Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Job satisfaction

So, remember my little hair-pulling episode at work a couple of weeks ago? The one where my AV got sabotaged by passive-aggressive PR nutcases?

Yeah, so.

The client involved did, I am told, a relatively spectacular job on his speech. Now, this is someone who is very, very low-key. In ordinary conversation he does not enunciate and is hard to understand. He mumbles a lot and trails off at the end of his sentences. He doesn't have any sense of drama or pacing to speak of and cannot tell a joke. At the first run-through, he sounded like he was giving a play-by-play of a very unfortunate football game. Public speaking: not his strong point. But he's very, very smart, works hard, and has an incredible memory. He was a delight to coach and, when I complimented him on how well he'd done, looked me in the eye and said, "I just did what you told me. " Have I mentioned he's also very nice?

So, anyway. Today my boss came up to me at work and told me that the head of PR had come up to her and congratulated her on--get this--"turning a forensic accountant into a world-class speaker."

Grin grin.

(I should point out here, in fairness, that I myself am an atrocious public speaker. I talk too fast, I get nervous, my throat closes up and I invariably lose my voice afterward. I know what should happen in theory, but can't put it into practice to save my life.)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What mattered in this case was that you were a good audience; knowing what you like and don't like in a speaker and being able to articulate it. Congrats!

Maybe next time the PR people will take you seriously when you need a rehersal.

Ellie said...

You are so fortunate to have a boss that not only compliments but tells you the compliments of others! You know they are not all like that

Unknown said...

Ellie is right. Those kinds of bosses seem to have been selected out of the career pool. Of course, having a competent, talented, excellent, ethical, responsible employee is harder to come by these days than it once was, also. (that's you)

uberimma said...

Oh, believe me, I know. Remember I came to this job after Harvard! I know exactly what horrible bosses can be like...