Working at the annex office, I’ve become more and more isolated, excluded from a lot of the information otherwise available at the main office, but in some cases deliberately withheld from me by people hording these nuggets to better position themselves.
Even before Tom’s alarming speculation about what is going on at the main office, I had to rely on my own network of spies to ferret out and supply me with information necessary for my own survival.
While Tom had a lot more to say about goings on in the main office, I have to reserve judgement until I can reach out to some of the principles, including the senator, the congressman and some of the mayors of north county to see just how valid these are.
But it is clear I know less and less about the goings on in the main office that I ought to. Even with my network of spies.
This partly has to do with my need to be physically present more than just one day a week, so I can catch the daily chatter for myself.
The situation has gotten worse, not better, since the return of the main boss after her maternity leave. She is a stone wall, maintaining her own information flow she shares with no one except when she deems it necessary.
She is one of the three pillars of power in the office. Our female owner rules the roost on the first floor; her male counterpart, the same on the third, with our boss operating in-between.
Almost everybody who is anybody gets their power from one of these three. So, we have those loyal to the owner on the first floor, others loyal to the boss on the third floor. If our boss has any supporters, she doesn’t acknowledge them.
K— a sneaky, sniveling little weasel who operates some of other publications – pretends like she has power, but mostly get this by bouncing between the two owners and garnering whatever tidbits of information she can broker to increase her personal power, squirrelling these away like acorns for some future point where she can unveil them to her own advantage.
`Our temporary boss -- who filled in for our regular boss – has been relegated back to part time job, almost as out of touch with what’s really going on as I am, except he spends three days at the main office rather than one. He can access any of the other power brokers at will when I cannot.
Fortunately for me, the main office is a sieve. People with little power to lose like to show off what little they know. Sometimes, however, they know just enough for me to get a hazy picture of things that affect me.
But it is becoming clearer that if I want to know what’s really going on, I’m going to have to work out of the main office, not the annex.
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