Cough-cough-cough

I forgot to bring the cough medicine with me today.

When Alvin I went to coffee this morning, he asked if I'd heard that he and his Little Company are moving out of the suite next Tuesday. I did NOT hear this. I guess it's my own fault for being sick last week and not feeling like coffee on the mornings when I didn't have early-morning conference calls that prevented me from going.

He's setting up an office in his basement, a sort of "home office" but for him and the Other Brother Darryl both. Alvin says he wants "control of the cash" which means he doesn't want to keep paying for their share of the (very expensive) suite here, which makes sense.

Also, this place is always running some kind of psychodrama and he's tired of being dragged into it all.

I found out yesterday evening that Extension 17 has a severe alcoholism problem. That explains his inability to show up for work. It also explains why they put up with so much from him; they're trying to "help" him. I think that's great, but I also think that "helping" someone has to stop when it means trashing out the lives of half a dozen other people.

Since Extension 17 finds himself unable to show up for work more than one or two days a week, the product we need to ship to customers in order to get paid in order to keep paying everyone's salaries is not being produced. I think you have to ask yourself how far down that path you're willing to go, you know? If you're not shipping product, you're not getting paid, which means that covering payroll every two weeks is a matter of sweat, stress, and strain. I think a very little of that would go a long way with me.

(But then, I'm not really a "people person" anyhow. I'd just tell Extension 17 he was off salary, back on hourly, and that the next time he failed to show up and work for eight, solid hours, he was fired.)

So, Extension 17 tells me a couple of minutes ago that he's going to "do the work that's waiting for him and then I'll be gone" as though he thinks I'm going to care or something. And I'm thinking...well, since you showed up at 10:20 today and then spent from 10:30 until 11:00 making personal phone calls, leaving you, so far today, 7 minutes for actual work (three of which you spent in the bathroom), the "work that's waiting" is probably going to take you two or three years to complete, isn't it?

I didn't say that, of course. It's not my place.

Anyhow, back to the Little Company move. I didn't ask, "what about me?" but I was thinking it. At the end of December, in theory, I was supposed to be going back to work for the Little Company again. They're making better money now but not enough to support three full-time and one part-time (bookkeeper) employees and the webservers and other things they need to keep the business running.

I don't know if Buehler will want me after December or not, either. I think Bossyboots was supposed to be training to do the account stuff I'm doing.

What about me?

I know Alvin expected me to keep doing more work for him when I was in the new job, but every time I did something for his Little Company it made Buehler a little cranky. Since Buehler was the one actually paying me, I had to make the choice. Now I wonder if I burned bridges?

(The arrangement was that if I did anything for the Little Company, Buehler was to bill Alvin for my time but I had LOTS to do for Buehler and the only thing I could really do for the Little Company was play receptionist. If you're already on the phone for hours every day, you really don't have time to play receptionist.)

I am going to ask Alvin when we go to coffee tomorrow. Just flat out.

I haven't been asking him about my future because I know he's been working really hard to get their money flow up and I figured he didn't need the additional stress. I've been being very patient and just working hard at the new job (well, mostly), but now I think it's appropriate to ask.

Also, there's still a problem between a couple of friends and I from last year when I was still working for the Little Company and they were doing contract work for it. One of them I can let go of, but the other I'd rather not lose. I did manage to get together with her a few months ago, we had dinner and talked and I thought all was well, but I never heard from her again. I don't know why, but I was thinking of her today and being sad that maybe that fence can't be mended.

Being sick turns me into a real barrel o'fun, doesn't it?