Today I met some new faces. As in it was an alumni meet sponsored by a former employer. And the alums that came were all new to me. Now as far as this employer is concerned I think its a smart use of their discretionary funds since it allows the business to interact with their former human capital (that is depreciating somewhere else) and perhaps make new introductions for a possible sale (think new revenue stream).
Besides some are existing clients allowing for reinforcing their engagement in a hair down setting.
Where my narration is headed is that I too ran into a number of X's i.e. X-employer alum who could shared the highs and lows of a life that was and for whatever reason it now was not. Most seemed happier in their current status.
Some people were job hunting, gate crashing and some were there to enjoy the food and beverages. I admit to doing a lot of the latter (and it was good too, not the Zagatish pretentious kind of morsels but actually quality you could taste..more in another blog).
Also another angle was to get to know new individuals that might or might not cross paths with you again - with a common thread that of having the same employer write our checks at one time in history.
Varied backgrounds and experiences from different corporations but more importantly a chance for me personally to explore what people do with their time and see if there is a new calling that I could explore.
This event turned out interesting since I ran into a fellow blogger who hitherto had been just an Avatar online. It was good to put a 3D entity to go with the point of view that the individual shared through her blogs. In some respect it is like meeting someone you know. Otherwise these events tend to be a bunch of lets get together sometime type of conversations.
Also found out how the X's have found productive work outside of their earlier life of being a road warrior (nature of the job) to enjoying the Northern California lifestyle, with its horrid commutes or the public transit modes; its wine country and its great outdoors.
It was a good evening spent exploring and interacting with a wide segment of smart population all in exchange for small talk.
Here is another essay on the subject of first names. As in birth names. Or names provided to an offspring at birth. While the developed world tends to shy away from the exotic like Refrigerator or Coca Cola for their new production there is a plethora of Jims and Johns and Bobs or Robs. Speaking of which I do not think there is a categoric decision point at the time of birth if a child will be hereafter called as Bob. I mean have not yet met a toddler called Bob or Rob for that matter. At some point though the parental instinct to mouth out multiple syllables runs out and they switch from calling the crawler Robert to simply Robbie to Rob. Now speaking of - it is strange that the name sounds like something you would not want Rob to do - i.e. Rob anyone. Then why call someone that? After all Rob Peter to Pay Paul is not exactly a maxim to live a young life? Is it? Perhaps Peter or Paul might want to have a say in it? Then there is this matter of going to the John. Why degrad...
De-loiterers?
ReplyDeleteConsultatively speaking
ReplyDelete