…this isn’t State Secrets, it’s friggin’ PC components and not even highend components. This is crap you’d buy at Target and this guys acting like I’m going to give his social security number to a hacker.

People who take themselves too seriously bug the shit out me. So that didn’t help this guy’s impression on me.

So…there I am stuck with this guy and his crony who turned out to be the company “Controller.” I like that title for some reason, it sounds so much more than it really is. That guy was ok…except he had Pug eyes. You know, the eyes that don’t meet in the middle like they should and you can’t ever tell if the guy is looking at you or the person next to you. He covered it up well, so I kind of felt for the guy since he’s probably been dealing with that since he was a kid…but, I’m getting off topic.

This meeting ended up being 2 hours longer than it needed to be…and then he wanted me to join him and Controller for dinner. Normally, I’d jump at the chance to hang out with a client and eat expensive food. But, with this guy, I’d spend all night wondering when the steak knife would end up in my back and my cash in his hand.

Time to bathe.