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Tuesday morning I was walking in and I saw Jeff talking to Tammy. She was holding her laptop as they talked in the hallway. I decided to join the conversation but was quicky dismissed by Jeff so I decided to pretend to check my company email a few feet away and eavesdrop in case she was complaining that I had to take back the RAM

Jeff: If it's not turning on then it might have just died

Tammy: We have an IT guy, can't he just fix it

Jeff: It wouldn't be cost efficient for him to do that.

Tammy: So what am I supposed to do?

Jeff: Well, I can give you a couple suggestions of what to buy. As for that laptop it's old enough that it's probably not worth giving to a relative, even if they're a little tech savvy. You can give it to us and we can recycle it for you if you'd like

Tammy: Ok, I'll go to BlueShirts tonight and grab a new laptop. Any recommendations?

Jeff: Anything with a core 2 duo would work. Core 2 quad would be better but more expensive.

Tammy: I'll give you my old laptop. Thank you so much!!

huh, not what I expected. A little shady, but certainly farther into the "grey area" of the law than what I expected. I walked to my desk and was able to sit down before Martin came in.

Martin: Hey, Pavix. How are you?

Me: Doing ok.

Martin: So listen, the hosting environment isn't very easy to maintain with the plastic shelves. So what we're going to do is replace them with a unit where the shelves slide out.

Me: Did you see the email about the RFID reader for access?

Martin: Yep. Jeff's trying to get management to cough up the cash as we speak. But I will need your help today to make sure things go as fast as possible.

Me: It sounds like that's going to result in downtime. Did you email the customers and give them at least a months notice to prepare?

Of course he didn't, he hasn't been here a month and he wants to do this today.

Martin: I think it's best if we treat it like a band-aid and just rip it off and get it done as fast as we can

Me: And how do we think our customers will feel about that?

Martin: Oh trust me, customers are going to appreciate our ability to manage the hardware faster and with more efficiency.

Me: Did you talk to Jeff about this?

Martin: He's already on board

Me: Hosting is your baby, if that's what you want and Jeff approved my time then I don't mind helping

Martin: Great! You're a good guy, you know that?

Me: No, I'm not.

And with that he left my office and went back to his. I checked the IS mailbox and was thankful that the only email was regarding someone who had software installed but didn't need it, but now they figured out they did. I added the computer to the AD group for SCCM to push the software and checked my personal email, Jeff is inviting me and Martin out to lunch. I reply that I'd love to and then head over to help Martin. We had 5 shelves swapped out by lunch and was sweating like a pig, but we were making good progress and Martin had so far managed not to slow the process down. We decide to take my car because I had no desire to relive the events of our previous lunch.

Jeff had arrived before us and was already sitting at the table.

Jeff: Come have a seat, fellas

The restaurant was a chinese food place, looked family owned and operated. Martin and I sat down and ordered our drinks. Martin wasted no time in pulling out his phone and texting like a teenaged girl while I talked with Jeff.

Me: So what's the lunch about? Just feeling generous?

Jeff: I just wanted a chance to sit and talk with you two outside work

We both shoot a look at Martin who, for all intents and purposes didn't even know we existed.

Jeff: You know, it's strange about Jen. I would have never guessed in a million years she'd want to start her own company

Me: Yea, I guess you never really know people

Jeff: That's very true. I even tried getting her to take on some of my responsibilities so that I can lighten my load and she just did not want it.

Me: Maybe she didn't want to draw too much attention to herself.

Jeff: Maybe. You know, Pavix. I thought about what I'd do if I joined a company and my boss was trying to get me fired right out of the gate. I doubt I'd do anything to get her fired, but I'd think about it every single day

Me: Well thankfully I don't have to worry about it now

Jeff: You know we have to trust the people we work with, and if I found out that one of my employees got their boss fired it just wouldn't sit right with me. I'd probably have to get my house in order

Me: I can respect that. I know if I was that kind of guy I'd have to be more careful about what I did and how it looked

Jeff: Yes you would, if you were that kind of guy

We both looked at Martin as he quietly giggled and texted.

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