California Dreamin'
I have decided to start my Scaduto family blogging with a fun story about my almost trip to Cali. Some of you may have heard about this, and some of you may not have, but it's a pretty good one so I think you'll enjoy it.
In early April sometime (I'm terrible with dates, so don't ask) I received an email from my manager about a project at our Thousand Oaks office that needed help from people with a certain skillset. There wasn't much of a description of the project, but it did say that the selected individuals would spend 2 months in california so I kept reading. After perusing the list, I realized I would be a pretty decent match for this, so I submitted my name and hoped for the best. A couple of days later I receieved an email from my senior manager asking for a brief summary of my experience in the areas listed in the email, so I wrote it up and sent it off. I was not expected much to come of this due to being on an undermanned project and being new, but apparently a few higher ups I have worked for previouslyput in a good word for me as well, and I started getting pretty excited.
My current manager and project lead made it clear that they did not want me to leave, but it in another week or so I received a call from the project manager in California for an "interview". I thought it went pretty well, and they called me back for a second interview a couple days later so I could speak to a more technical person. I nailed most of the questions and was feeling pretty confident, but I also knew that there are over 5000 engineers working for our company that recieved this email so I figured the competition was high. I soon learned that I was one of four people that went through the interview, the other three being from North Carolina.
It was about a week before I heard that they wanted me to come out there, and once I could pick my jaw up, I began looking for hotels and flights. I spoke to a friend of mine who is in LA (Thousand Oaks is a suburb of LA) and got everything planned out. I was staying in an Extended Stay America in Woodland Hills (borders Hollywood) for 56 nights to leave on Monday, April 24th. The friday before I packed up 60% of my clothes and my golf clubs and shipped them via UPS 5 day ground to the hotel so I wouldn't have to check them. I said bye to all my friends and borded my first leg from Albany to Atlanta.
I don't know if you have ever been to the Atlanta airport, but as an important interlude, its rediculously huge, busy, and spread out. So I land in Concourse B and my next flight leaves from E in a little over an hour, and I figure I'm going to walk since I need some exercise and I've got plenty of time. I, of course, had no clue that it was about a half mile walk, probably more, but I made it to the concourse fine, and decided to grab some food. While in line at a sub shop, I got a phone call from an unknown number, which I answered and soon regretted.
Here is how the initial conversation went:
Me: Hello?
Other Guy(OG): Hi, Justin?
Me: Yes
OG: This is Tom Melatis from Thousand Oaks
Me: Oh Hi, hows it goin?
OG: Good, I wasn't expecting to get ahold of you, I thought you would be on a plane.
Me: Oh yeah, I'm in between flights in Atlanta right now.
OG: Oh ok, well do you have a pen to write some stuff down?
Me: Umm yeah, but I'm walking right now, give me a couple mins ...
OG: Ok, well a few things have changed, and I want to start by saying that this is in no way your fault.
This is where I almost crapped myself. You know the feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you know something extremely dissapointing is going to happen? Yeah thats the one.
OG: Some manager above our heads on both sides have been arguing and it seems we no longer need you out here.
Me: Is this a joke?
OG: No, there was some hard work put in by some members here and we have gotten themselves back on track. If you want, you can get on the plane and then fly home or try to get a flight from there.
Me: Uh, I'll call you back.
So this where I almost punched a random 6 yeard old, calmed down, called a few people and began the extremely fun process of getting a flight home. I did not continue on to LA, as that would have been dumb, but got put on a standby flight back to Albany about 30 mins later. Lucky for me, there were 6 others on the standby list before me, and I was no where near getting on that plane. So I went back to the ticket counter and got a flight the next morning and then inquired as to where my luggage went.
Another Conversation:
Me: I woudl like to know where my luggage is. I was supposed to go to LA, but cancelled my fligth and I think my luggage might have kept going. I just missed a standby and am leaving tomorrow back to Albany.
Lady at the desk: It looks like your luggage went on the plane that just left, it will be in baggage claim tomorrow when you arrive.
Me: Are you sure?
LD: Yes, absolutely.
Me: Ok Thanks,
I then made many more phone calls to my managers and friends who I couldnt' wait to hear making fun of me, and got a hotel room for the night. The next few steps went smoothly, except that I didn't carry-on any clothes so I probably smelled pretty badly, but I dind't hit a hitch until I landed in Albany on Tues morning.
I went to the baggage claim lady and told my story and asked for my luggage. "Nope, no luggage here, " she says, "It's probably on the carousel". So I make my way over and watch as bag after bag that isn't mine drifts by. Damn, back to the claim lady. "It seems your luggage is in LA, " she tells me this time. Damn, I knew it. So for the next hour I am filling out claim forms (yes paper forms becuase even more conviently the claim server is down and they can't use the computers) and finally I get a rental car and head home. I head to work to speak to my managers, becuase, well, I'm pretty pissed and I want some answers. Well it turns out that they know even less than I do so I decide that there is nothing I can do and just to move on.
It sounds like my nightmare might be over, but in fact a few minor details continued to haunt me. Number one, my checked luggage is in LA. Number two, I shipped the rest of my stuff via 5 day UPS ground and it wouldn't even arrive in LA until Monday. Lucky for me I had 1 pair of jeans and several pairs of boxers with holes in them to wear for the next couple of days. My luggage finally arrives on Thursday, and it isn't until Tuesday of the next week that I get the rest of my clothes and my golf clubs back (I had to rent clubs that weekend!).
I still don't really know what happened, but I know it hinged upon upper level managers acting like kids. Originally they had promised me a return flight home every other weekend if I wanted it, then they cut it down to two. I was ok with that since it was unlikely I would need more than 2, but then a couple days before I left they cut it to 1 and wouldn't budge. The cancellation is attributed to this arguement that amounts to a solid 400 dollars, but I'm pretty sure there were other unmentionable issues going on too.
Moral of the Story: Don't ever answer you phone on a business trip.
In early April sometime (I'm terrible with dates, so don't ask) I received an email from my manager about a project at our Thousand Oaks office that needed help from people with a certain skillset. There wasn't much of a description of the project, but it did say that the selected individuals would spend 2 months in california so I kept reading. After perusing the list, I realized I would be a pretty decent match for this, so I submitted my name and hoped for the best. A couple of days later I receieved an email from my senior manager asking for a brief summary of my experience in the areas listed in the email, so I wrote it up and sent it off. I was not expected much to come of this due to being on an undermanned project and being new, but apparently a few higher ups I have worked for previouslyput in a good word for me as well, and I started getting pretty excited.
My current manager and project lead made it clear that they did not want me to leave, but it in another week or so I received a call from the project manager in California for an "interview". I thought it went pretty well, and they called me back for a second interview a couple days later so I could speak to a more technical person. I nailed most of the questions and was feeling pretty confident, but I also knew that there are over 5000 engineers working for our company that recieved this email so I figured the competition was high. I soon learned that I was one of four people that went through the interview, the other three being from North Carolina.
It was about a week before I heard that they wanted me to come out there, and once I could pick my jaw up, I began looking for hotels and flights. I spoke to a friend of mine who is in LA (Thousand Oaks is a suburb of LA) and got everything planned out. I was staying in an Extended Stay America in Woodland Hills (borders Hollywood) for 56 nights to leave on Monday, April 24th. The friday before I packed up 60% of my clothes and my golf clubs and shipped them via UPS 5 day ground to the hotel so I wouldn't have to check them. I said bye to all my friends and borded my first leg from Albany to Atlanta.
I don't know if you have ever been to the Atlanta airport, but as an important interlude, its rediculously huge, busy, and spread out. So I land in Concourse B and my next flight leaves from E in a little over an hour, and I figure I'm going to walk since I need some exercise and I've got plenty of time. I, of course, had no clue that it was about a half mile walk, probably more, but I made it to the concourse fine, and decided to grab some food. While in line at a sub shop, I got a phone call from an unknown number, which I answered and soon regretted.
Here is how the initial conversation went:
Me: Hello?
Other Guy(OG): Hi, Justin?
Me: Yes
OG: This is Tom Melatis from Thousand Oaks
Me: Oh Hi, hows it goin?
OG: Good, I wasn't expecting to get ahold of you, I thought you would be on a plane.
Me: Oh yeah, I'm in between flights in Atlanta right now.
OG: Oh ok, well do you have a pen to write some stuff down?
Me: Umm yeah, but I'm walking right now, give me a couple mins ...
OG: Ok, well a few things have changed, and I want to start by saying that this is in no way your fault.
This is where I almost crapped myself. You know the feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you know something extremely dissapointing is going to happen? Yeah thats the one.
OG: Some manager above our heads on both sides have been arguing and it seems we no longer need you out here.
Me: Is this a joke?
OG: No, there was some hard work put in by some members here and we have gotten themselves back on track. If you want, you can get on the plane and then fly home or try to get a flight from there.
Me: Uh, I'll call you back.
So this where I almost punched a random 6 yeard old, calmed down, called a few people and began the extremely fun process of getting a flight home. I did not continue on to LA, as that would have been dumb, but got put on a standby flight back to Albany about 30 mins later. Lucky for me, there were 6 others on the standby list before me, and I was no where near getting on that plane. So I went back to the ticket counter and got a flight the next morning and then inquired as to where my luggage went.
Another Conversation:
Me: I woudl like to know where my luggage is. I was supposed to go to LA, but cancelled my fligth and I think my luggage might have kept going. I just missed a standby and am leaving tomorrow back to Albany.
Lady at the desk: It looks like your luggage went on the plane that just left, it will be in baggage claim tomorrow when you arrive.
Me: Are you sure?
LD: Yes, absolutely.
Me: Ok Thanks,
I then made many more phone calls to my managers and friends who I couldnt' wait to hear making fun of me, and got a hotel room for the night. The next few steps went smoothly, except that I didn't carry-on any clothes so I probably smelled pretty badly, but I dind't hit a hitch until I landed in Albany on Tues morning.
I went to the baggage claim lady and told my story and asked for my luggage. "Nope, no luggage here, " she says, "It's probably on the carousel". So I make my way over and watch as bag after bag that isn't mine drifts by. Damn, back to the claim lady. "It seems your luggage is in LA, " she tells me this time. Damn, I knew it. So for the next hour I am filling out claim forms (yes paper forms becuase even more conviently the claim server is down and they can't use the computers) and finally I get a rental car and head home. I head to work to speak to my managers, becuase, well, I'm pretty pissed and I want some answers. Well it turns out that they know even less than I do so I decide that there is nothing I can do and just to move on.
It sounds like my nightmare might be over, but in fact a few minor details continued to haunt me. Number one, my checked luggage is in LA. Number two, I shipped the rest of my stuff via 5 day UPS ground and it wouldn't even arrive in LA until Monday. Lucky for me I had 1 pair of jeans and several pairs of boxers with holes in them to wear for the next couple of days. My luggage finally arrives on Thursday, and it isn't until Tuesday of the next week that I get the rest of my clothes and my golf clubs back (I had to rent clubs that weekend!).
I still don't really know what happened, but I know it hinged upon upper level managers acting like kids. Originally they had promised me a return flight home every other weekend if I wanted it, then they cut it down to two. I was ok with that since it was unlikely I would need more than 2, but then a couple days before I left they cut it to 1 and wouldn't budge. The cancellation is attributed to this arguement that amounts to a solid 400 dollars, but I'm pretty sure there were other unmentionable issues going on too.
Moral of the Story: Don't ever answer you phone on a business trip.
Comments
But to make up for it, I recieved a Star Award worth a solid 200 bucks.
Thanks for the comments. I'll be sure to continue to out write everyone becuase I have diarhea of the fingers.