Pair of Kings

So my meeting with Phaedon went well. He agreed to let me freelance if it did not interfere with my work, which I assured him it would not. Not only that, I received my consent form yesterday, which is mighty quick compared to the wait that some others have had for their new contracts.

A very telling conversation preceded talk about the waiver. I asked about the criteria for redundancies - "you said that it was no reflection on the work of these people and nothing personal... so what was it?" He fed me a spiel about the board wanting them to cut a third of their expenses etc etc. I came back to him "I know all that, but you haven't answered my question - where is the line where some people are made redundant and others are not?" Then jackpot. He skated over the idea that they judged certain people by their social interaction and contribution to the culture of the company. Aha! I put it to him that they could have handled it better, perhaps through asking for voluntary redundancies, for example. He said that would have put them at risk of losing "someone like you, who is very valuable to us". Flattery will get you everywhere, Phaedon, but nowhere round me.

Then I brought it upon myself to tell Phaedon that trust for management was declining, which happened before the redundancies. He asked me to elaborate and I basically told him that management often promise things, or set things up, but then don't follow through. There was also a culture of bullying, I mentioned. "I won't stand for that," he pounced. I made oblique references to Lizzie bullying Faun without mentioning any names and said that the case was not resolved because the staff member did not feel comfortable approaching him, but also that the staff member in question was no longer with us.

The other niggling thing I had to cope with was Corkie's temper. She flew off the handle on Wednesday because Sarah had told her to be more professional or something, to which she didn't take kindly. To tell you the truth, I'm tired of her. We were never very good friends to begin with but she seems to have formed an idea that we are much better friends than is the case. And has since clung to me like Glad Wrap, which can put a lot of a dampener on my social life at work. It's like the last fortnight has been nothing but Corkie's self-centredness.

It was my own fault, in the end. I didn't actively encourage this kind of behaviour but I didn't discourage it, either. I mean, it's a bit like fights with my sister - she got angry and I didn't care so she won. So Corkie demanded attention, I didn't care so she began to believe that, because there was no opposition from my end, she was the centre of the universe and her problems superseded all others. Crownie noticed it too. I asked her for her advice, whether I could have handled Corkie any better, and she basically told me that Corkie was taking advantage of my good nature by asking for my attention all the time.

Anyway, after a shocker of a Wednesday soccer game (I let two goals go in. It was seriously as if I had just stood aside and just let them roll in. I felt so stupid), Corkie went home. She called me later that night and ranted for a bit, whereby I told her in no uncertain terms that she must apologise for her behaviour even if she also wanted to qualify it with an explanation. On Thursday morning, despite Phaedon telling her to call him before she came in, he brought her into his office to give her the day off. Corkie requested that I be there and for some unknown reason, Paul was there too.

So he gave her the day off, saying "if this environment causes you so much stress, then I don't want you to hang around, I want you to be happy" (ie "we have some important visitors coming and if you throw a tantrum like you did yesterday then it looks bad"). Believing his approach to be for the best, especially because I'd gotten so tired of her (at that point I'd seen her every day for about three weeks, which is more than I've seen my flatmate), I added "yes, you don't want to exacerbate your stress, not when you want your last day to be a good one." Both Phaedon and Paul were eternally grateful. Then I turned to her and said, "Vanessa, is there anything you would like to say?" And she apologised for her behaviour. I felt like a mother who has just chastised a child at that point. You know, the kind of mother who says "say thank you, Jimmy".

Friday wasn't too bad. We had yum cha at Fook Yuen and then after work played two rounds of poker. I won $70 in the first round with a fair chunk of excellent play. I wiped out newcomer Clint, then knocked over Corkie and Ben (beautiful Ben, soccer chief Ben) in the same hand, Ian 'Old Man River' Stuart and Daniel fell victim and there was a feelgood bulldozing of Paul with only an avalanche of chips against Melissa's puny lot. She decided to take the second prize (money back) and we began a new game with Shaun, Melissa's fiance, minus some members from the first game.

Let me tell you, there is no greater joy than making Paul palpitate. I went all-in against him on a pair of kings when the stud was stacked with hearts. I had a feeling he had a flush, but I just wanted to see what he would do. He sat there for the longest time, deliberating, and then called me. To my detriment he won, but it was worth 249 chips to see the look on his face. For your info, Paul often folds without seeing the flop, which led to his nickname, 'Mr Origami' (I have a paper tree made up in his honour) so for him to be in the running after the river is a big thing.

Weekend was great, went to Chatswood Vinnies with Sireesha and bought a whole stack of books, then went to the pumpin' Cat Empire concert and dropped in at Corkie's housewarming after. On Sunday I did a fair bit of writing but not before a bunch of chores (NOT including ironing, which is running a coup in the corner of my room as I type) and having a rant about someone stealing my newspaper AGAIN. Further detail soon.