feast #1

Normally I don't like office potlucks. I'm not a fabulous cook and I don't feel like making time on a weeknight to get to the store and buy ingredients and cook something, or even to cop out and buy pre-made brownies or salad in the bag or my favoriie potluck compromise, fancy cheese and sliced baguettes and crackers. I've been to office potlucks where two of us brought salad and mine was left untouched, where no one bothered to bring an entree, where someone decided that frosting was an acceptable thing to bring.

But this was an unusual week. Several of us had worked on a big project together in a short timeframe: putting together materials for a divisional meeting, creating in fact an entire working board game to get coworkers to provide feedback on certain issues, refining Powerpoint presentations and handouts and all kinds of things. My previous boss had not allowed me to work on these kinds of tasks because she felt I wasn't any good at brainstorming or creativity. My current boss thought I would be good at it, encouraged me, and he was right -- and I enjoyed myself in the process. Immediately after the meeting, praise came in from higher-ups, and I was feeling very confident about my skills and my future.

Two days later, the head of the division resigned immediately, and that afternoon, most of the higher-ups who reported to him were fired. It was a Friday afternoon and my team members and I were at a happy hour where we were theoretically supposed to be celebrating our successful work. The TV sets in the bar all were showing footage of Michael Jackson, who had just died. We were wondering who would be fired next.

My boss proposed that we do a last-minute breakfast happy hour on Monday during our team meeting to cheer us all up. He said he'd bring bagels, while other coworkers volunteered to pick up donuts, bake an egg casserole, or bring juice. And I actually cooked something,which I hardly ever do -- I brought a blueberry clafouti, inspired by someone's photo.

Everyone loved the clafouti, it was a big hit. We didn't talk about a lot at the meeting, no one wanted to think about firings and layoffs. We were silly and ate a lot of breakfast stuff together and had a good time. It was one of the best potlucks I've attended.

I had a lunchtime appointment. When I returned, my boss had been laid off. I think he suspected the axe might fall, and scheduled a breakfast potluck instead of a lunchtime or happy hour event that Monday for that reason.

Later that week, our former boss, the one who had no confidence in my skills, was put in charge of us again. Less than three months later, I was laid off.

When I think of feasts, I think of that breakfast potluck, and I'm still a little sad. Admittedly, it was time to go. Admittedly, I have a much better job now, where we had a lovely Thanksgiving potluck (I brought coleslaw from Bill Miller). But I enjoyed working with that particular boss while he was there, and I liked the projects I worked on, and I'm regretful that such a good work situation was cut off so suddenly. I realize I'm still not done mourning for that time at that job, as pleased as I might be with my current work situation.

Posted at December 9, 2009 08:02 AM