Mr Loner no more

I remember a previous journal entry I wrote about a grumpy-loner-don't-care-who-you-are late fifties mechanical engineer who didn't seem to know I existed. The only time I hear him speak more than three words is when he approaches my colleagues to delegate some electrical related work. Other than that, it was just mere words that consisted of "Hi" and "Hey" and no names attached to it after that.

I also remember hoping a thousand years that I will never work on the same project as him. If that happens, the heavens will fall and the earth will crumble, unable to handle the frustration that I may have trying to fit in or squeeze out information from him, eventually portraying myself as "less educated". I hate to look silly.

Guess what. I've been delegated as the electrical resource for his project, simply because everyone else is busy with their own work and my boss thought this would be a good experience for me to work on a multi-discipline project. After a brief description of the project, my boss left my desk and instructed me to have a chat with Mr. Loner, whose desk is tucked away in a corner in the far end room of the hall. I decided to send him an email instead to initiate the meeting, though it's probably easier, in all mechanical sense, to walk over to his desk and introduce myself as the unfortunate resource he has to deal with.

Surprisingly, he was quite a chirpy fellow throughout the whole discussion, even calling each of our team leaders/bosses "parasites" because we also have to include them as part of the resource on the project. Most of the time, they won't be involved. Those are just extra hours they can charge their admin work hours to. After an hour of explaination, descriptions and some blank stares, I left his room with shocked yet relief feelings. He ain't that bad after all. After this discussion, I still have not heard my name mentioned at all when we greet each other at the hallway. It must be too hard to pronounce. Alright, I forgive him. Some people end up calling me "Sue" anyway and that's the worst thing ever! I used to kick myself everytime I intro myself as "Sue" when talking to customers or suppliers over the phone. Guess I've learnt to accept the fact that it's much easier and quicker to get things done that way. Let's just hope it's not a permanent thing. It would be a major catastrophe if my mind slipped and I signed off documents as "Sue". Argh!

Just today he approached a process engineer who sits next to me. There is a cubicle-like barrier in between us so that we don't peek at what each other is up to at the desk. It sounded like he now needed a process dude on the project to help out. My ears pricked up when I heard my name mentioned as being the other project member. Hah! So he does know my name, in full, and I wasn't eavesdropping. Cheeky bugger.