Beautiful Teams

Some of These Envelopes Contain Stock Options, or "I'm Through Being Mr. Goodbar, the Time Has Come to Act and Act Quickly"

After we had staked out our respective cubes and started to settle in, Hedley arrived to take stock of his minions in their new habitat. Hedley being Hedley, he immediately noticed that a few of us had moved our monitors from the middle of the desk to a position a little off to one corner or the other. This unauthorized cubicle customization was quickly proscribed. That should have been a clear signal to recirculate my resume. Someone unable to properly consider the costs of this affront to his aesthetic sense in comparison to the comfort of the developers, and more importantly, the message his decree would send to the team, should not be trusted with the helm. I mostly saw it as a slap in the face. Hedley could not have more clearly communicated his evaluation of the team. We were clearly not highly educated, highly skilled professionals who were an asset to the company. C$ picked up on the sudden onset of tension in the office, or maybe he saw my posture change to something a bit more hostile. He quickly shooed Hedley out of the office and immediately tried to downplay the situation. It worked. I was now focused on the immediate problem, which for me had an easy solution: "Fuck him." I was going to put my monitor where I wanted the damn thing. But I should have remained focused on the fact that Hedley clearly had issues. I missed a clear signal to jump ship. ...