surprise meeting

back at the beginning of the year, i'd mentioned to my boss that i wasn't always certain of how to respond to some behaviours i was faced with at work and it'd be nice to have some kind of training on that. good idea, he said. there'd be a workshop in April, something could probably be added to it. on Monday, he came to ask me what exactly it was i wanted and he asked me several times whether i was available on Tuesdays. i said i was, from 3 to 4pm, although if it had to be later, i could manage every other week. no need for that, he said. but every single question was about Tuesdays. at no point did he ever say tomorrow! which, as i found out, was when the workshop was set.

apparently, he'd sent me an email confirming this, but as we're currently migrating our whole system, i didn't get it. it was a colleague who said she was happy she'd see me later. and me going 'later?'. yesterday of all days was just not the best day. but anyway, i went, and it was great. it was run by one of my old students, which was fun. and if we didn't deal with everything, i think the main issue has finally been understood by all - i wasn't the only one having those problems, and i could see things taking unwanted momentum, so it was about time we addressed them.

i did feel a bit like the centre of attention, though, as my boss started by explaining this part had been added at my request, following which my ex-student then wanted me to clarify what i wanted and all throughout the hour, if this or that would be a solution for me, what i thought and, at the end, whether he'd answered my question. also, not a lot of the others said stuff 'in public' (preferring to just tell the person sitting next to them), so it was kind of left to me to explain or redirect the discussion.

in the end, though, i was happy. i'd got one part of what i wanted: that we think of how to deal with these hiccups so we can show a united front, instead of everyone doing their own thing and not knowing how to handle stuff.