off the offsites

Another offsite. I am so tired of offsites. Tomorrow we are going to Lonavala. My company has grown and I have been a part of that growth story through sheer luck. So I think from a younger age itself, I have been going to offsites as a part of senior or middle management.

Offsites are the worst thing in the world and there is a reason I have never taken my team out for one. We sit in offsites and discuss the future of the company and other rubbish. I have never seen a productive offsite in my life, where we sit and actually ideate on a concrete idea that needs to be implemented and the stuff gets done. Never. Neither do we have offsites where we actually do serious team building games and activities.

My idea of an ideal offsite is a freaking picnic. I would love to take my team to picnic spots and play team building games all day long. Just keep playing tons of fun games. Those offsites I remember and they help in building real bonds and camaraderie. Not these, where we sit inside a five-star hotel banquet area for six or seven hours or even ten hours and don’t see anything around. Yes I have sat for ten hours in closed rooms, discussing god knows what. I really don’t understand why the company needs to take us 100 miles or more away to get us to sit inside a banquet room. It’s easier in office itself.

Thanks to offsites and conferences, I must have been to Goa, at least 20 plus times, without even once really enjoying the place. We could have been in any part of the world but of course I think bosses love thinking that we took the entire large team to GOA! There is a perverse joy in spending good money behind bad conversations.

Bleh. So now what. Nothing. I hitched a ride with my boss to take me there. And his boss is also coming in the same car. So that’s also good company for a great office and lovely start to the day! My boss is actually a nice guy but it fun to bitch about bosses, no matter how nice they are.

Typically, I get so bored in these meetings that I think the boredom is palpable on my face. In fact, I daresay, contempt is visible on my face. I use every opportunity to get out of the room and go somewhere else and do some work elsewhere. Any work. Earlier I used to be the young marketing guy in charge of the offsite, so it made sense for me to leave the room to look busy. I would go and sit outside and do nothing and come back.

Alas now that I am senior enough I can’t do that as well. What a bore. I will have to sit and get involved. Typically, I sit bored till I get all riled up or instigated or something and then  speak my mind which would likely to be controversial or conversation ending. Till some joker again refuses to listen and starts the fighting all over again. ARRGGG – I hate these discussions.

I can’t understand why you need more than three four people to decide strategy. A few decide then take buy in and then relentlessly execute. If I ever become CEO – I would ban all off sites. Total utter wastage. Waste of time, money and holidays. I will be so loved … but then not so… I really think a lot of my colleagues love these offsites. The fake bonhomie, the daaru, the dancing… the painstakingly made bad slides, horrible strategy… I think there are enough amongst us. Enough.

random thoughts to start writing

Jispa is now string enough to bully Jasmine. At home she jumps on Jasmine and pins her down. Jasmine can do much except protest. Both of them have these cute physical fights around the house and it always ends with Jasmine getting bullied by Jispa. So when they are whacking each other, I find it amazing to see Jispa getting whacks from Jasmine and standing her ground.

They grow up strong. Jispa and I were discussing the other day on how we have gotten her to grow. Whenever she would get hurt I would ask her “do you enjoy doing what you were doing while getting hurt?”. “yup? Then shut up and grin it and bear it.” She remembers that till now. In some ways, many ways, a father has mildly succeeded. I am happy. Shits gonna happen. You gonna have fun and then move on. You can’t dwell on it screwing your day. Too Much.

I remember the song Sunscreen. I have posted it before. It gives life advice and always goes back to the simple thing of using sunscreen. For me – it fresh tender coconut water. Always drink fresh coconut water. It helps me regulate my acidity and helps me hydrate myself. Everyday morning when I wake up and I have to go to play, I have coconut water. I cannot stress less on the fact that you must have coconut water. On days when I think I haven’t drank enough water, I have a coconut water. It just seems to take away all my issues. It’s the best thing in the world. It’s my answer to Sunscreen.

Advice – here is one – don’t take and please don’t give. Your job is to just hang around and listen. Advice is always subjective. How do I get myself to stop giving advice? I have no clue. I want to stop it.

Food is getting weird for me by the day. As I am growing older I am getting more and more sensitive to different kinds of foods. I feel potatoes don’t work for me in the tiffin. Funnily they seem to work in restaurants. Possibly it’s the ginger or garlic along that works. I don’t know. Tomato soup – can’t have that as well. Funny… I loved that as a kid. Cheese sandwich and tomato soup. Now I feel it gives me acidity. Chopped tomatoes are good. It’s the soup that takes me out.

Coffee – I have written about this. Not two days in a row, else bad headache the third day. Funny nah?

I am trying to get my tummy to be in some better shape. So trying to avoid fried. Oh god, I don’t drink, smoke, no lactose, no potatoes, no soup and now less fried… Jasmine is so done with me. Plus I don’t like pulses as well. They too interfere with my digestion. Dal is also doing funny things. What the hell… I will survive on coconut water now. What say?

But this is the thing that I like about myself. I don’t bother too much with this. I don’t get too annoyed with all these issues. If I can’t help these things then what can I do about it. That’s what I try and tell Jasmine. I can’t help it if I got a weak stomach and a strong brain. Such is life. You have to make do with the best that you get.

Speaking of strong brains. I am struggling to see strong brains in the company from the middle lot. They are really really dumb. You get some amazing talent from the really young guys but there is some serious talent missing from the middle layer. Possibly they are the ones who ran away because not much happened while they were here, and the dumb ones got promoted. Now I look back at my time and wonder if I was seriously underpaid. I was much smarter than these jokers at that age. Talent is so difficult to nurture and find.

Somewhere because of the policies of the past, people did not have the courage to break rules and dream big. Organization culture is so important. Because of an older culture the organisation today is stalled. You have to break. You have to push and you have to get new blood, new thinking and new energy into the functions you work. Breaking is an important part of building. Those who can’t break must be thrown out. Break and burn for new to grow.  Chase cute new things and new frontiers, not try and keep things as they were. The protector role is so glorified in some places.

I have started writing publicly. We have an emailer that is sent out to a bunch of prospects every weekend. The new content kid in my office thinks my writing is kind of cool and effective. She wants me to write every week. At first I wasn’t sure. But I am getting the hang of writing and getting my own mojo for the job. I think it’s coming out cool and succinct. Data seems to suggest that people are reading and clicking and giving us leads basis the stuff they read. Ok. That’s nice. It’s an awesome feeling to write and get feedback on it. I want to hone that skill set even more.

how's work doing?

There was a saying I read once. I think it was attributed to a US president, which basically said – a chance to work hard at work worth doing. I have loved this form the moment I read it. It’s perfect and in many ways it sums up my life approach to work. Give me meaningful work and then get out of the way. In fact – don’t give me any work. Allow me to work, I will find meaning, reach your objectives and yes – stay out of the way. That’s what I love doing. That drives me to work harder and harder and put long hours. Meaningful work and chance to make a difference to the company and the people around me.

It’s very difficult to define meaningful work. Different people would have different meaning to take from it. I also don’t know what really meaningful work is. The bare minimum is that I would need to find meaning is that I get to learn something interesting from it. Something new every day! That’s the fun bit. What’s the point of doing something same every day. I can’t handle that. When I am teaching I am sure I am doing a great job and helping the kids learn, but that’s not enough. What I really want is to teach new things what I have learnt or seen. New stuff. So teaching is as much about me as it is about the kids. Possibly it’s more about me than anything else.

Work is also I guess therefore more about me. I don’t care so much about the firm and the people in that sense. I know that with my standards of work are high enough for the firm to hugely benefit from it. But that is not the point of it. How can I wake up every day and say, today I will make my promoter happy or richer. He is already a billionaire many times over. That’s not the job is to build what I love and what I am proud of. An amazing practice and an amazing team to run that.

Which comes to the team. I can drive mu kids up the wall on doing good work. I refuse to be satisfied with their work or mine. I quietly admit to them (at times) that their work is awesome but more than anything, I want to always push the work to new boundaries and that they expand themselves in the bargain. Such expansion is not cheap. It will suck their lives, their self-worth, their egos, their commitment and their selves. But it will build a stronger them. A them, that is far more resilient and powerful and smart.

Right now also I am driving my kids’ nuts at work. The sharp ones are getting that the learning curve is immense and that they have to stay on top of it. They are working like crazy. They will reap the benefits of this for years to come. Some just don’t get it. They are not destined to learn more. They are destined to remain where they are and they will rot in there chubby holes. Learn more, work more. Bring boundless energy to work in the morning knowing that you are making a difference to yourselves and to your company and that you are building for the future. This learning is something that your family won’t understand or even remotely appreciate.

I remember that as a young kid, my wife and mother too wanted me to come home early. Later on, I remember talking to Jasmine and explaining to her that if I have to learn and do more, I have to work hard when I have the chance to. It’s not for anybody else or anything special, but it’s for me and my future. If I don’t push myself I don’t learn and if I don’t learn I don’t have a future. Plus, forget all the future, so many times, I don’t need a future… it’s just the present that matter in so many cases. A real chance to work hard. Who is going to argue with that? It adds meaning to my life.

So no I am not a workaholic. I won’t work for a career so much or for work itself. But I am a meanginoholic. I work for meaning and as long as I get meaning I will work. I teach because it had meaning. I play badminton because I find meaning in it. So also for running or swimming. Find meaning and go after it.

Jasmine now understands. She know that work is why we are where we are. The payoffs are great and awesome. Of course she wants more of me at home (I hope). But she realizes that work place is a treadmill on which you run.  I don’t go home tired and worried. Now I am past that. I go back happy that I have worked hard and learnt a lot and taught a lot. That’s important.

Is that worth dying for? I don’t know but absence of meaning is not worth living for. I am trying to find my fitness and I am trying to work towards my goals. I want to lose a few kilos, get leaner, run more and see what else I can do. I want to sleep well and manage that as well. I want to eat well. I am trying to find balance in all this. It’s a good thing. I am loving it.

In the middle of all this, I have not found the time to blog. That is something I have to do as well. Let’s see how I manage this as well. This blog has meaning for me even if Jispa never ever reads it. It has deep meaning for me.

revolution

Over the weekend, one evening we went to the Chembur house to check on the progress made. After which Jasmine, Jispa and me went for a walk around the place. After staying for 11 years in the relative obscurity of Bhakti Park, where there is nothing, no civilization for 5 kms around, Chembur feels very different. We walked around to find medical shops, many medical shops, restaurants, sugar cane juice sellers, shops selling clothes, underwear, mobiles, mobile repair centres, hotels, sports shops, vegetable markets, everything within walking distance of the home.

We are still coming to grips with this change in paradigm. Everything is so close. We have grown as a family living in Bhakti Park. The only thing that is going for Bhakti Park is that it has a massive Imax theatre in its vicinity. Rest, many years ago we had to buy a second car  to ensure that Jasmine and me could both get anywhere. I distinctly remember struggling to get a taxi in the morning to drop Jispa at her bus stop. Of course the place has improved but still, the basics of modern urban dense living, which we take for granted is still missing from the place.

I took them walking along showing them the place and getting them to understand the map. Where is which shop, where are the markets and where all can you go for basic services? Our house is very close to the station and that’s why access to all the services at a stone’s throw is possible. And being set inside from the main street, the place is also quiet and just about 100 meters away from the hustle. All in all its an experience.

While walking around we almost reached Ghatkopar and we then turned back. One of things that I think I have missed while I was in Bhakti Park was the ability to walk around. And once I did walk around in Chembur, I realized what had happened to Mumbai. It’s become a polluted shitty place. In the last ten years, the pollution levels have gone through the roof. In and around my place in Chembur was still bearable, but moment you hit a slightly more busy road the pollution hits your face. Now I realized why I probably will prefer a mall. You get off from your house, get into an AC car and get into the Ac mall. You live the cocoon of air conditioning with filters on. You don’t feel the pollution. That is to be felt by the poor and the voiceless. I really think that the poor in India have been shortchanged by Democracy.

The pollution is really bad, the trains are crowded, the bus service erratic, the pollution levels dismal, and the broadly – they will stay in the same dirty quarters with no real access to sanitation. It a freaking amazing thing that civil war hasn’t yet started in the city. Yes, all this while walking around a city with idle time on hand. How can so much inequality survive? Raising taxes and giving sops to the poor is not the answer. Having good governance at a city level is the right answer. Giving homes to people to stay respectfully, giving them commute that is efficient and works for them, cleaning up the air, water etc; these are answers. They don’t require more taxes, more sops; they require an iron will. They don’t require more laws, they require more follow up on the existing laws. Post-independence the generation just rotted and created a system that we are now going to bear. If that generation of governance created a good model, then we would have been able to live better. One man in Singapore changed the lives of its people in one generation. One generation.

Mumbai collects enough taxes that it need not even dip into reserves. Most of the budgetary outlaw remains unutilized. I talk to different people to realize that staying in Mumbai is prohibitively expensive. There is enough land stuck in government land banks and red tape. If only…

But its ok – let’s all sit in our ac environment and relax at ease. I am going to stay on the 13^th floor, far away from the noise the street generates, especially the rickshaws. I have ACs in all rooms. A remote switch away. I have applied for membership in the gymkhana next door. So now government land that was given away for promotion of sporting culture is enjoyed by an elite few who take membership to it at exorbitant rates. We will shut out normal people from enjoying these services. We have rich fat kids playing sports in a closed isolated loop amongst themselves, forgetting that the point of a facility is that it be used. We will keep the facility unused during off hours, rather than promote the sport for more people to come and play, raising the standards for everyone. No.

We like staying in our secluded ac environments. I have built the perfect nest for Jispa. The perfect nest. Who am I to complain? I made most of my money by dancing at the temple of capitalism – in a stock broking firm within a privately owned bank. Why should I lecture to anyone on this? Well I am not… I am writing a private blog available only to specific people who know. Someday the socialist in me will meet the capitalist in me and then I want singularity to happen. That answer is in between these two views without a thirst for power. Which means – impossible.

But hell, I am still 42. There is time for me in this world. Probably when I retire, I can busy myself with public life. Doing things that are right for the society. Trying to uplift people the right way; by empowering them to lift themselves out. But for now, that is a pipe dream. Just a good thought that comes from the heart. Heart is normally never the problem. It always is the mind and the intention that is an issue. I hope that I will be able to do good work in life. I hope I will be able to contribute more to society in a way that’s lasting. Possibly that is my way of telling myself that I am a great guy and that my current rate of shittyness is just an aberration where I have temporarily sold my soul to fund my immediate survival. Heart in heart – this is what I choose as important. And hence society service is not on my mind. Full stop. I have forgotten the socialism ideals or even the stupid left leaning ideals of youth.

Only Capitalism and private enterprise can lift masses of people out of poverty. Nothing else. So sitting in office and working at the capitalist temples is actually a service to mankind. While doing so a very simple thing of caring deeply for consumers, allowing them to choose the right products and treating your vendors and colleagues fairly is good enough society work. At home, following basic society rules and working harmoniously with all is service to society. Simple human interactions and work done with simple ideals of collective good that appeal to selfish interests – that is how civil society progresses.

Also when the time comes and the conditions manifest themselves in a way that you will find yourself in a situation where you will raise your hand, raise your body and defy odds and change or refuse to accept what is present. Revolution rarely comes from a rebel looking for it. It comes from unlikely simple people doing simple things because that’s what they think is right. This then sets them up on a path to doing bigger and better things for everyone.

So my revolution will come someday. I always wanted to be a fire brand revolutionary. It’s funny when I look back at myself. Within my confines of my office desk, I show signs of this red (or orange or green) bandana wearing bearded fire breathing revolutionary. Pushing through agendas, others find difficult to see, digest or swallow. That’s my little victory in the sellout. Little joy in massive narrow bouts of aggression. I don’t know if this aggression will kill me, but it’s helped me live.

Dont STOMP on the clown

How long can you wait for something?

Many mnay years ago, I remember that the popular program on state controlled TV was a news segment that was privatized. It used to come every Friday, I think later in the evening. It was very well produced and it brought to India the highlights of everything happening around the world. It was Prannoy Roy’s ‘The world this week’. We grew up understanding the world as seen from the perspective of this show. Indian News was typical state run and boring with a newscaster giving the highlights through a script, with very little video reporting. Most of the reporting centered around the Prime Minister and his stooges. At the end of the news show, The world this week, always had a small interesting segment, an interesting video or a clip on anything around the world. Once, they showcased a very novel group making waves around the world. This was a musical dance group that only made music, and danced to it, from items found around in the streets. They used garbage cans, plastic drums and broom sticks to make excellent beats. I so wanted to see it some-day, some place. This would have been in or around 1991. I never forgot that feeling and that desire. I wanted to see for sure.

Recently around a month back, newspapers had ads that said that the original show “Stomp” was there in India, with shows in Mumbai. This was the original group that performed the percussion show that I saw on TV 25 years ago. It was here and in Mumbai and accessible. This was awesome. I definitely wanted to see it. I used the youtube to sell this to her. She was game. Often desires are scarified at the altar of family time. Then the next was Jispa. One Sunday, I showed it to her. I showed her the youtube videos and she was on board as well. So, the challenge was to figure the show in the busy schedule that Jispa and Jasmine have. Mine is simple. I work like a dog 5 days of the week and the weekend is devoted to family. Family has swim and other priorities and then I am done.

This time Jasmine figured the time and asked me to book the tickets. I was pretty excited. The tickets were definitely not cheap. They started at 750 bucks and went upto 4,500 a head. This was at the NCPA theatre which was a large but awesome theatre. At this place there aren’t really any bad seats. And inspite of waiting 25 years, I still didn’t want to spend so much money. I know it’s kind of nice and interesting but still. I saw the seating and there, the last two rows were for 750 and then the third row was 1000 and then the 5^th row was 1500 and there on. Wait a second. Was I going to pay double just to be seated four rows in front. That wasn’t happening. I ended up taking the last row at 750 bucks a ticket. I don’t know if I was getting cheap or I was getting really cheap or I was just a smart guy who was making a rational price value trade off.

Nevertheless, the 25 year wait was well worth it. The guys were lovely, athletic and full of energy. Most importantly they had enough funny moments in the show that added a lot of relief. They engaged with the crowd and made the crowd a part of the troupe by having segments in which the crowd was clapping in a set beat. There was one guy in the troupe who was singled out as the clown and who would do things against the grain of the performance. The most random of things would happen. One special random moment was when the troupe was making some music with the shopping carts as props. They kept passing the carts around each other, when randomly one shopping cart is thrown from one side of the stage to another and in it is this same guy who is calmly reading a newspaper. It was so weird and random that it was funny.

Later on, I had the chance of discussing this with Jispa. Seeing it for the amazing experience that it is, is one thing; but having the chance to discuss it with someone is another; and that someone who takes it further and imparts knowledge to you.. outstanding; and that is your daughter – complete priceless. She and me spoke about the performance and we discussed on how it was crazy and amazing. I spoke about the drama, the anticipation, the exaggeration of the movements and fun it brought on stage. Jispa took it to another level – she spoke about the ‘red nose clowning’ technique that she learnt at school. She spoke about how the show employed all the techniques to give the performance. Now that Jispa is old enough and she understands drama better, she likes to come for shows with us. Now to keep an eye out for such shows and to have conversations that generally increase the level of intelligence between the family. What more could I ask for.

On clowning, I just recently heard about the term mattachino.  This is the term used for the Italian court jester. The jester in the court was an important figure. His job was to tell truth to power. “Their role was more than pure amusement; they were the original “truth tellers,” whose job was to mock typical human vices of vanity, venality, snobbery, petulance, laziness, carpetbaggery, and fatuity. The court jesters aimed their humor at the usual targets: religion and the hypocrisy of its authority figures; pompous and self-serving scholars and grandiloquent artists; knavish and sycophantic court officials; and indolent, mercurial, or incompetent rulers.”

As I read about the mattachino, I realize that in office and at home as well, there is a need for the mattachino who role in life is to tell truth to power. Truth to power is dangerous and is not often allowed. More often than not it is punished. But a clown is the only way to say it. That is the way to tell power and for the power to digest it – through humor and laughter. When I started working, I have always noticed that there is always one guy in the team whose job it is to clown around, to speak the truth in a way that is best digested by everyone. When he opens his mouth, everyone laughs as he speaks the truth, he criticizes but in a way that you cannot take offence. I think in every board room, there should be a role of the jester. His job should be to diffuse the tension, to laugh, to crazy jokes, to make fun of people and to allow truth to emerge. In my previous company, I had a crack team. But this team most crucially had the freedom to laugh and to poke fun at each other. They would poke fun at me and I would get back at them. We would laugh. That allowed everyone to improve and move ahead.

Laughter is important. At our home, I take this very seriously. Everyone is allowed to crack jokes on anyone. You can’t feel bad about it. The most truth is told when we are having fun at each other’s expense. Within the norm of humor, respect and care, humor can only improve the team. My cricket team as well. Humour was important element. We used it to push each other and poke fun at each other.

Now I understand one more important dynamic of teams and one important dynamic of laughing. Interesting. Who knew…

Today almost by Gods will, while write this post I stumbled upon this video, which beautifully captures the emotion of poking fun through the vehicle of teasing.
See it - 



and this

bonus - Stomp trailer

colossal waste of everything

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon introduced a number of interesting policies at Amazon. One of the things he said was the two pizza team rule. This is so dam interesting. He said teams must not be greater than what two pizzas cannot feed. So, in many ways the team size is restricted to 5 -7 heads. This is right.

We went to an offsite over the week end. One of the things that I will do when I ever become the head of a business, is that I will ban off sites. First things first, why should we need to go off location to discuss and have ‘strategic’ discussions. In an off site you take half the company along with you. You seat them in a conference room and then sit to discuss some company strategic goals. Half the jokers in the conference room are bored, half don’t understand anything, half don’t want to give opinion, half don’t care, half don’t get it, half only want to give their opinion, half think the world is wrong. In case you are wondering, these are not mutually exclusive and hence you can have so many halves. In the end, no one really does anything big and no real decisions are taken and almost every delivery is forgotten.

My preference for all these decisions are simple. They should be taken in a small room with a small number of people who actually matter and who are smart enough to add value. I just can’t handle an extra bunch of crowd in a room.

I HATE OFF SITES.

The only official off site that I think ever helped was once where we went on a training program which had all of us playing games all day. We went to a simplistic place with basic facilities where they made us play all sorts of games out doors. These were interesting games, obstacle courses and physical and mental games. We were there for two days and thanks to the plethora of games, the teams kept rotating and you got to interact with people from all the departments. That is one off site format that I agree with. What’s the point of being off site, if all you are going to do is be indoors? Strategy can be done within the four walls of the office. Bonding can be better effected outside the confines of office and by doing all sorts of fun games. That’s the fun thing to do. Still there is no guarantee of team play or anything, but at least the team feels nice for a few days afterwards and that is something to build on.

Over the years, I have learnt that my instincts are better than anything else. Too many people do too many things and of all things they are guilty of, is trying too much. Work and office is simple. The principals are simple, you learn from your experience and you try and stop making mistakes that you were subjected to by your bosses.

I remember the first off site I ever went for. This was at Sariska wild life sanctuary. Here my big memory was the sales head, taking the case of the Area Sales Manager while he was making a presentation to everyone. It was designed and pre-decided to publicly humiliate him. The best part of all this is that the ASM was so used to this being a sales system forever, that it did not even hurt him. He was just standing there. Today was his day, next year it would be somebody else’s turn. What a joke.

That’s why the simple wisdom of Jeff Bezos trumps everything else. Small teams solving real problems and taking the firm forward, one problem at a time. Most of the time, we simply get people in an offsite, just so that people don’t feel bad.

At my earlier firm, when the money was good and flowing, I have been to off sites to Turkey, HongKong, Singapore and Srilanka in addition to countless Indian destinations. My best story on this is that I actually flew to London in business class to attend a 2 hour useless meeting on strategy. Like really! I wasn’t complaining. I felt like I had arrived in life. I loved the business clas travel and I loved hanging around in London for a couple of days as if it’s a regular cool thing, I wore my woolen suits and I showered at the Business class lounge at Heathrow on arrival before going for my meeting. Why should I complain?

The best is that all of this came to a sudden halt post 2009 when the financial crisis hit the world and money dried up. Off sites dried up and all useless spend was frowned upon. Forget hotels, now we were staying in guest houses, if we did have to travel. Business class became restricted to only the upper echelons of power and for the rest travel became only on an “if and must” basis.

Now these excesses are going to crop up again. I will try and resist but it’s going to be impossible. One of the reasons it had climbed dizzying heights in my previous company was the simple factor of having a company-wide newsletter. Every group company / division was tasked once a quarter to report some interesting achievements of the business and the only thing that everyone reported was the amazing offsite they had. Everyone would read this and go to their boss and ask for an offsite themselves and since they were doing better than that division, they deserved a better location. Slowly slowly, these locations started going to 5 stars, exotic places and then, they started to reach abroad. Once that happens, all hell breaks loose. The boss is depicted as a loser for not being able to swing something exotic enough and he was forced to get something interesting so as to retain / stamp his authority on the team. What crap. Institutions are full of people; people are full of ego. A multitude of ego combing together create a mad house where anything is possible. I am so done with these jokers. But I also know that my rant is the version of the stove calling the kettle black.

So yes, off sites are still the worst thing in the world and I hate them to the core. They are a waste of money, time and bandwidth. BAN THEM.