I didn’t even plan on telling anyone from work I was going to attend but it slipped out at lunch time and my boss’s boss was dining with us and he said I wouldn’t be able to attend. I pretty much cackled in his face and he then adjusted what he said by stating I’d receive some sort of ‘mark.’ 3 days later I’m called into a conference room and am given a $1,500 Apple gift card if I agree to not attend. I snatched that card up so fast.
If it was WWDC or the September event I probably would’ve refused the card.
I don't know how to make video clips from movies or I'd certainly post here the bit from
The Queen where the dude playing Tony Blair hangs up the phone after a chat with a royal and says "
...bizarre..."
Anyway you made out great that your employer was weirded out enough to dish out $1500 worth of your choice of Apple gear to assuage your disappointment over not attending an Apple event... after first threatening a mark on your record. I suppose that was a one-off. I mean they're not going to do that too many times, right? They likely mean that as a compensation for all future such disappointments as well. I'd probably have my resumé back on the block while figuring out what gear to get with the card.
Companies get too hung up on these not-being-seen-at-a-competitor's-gig things. What if you lived next door to Craig Ferguson or something, sheesh. You'd need a bodyguard from your company to ensure you didn't have a word with him about something Apple-ish or something your-employer-ish? Would they record your conversation and take it to a secure compartment back at the job to figure out exactly what the two of you meant in your exchange of pleasantries as you head out to your respective commutes?
Hey Craig, how's it goin'?
Hey HappyD, no complaints, how's by you?
All good man, see ya later.
Take it easy, almost the weekend!
[Analysis and instructions:
1. Sounds seriously compromised, so informal with a competitor.
2. Find out if they see each other over the weekend.]
Meanwhile most of the world never heard of either Ferguson or HappyD and they're all just going about their own weekends.. mowing the lawn, trying to figure out whether to pay the light bill or the grocery tab... if corporate honcho types didn't live in such bubbles they could save a lot of dough skipping all the cautions and deterrences and spare themselves having whole departments full of people who could probably get bit parts in a movie made on Joe Heller's corporate freakout tome
Something Happened. ***
*** from Wikipedia -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Happened
Something Happened has... garnered a small base of devoted fans. In 2015, Carmen Petaccio referred to it as the "most criminally overlooked great novel of the past half century [...] one of the most pleasurable, engrossing, and in retrospect moving American novels ever written."
[2] Naturi Thomas-Millard called it the "best book you've never read"; while agreeing that it is overlong, she billed it as "an invaluable study in how to portray the horror of everyday life."
[5] Novelist
Jonathan Franzen prefers
Something Happened to
Catch-22,
[6] and
Christopher Buckley referred to the work as "dark and brilliant".
[7] Comedian
Richard Lewis claims he "happily lost most of [his] hope" after reading the novel.
[8]