G is for genius

When you spend a lot of time with someone, sometimes you end up using some of their mannerisms or word choices. I have done just that as of late.

I am a writer by trade. My guy likes to make up words. I have ended up using a number of his "fine" examples, although I do cringe now and again after doing so!

I tend to be the one who gives people nicknames. He has started to do the same, too.

We both work for a software company. We obviously work with a lot of software developers. My guy and I have studied computer science, with my guy ending up doing far more research than I have done in this field. He initially got hired at our company as a software developer, but moved into a different role and likes it much better.

My guy calls software developers geniuses. He is being sarcastic. There are certain developers who are anti-social and are difficult to deal with, because their time seems to be too precious to be bothered talking to you. This experience has generally been the case for my guy.

I have the opposite issue. I get along with the majority of these developers. I require their help to understand and complete my documentation.

I do understand that there are a few bad apples out there. As of late, I have had to deal with one developer who was on her high horse and was badgering me three times through e-mail about documenting her important features. She did not understand what I meant by "I will let you know when I have finished work on your feature." I managed to put her in her place by copying my manager in my response. She tried to pull some sort of power move by getting the project manager into the mix and trying to patch things up, when it was clear that she looked like an idiot. I replied by saying that my stance for the third time was the same -- I would let her know when I'm done writing the piece because our team is frankly swamped these days.

Anyway, this week has been no exception. The powers that be at our company decided to merge two products into one super product. As a result, the documentation for these two products needs to be combined in a week. There is a lot of work to do on top of the craziness that we have going on.

My boss came over to talk to me about this dilemma.

"Who was the genius who decided to merge these two products together, without giving much thought about the consequences under such short notice?" I asked him.
"A manager who is out of town."
"Figures," I said. "As if we don't have enough work to do already."

After I had used genius, I realized that I sound just like my guy. Who knew that this day would come?!