I didn’t know why I needed to travel there before the trip, I didn’t know why during the trip, and I don’t know why afterwards. I was dreading it but now I’m happy I went because I got to do no work and talk to people and eat at expensive restaurants without paying. (Apologies to family members who don’t get it.)

It’s not quite true that I did no work. At some points it was very nerve wracking. But more often it was surreal. Here’s the trip in a picture: I was asked to come down by my boss, and the trip was coordinated by one of his colleagues, because someone at The Big Place asked for help. Something was wrong with the intracompany orders going between The Big Place and The Center of the Universe. So we were all there together at The Big Place: Me, my boss, and his colleague G.J., and L.M. from the Center of the Universe, and sundry appointed people from The Big Place.

Nobody knew why we were there. G.J., my boss, L.M., and the highest-ranking representative of The Big Place were to various degrees engrossed in their laptops. Nobody knew why we were there. I can forgive everyone except my boss who told me I was needed there and was completely engrossed in his laptop the entire time.

Now that meeting was only the first reason why he had called me there. The second reason was unrelated and we had a meeting about that, too, myself and G.J. and my boss. And after that one he actually told me that he had paid no attention during the meeting so let’s have another one. Remember, he’s the one asking me to come there and authorizing the expense of hundreds of dollars for each of: my flight, my rental car, my lodging, and my overtime.

How can I put this? My boss….challenges my preference for viewing things rationally.

Oh, are you wondering why we all went to The Big Place? Haven’t heard? Two hours of asking questions revealed that they had no lack of understanding what they were supposed to do or how to do it, they just didn’t want to take the time and the ownership.

And it fell to me to diplomatically ask questions until this became evident. Yeah. Me. Diplomatically.

Go figure.