bizarro world diaries |
|
november 9, 2001 The beginning of the end. Appendar called me at 5:00pm on Thursday afternoon, Nov 8, from the transporter in Hobbiton. He had been participating in the Council of Gods assembly. He started off the call saying that he wanted to make sure that I wouldn't get mad or overreact at what he was about to tell me. He told me he considered waiting until Friday, but decided to call. I was just on my way out the door. He told me that Olobulge called him aside after the assembly into a room, closed the door, and told him that he was being removed from the mission. According to Appendar, Olobulge told him that Falcoff had told him that "Appendar is a petulant child and needed to be off the mission as soon as possible". As expected, he told me that it hit him like a suckerpunch. Appendar explained that the only interaction he has had with Falcoff was around the recent effort to develop the magic strategy, and Olobulge confirmed that that was "the test". Appendar asked Olobulge how long he has known about this decision, and Olobulge told him 2 weeks. Appendar added that he felt Arcamel was aware of what was coming down, due to her body language and some passing comments. As Appendar and I talked about yet another demonstration of Olobulge's outstandingly poor leadership, I was aware of Samfry sitting at his desk, unaware of what he had been hearing. [ He and Toonolo were the only people left on the floor in Deephallow at the time. ] We both wondered how many of the Clustermen were aware of this pending action, since we are all painfully aware of his alligance to his "first" family. After I hung up, and packed to go, I stood up and asked Samfry if he was aware of "the shit that just went down". (I didn't offer any details or ideas of what I might have been talking about.) He responded, "No. What?" As I walked away, I said, "don't worry - you'll hear about it" and left. As I road home in silence, I considered the implications of Olobulge's latest action. I was pissed off, angry, and amazed that this behavior was supported and it appears encouraged by senior overlords in this realm. The fact that Falcoff gives an "order" to Olobulge to remove someone from a mission that he knows nothing about - without any apparent reasons or justification, and that Olobulge carrys out the order without any pushback, discussion, investigation or integrity reminds me of the same situation a few months ago when Bolgo gave an "order" to Olobulge to deal with Grodo, Stonar and Tolly. I am beginning to wonder just how screwed up the realm leadership is. I went home and downed a beer. Wasn't too social with the family, and ended up browsing through a stack of wisdom scrolls just to get my mind off things. Oddly enough, I ended up ripping out about 10 articles that emphasized good leadership - and underscored how bad the leadership is around our efforts. Spotted a glyph of two senior mystics talking about a cleric "Harris just doesn't know when to quit. I suppose I'll just have to fire him." Thought it was timely, in a dark sort of way. Had a difficult time getting to sleep and woke up at 4:30am Friday morning. While I was sleeping, I must have been processing the situation and exploring options, because when I woke up, it seemed pretty clear what needed to happen. I have lost all respect for Olobulge. I have no trust in him as a competent leader, and I refuse to continue working for someone with such a blatant disrespect for people and teams. Should have felt this way after the Grodo/Stonar incident, but guess I figured it was an aberration. I'm now convinced that there is no hope for keeping the team intact and passionate about what we are doing while Olobulge remains at the helm. While I plan to confront him one-on-one in a call, and ask him to "help me understand why a decision like this was made", I do not expect him to actually respond in a meaningful fashion. My guess is that he will respond with some platitudes about "sometime overlords need to make hard decisions" or some other crap. I can guarantee that he will not provide any tangible business reason for the decision. While there have been known personal misalignments with Appendar and Olobulge for quite a while, there have been issues with Olobulge and the team for the past year and a half. As you look back, you can see the remnants of Olobulge's destruction: Baldtoe, Fosco, Tolly, Grodo, Stonar - and now Appendar. I have no reason to think that I am not already in the plans for the chopping block. I plan to have lunch with Sancho and let him know my thoughts and see if he can help me make any sense out of this. Appendar met with Bolgo on Friday afternoon and, according to Appendar, went pale when he relayed to him what had happened. Bolgo told Appendar not to overreact and to let him investigate - it is his top priority. We will wait patiently and see what happens next. |