102 Days Later

My Dear Princess and Dear Fellows,

I don't know if you do this, but I notice specific personality types in an office. I mean. Don't get me wrong. There are no equivalents for you - no Kiwi Mad Dog, no Princess at Tesco Bank, no Fat Pete at Scottish govt, but other personality types recur. 

For example, there's usually a Deborah. She was a lady I met back at British Aerospace. She had a strong west country accent and knew EVERYTHING about all of BAe's systems. She'd gone there straight from school and so her knowledge was encyclopedic, but she never wrote any of it down. I try to look for the Deborah whenever I change offices. There's always one, and she's usually invaluable.

There's typically an office Norman, who does very little but wanders around eating biscuits and trying to avoid work. These are often managers. I have named this fellow after a bloke at Scottish govt who was a genius at this.

Then there's the office Amboubou. This is the person who likes to ask lots of questions in meetings, and always raises issues around the organisation's commitment to the environment and so forth. This sort of person likes to ask for 10 minutes out of team meetings to talk about health and safety, or the "reshaping" of the team structure. Amboubou was someone me and the Princess encountered at Slack Investments and we would typically roll our eyes at each other when she interrupted a meeting with, "Guys, guys... I just think it's important that we consider..."

I start on this meaningless tangent because I sat through a 60 minute Zoom today and discovered that Kainga Ora has an Amboubou who wanted to remind us, "Guys, guys, I know it's great that we've been over 100 days without community transmission, yay and all that but let's not forget we need to remain vigilant."

On and on she went. I mean. Point well made and all that but holy effing ess. 

And now, this evening, it turns out we've got 4 new cases in a family in Auckland and no idea how the four got infected. There was a special news bulletin and then an emergency text from the government* and then one from Kainga Ora telling us to stay home for the rest of the week. 

Of course this is a massive drag and a new cause for anxiety. I do have faith that the government will do everything they can to contain it, but this family must have been walking around spreading the virus for two weeks. It's a concern. 

And then there's the right-wingers, practically high-fiving themselves with delight. I find it somewhat nauseating. Also their message is confused. They seem unsure whether to claim it's all a hoax so that Jacinda can consolidate her iron grip of government control, or whether to say it's because she's incompetent and MUST RESIGN IMMEDIATELY.

I wish they'd make up their minds. 

But most of all - and this is where there is something wrong with me - the thought that went through my mind was this:

Amboubou is going to be effing UNBEARABLE at our next meeting. 

Guys, guys, if we could just focus on the important thing here. 

S.

* It's a horrible noise when they text, like a "WHOOOO-OONK" noise.