28 May 2005

Ghost friend

I have a friend who often tells stories about her and her co-worker, Shawanda (a white woman, no less). "Shawanda and I did such-and-such...," "I was telling Shawanda about our weekend in Destin...," and the like. I realized where Kramer's Bob Sacamano [Wikipedia] or even Norm's [Wikipedia] wife originate. We have all of these named-yet-unseen characters [Wikipedia] that are almost a part of the group.

I kinda want to know what's going on with Shawanda. What's she got planned for this weekend?

A couple of jobs back, the company used Lotus Notes for email, documentation, and general group-ware stuff. One aspect that was great was that it also contained everyone's pass-card photo. This was a big company, so whenever I needed to be in a meeting with someone I had never met before, I'd look at their photos to get a head start on the always difficult task of combining names and faces. I shared a very small office with four (yes, four) other contracters, and eventually sent their photos home so that Lisa could see who I was talking about whenever I'd retell one of our adventures. Five guys in an office can get into some interesting (ok, maybe just silly) conversations, and I guess it's easier to keep track of the retelling if you know who everyone looks like. Although it sortof breaks the rule of unseen characters.

[ posted by sstrader on 28 May 2005 at 10:33:55 AM in Culture & Society ]