Bouncing Czech

Good times! The corporate headquarters in Boston sent them a new SVP to take Roger's place. The new SVP, Alexandr ("you can call me Al"), is a 55 year old lawyer who escaped from Czechoslovakia back in the days when (1) there was a Czechoslovakia and (2) you had to escape from it. Jerry introduced him to the assembled group as a "mover and a shaper" [sic], a man who could right what was wrong, and get done the things that had to get done. Jerry is the Rip Van Winkle of corporate motivational-speak.

At the getting to know you lunch, to which I tagged along, Alexandr went from table to table telling us tales of how he crawled across a minefield and swam the freezing waters of the Morava River to escape into Austria. He also told us that he had been late for his own wedding because he thought it was more important to take care of a problem at work.

We instantly decided that we are fucked. Specifically, we decided that the permanent employees are fucked -- those of us on contract decided that we're going to be doing a lot more work off-site. If you adhere to the "child is the father to the man" theorem of personality development, the fact that Alexandr was born and raised in a Communist country speaks of nothing but evil. He seems to be the textbook example of a person raised in autocracy -- obsequious to his superiors, overbearing to his inferiors.

Pedro, as is his wont, started following Alexandr around, metaphorically asking for permission to suck his (Alexandr's) dick. Alexandr accepted this as his due. There must be something about the "boss" personality that welcomes such sycophancy -- and when you add a layer of autocratic personality, sycophancy becomes ambrosia.

These are the end times.