The head of my development team is known for going hyper-ballistic. Mind you, I've never witnessed this and I got lost with him in Madrid traffic (I was the one talking down the freak-outers and providing directions from his gps system, and I could tell he was freaking too, but all within limits.) But when he did that plus 10 to a friend and coworker, she shut down and walked out, and then went lethal on his ass later (something along the lines of "That was not productive or acceptable and if you do that again, HR will get involved, even though I think they can't help. But you will not speak to me like that ever. I like you, but I hated that.")

I like him and he seems to have had a come-to-jesus since that, but I really have no idea how I'd react if ranted AT. I'm a personal-issues crier, but work shit, I tend towards the nuclear option even when I'm the point of failure.

Gotta say, a Firefly reboot sounds... unlikely.

I got *no* spoons, especially this week (it took two ER visits to get me this far...) and I had to close one eye driving home from work and into the office again this morning. When he went off, I was...no way I could hold shit together.

I could think, though, and that's why I flipped everything and said "okay--I want to excel--assume everything I've done is wrong--tell me how to fix this." It yanked his legs out from underneath him because it wasn't defensive and it wasn't antagonistic, and it put him in a place where he was called on to do the things he wants to do as a boss. Yeah, stuff set him off intermittently as we went on, but I suspect I saw him putting stuff together--he complained about things I told him I could give him proof never happened, for instance. I explained the chain of information, but tried not to be finger pointy (so I was fucking startled when he yelled that I should have been pointing fingers at the developer, that it was my job to point fingers--I know I've been bitching about her a bunch here, but I seriously never thought she was incompetent. I thought she wasn't delivering. I thought there was some way around this, a learning curve, more dedication of time...not that she'd topped out, that they'd give UP. Jesus. But that I couldn't get rid of her, I should have been working out how to compensate for her uselessness), and I think that helped. By the end he was laughing and talking about episodes similar to this (him beating himself up in his manager's office (but he's too manfully proud to cry, joking that the reason he had no tissues wasn't because people didn't cry in his office, but because they always did, and he ran out...that sort of stuff), and we had a game plan for both me and the project that's firing him up and keeping me up nights.

Fingers crossed--my manager was out today. I think...I think that was a good thing. If she'd been called in, it would have gone in a whole different direction.

Is this a function of reading it on a Nook? I'm so much less tolerant of stupid shit on the nook than in print.

I think it could be. At least personally I am sometimes compelled to finish books I really don't like when I am holding the actual book. I mean, I only have an inch more to read, I might as well finish it.

Ebooks? I can give them up easier if I am not enjoying them.

I consider this a good thing.

ita !, I'm so sorry you had to deal with the boss meltdown! It's totally unacceptable for a manager to deal with any employee or any situation that way. And when you work so hard, too, it's doubly unfair.

My manager occasionally has a meltdown. Whenever her boss is riding her and she can't cope with the increased demand for competence, she turns on her direct reports. A few times she's had her meltdown at me. I will stand up for myself, but damn, a confrontation with her leaves me shaken and exhausted and useless for the rest of the day.

I swear, I wondered if it was appropriate for me to just leave the room and go home.

And then I thought of my parents and I sat down and let him yell and talked shit out and actually did work. But, good god, it sure felt reasonable to end the work day at 11:30 for a while there. I wasn't sure if I could get back to my desk without looking like I'd just had a blubbering meltdown.

I read the EW liveblog of the Firefly panel, and they didn't mention anything about a reboot.

Is it really? It doesn't seem quite that sticky.

Yep. We have the A/C on, and when I walk outside it feels like I'll mildew if I stay out there too long.

Kat, I'm sorry, but I'm totally not hot. I wore a long-sleeved sweater to work today. Where do you live again? Because I think we may have slipped into not-that-parallel dimensions from each other. It's not like we've seen each other in forever. There's no proof we're in the same LA.

I was bitching mildly about my supervisor to a co-worker--who had started bitching first and much worse, so I felt safe--and he said, re: a criticism from said supervisor to me, "Well, he does have a crush on you."

I was utterly boggled. I doubt it's true, because that's not the vibe I get off him, and I'd be utterly weirded out if it were true. But the very idea that my co-worker would come up with that concept is the weirdest thing of all.