HR Community Event

I went into the office, because today was our (quarterly? semi-annual? annual? budget cuts have meant they keep cancelling these things) HR Community Meeting.

I mostly work with people in Chicago on my immediate team, but there are folks on my larger team here in the UK. Therefore, five of us located in London (out of a larger team of about 200 worldwide) met up for lunch before the community meeting. It was a nice enough lunch, although as with most things in London, a bit overpriced for what it was.

Afterwards, we made our way to the Royal College of Surgeons, which was a big giant hall where we were holding our meeting. My feet were dying when we arrived, as it was a hot day and these were new shoes, and they were causing the most incredible blisters on my little toes. So I was very excited about arriving and being able to sit down. Little did I know...

The room turned out to have no A/C, nor even a single fan. Given that it was a sweltering hot day, 200 people packed in a room with only the emergency exit open at the back was not nearly enough ventilation. Everyone was guzzling the water provided, and trying to make fans out of random scraps of paper. It was at that point that I remembered I typically carry a formal, lace fan with me in my handbag, to deal with the heat on the London Underground. (There is no A/C on the Underground either, and it's apparently 10 degrees hotter underground than it is at the surface. On a hot summer day, you can guess how bad that gets). I'd first seen a woman in Buenos Aires using a fan like that, so I always make a point to pick up cheap tourist souvenier fans whenever I go travelling, and then keep one in my handbag at all times.

So I did have some minor relief from my fan, but as though they weren't torturing everyone in the room enough, things were even worse with the news. Despite the economic recovery going on and the company doing well, our entire department is in the midst of a reorganization, so we are facing lay-offs, re-levelling, and promotion and pay freezes. I love how the company basically says, "Work hard, but we're not going to reward you for it."

Overall it was a dispiriting afternoon, so I think everyone was grateful when it was time for drinks, guzzling down the cold white wine and rose that they had going around. We moved up to the library of the Royal College of Surgeons, which apparently had some A/C, but it was on the fritz, hence the room was just about as hot and stuffy as the room downstairs within moments after we walked in.

I ended up mostly chatting with my CoE colleagues, and we actually had some lovely conversations about how one of them is getting married in a month, and she met her husband as the last date she did doing online dating. Apparently after a slew of truly horrific online dates, she was going to give up on it, but then her flatmate convinced her to go out with one last guy. She says she thinks the date went well because she just didn't care anymore at that point and was completely relaxed about it, and what do you know, now they're getting married! So it was a nice story about how online dating can really work for people...

I was also impressed by one of the Senior Execs who came by to talk to us, having a much longer and more extensive conversation with this random team than my own Senior Exec had with me when I'd come all of the way to Chicago to meet him. (Not like I'm annoyed by that or anything). We agreed that whilst the new open and honest communication was nice, it basically alerted us to the fact that nobody in charge of this reorganization has any clue as to what they are doing. Way to go.

I probably had a touch more wine than I should have, but it was too tempting when it dulled the pain in my feet from my ill-fitting shoes. Finally it was time to go home, and when I got about three blocks from my house, I did something I'd sworn I'd never do, but my feet were in way too much pain. So with the pavement looking relatively clear ahead of me, I took off my shoes and walked home BAREFOOT on the streets of London. Luckily I didn't step on any glass or anything gross, but perhaps you can imagine how desperately my feet hurt for me to consider doing that!