“The name of the game is speed,” Lodi would always say… … right in the middle of stopping us in the middle of the task because he saw something he doesn’t recognize on our screens. “We have to stop having verbal discussions and let the file do the talking,” is another favorite of his… … but all throughout the day, all throughout the week, he would always call for face-to-face verbal discussions with the file…
For every little step: Report/update Lodi. His requirement. So sure, as to be expected, he told me to update him before he ran off to one of his meetings. I resume working on the task. For this step, I need to upload a spreadsheet file to a site. He has already signed off on the file without actually checking it. His way of checking was checking one row of the spreadsheet. Anyway, I open the…
Some of our team members got into a call. The main person, we’ll call The Worm, will be conducting a video call with our team overseas to guide them into migrating from Skype to Microsoft Teams. Lodi, who is not needed in this call, ordered The Worm to include him in the call. When the call started, Lodi goes, “I will just be working in the background. I’ll be here if you need me.” So…
In the quiet room, only the clacking of keyboard keys floating from desks to our ears. Then the sound of a chair being pushed back. The groaning sound a chair makes when it is relieved of a person’s weight. Footsteps echo, fading away, as Lodi heads out of the room. Leaving one of our new hires and myself in the office space. Suddenly, I hear my name being called, in a hushed but urgent tone,…
“Today will be a good day. Lodi is out.” I read the early text from one of our offshore team members. Our offshore team starts their day hours before we start ours due to time zone differences. I replied right away, “Are you serious? For the whole day? Why?” I shoot the questions out. “Not feeling well, according to my manager,” the reply went. I quickly shot a text with this piece of news to…
“90% of my day-to-day routine, even on the weekends, I think about work.” These words come out of lodi’s mouth. Right after he says, “Lately, I’m starting to get anxiety.” I just blinked. Blankly. But the thoughts in my head were, “You’re doing that to yourself, with all your micro-managing.” Every. Single. Thing. For each task. Every. Single Step. For each task. Every. Single. Day. For each task. We need to update him. And wait…
I was tasked to help out one of our offshore team members to create product pages for the EU marketplaces. He has never done it before and to save time, the task was assigned to me due to my experience with creating the product pages for the US marketplace. I have created countless product pages for the US marketplace. I have confirmed with him: are we going to create product pages for EU that is…
“The name of the game is speed.” This is one of Lodi‘s favorite sayings. What’s ironic is, his favorite pastime is giving us sermons on how we should have done a task to finish it in a shorter time. Take as an example one of our team members who work remotely, whom we will call Roman. Half his shift is spent on meetings with Lodi. More than 3/4 of those meetings are spent with Lodi…
From this point on, I will be calling my boss by the nickname “Lodi.” Don’t bother asking. But IYKYK. Image by svklimkin from Pixabay
