Entries this day: The_buzz_10_grand insubordination

The buzz 10 grand

5 June 1998

Today at 9am, a local radio station, KTBZ, 107.5 The Buzz, dropped $10,000 cash over a hugely crowded parking lot.

I arrived at 6:30am, just to see what the whole event would look like. I didn't necessarily expect to get any money, but I just wanted to see such a spectacle!

There were about a few hundred people there by the time I arrived. There were essentially two crowds: 1 around the table from which the DJs were broadcasting, and 1 around the band Nosmo King from New Orleans. Many people were sprinkled about like any outdoor concert.

I finally got to meet Will Pendarvis (sp) the lead DJ on the morning show. He's pretty young and kinda short and barely overweight, more like big boned. He has a wide meaty mouth that reminds me of a frog. He had his left eyebrow pierced, and was wearing a blue-collar shirt with the name "Paul" on the pocket.

I quit listening to The Buzz morning show when he started on the air. I think he's a dork, and not funny at all. Certainly not as funny as the "good ole days" when Steve Robinson and Lanny Griffith were on all the time. Lanny is still there but it's not the same.

So I basically walked around and checked out the parking lot over which they planned to throw the money. The crowd kept getting a bit bigger and bigger as the time wore on.

I mostly hung with a short guy named Carlo, and his two friends, Rachel and Elizabeth. I used them as a base and kept walking around talking to people and I would report back to them.

I talked to the people who brought the hot air balloon, from which the money would be thrown. Their sense was that the wind was too much and they wouldn't be able to do it.

There was also a rather large cherry picker there, with 4 huge wheels and a boom that could raise to 160 feet. I talked to them several times and they understood the money would be dropped from their thing instead of the balloon.

From the cherry picker, they threw T-shirts. All but one they tied into a knot so they would pretty much go were they were thrown.

Elizabeth (or was it Rachel?) caught a shirt. I congratulated her.

One shirt came my way and I thoroughly caught it with both hands, while an unshaved scraggly guy caught the sleeve with two fingers. I pulled it down toward my feet and he kinda stooped to the ground to stay attached. I could see he wouldn't let go, so I said, "who's got the whole fucking shirt and who's got 1 finger on it?" and I let go.
I have a lot of rally shirts that I love a lot more.

After that T-shirt tossing excitement was over, there was still an hour before 9am. I walked back to my car and took my shoes off. The parking lot was way way way more full. I had parked out where no one had been. Now my car was in the middle of a sea of cars.

I got back and decided to take an informal poll around the parking lot.

Barefoot, I just walked up to whoever: "how much money do you think you'll get?"

The responses were fairly consistent. I'll make an estimate here:

• 40% said 1 dollar
• 30% shrugged and said "I don't know"
• 10% said, "whatever I can get"
• 10% said between 2 and 7 dollars.
• 3 people said 100 dollars
• 2 people said "all of it"
• a few people said "around 20 dollars"
• 1 person said "three thousand dollars"
• one guy in a group of 4 guys said, "all of us? with these elbows? I think we can get a hundred dollars."
• one guy (not in the same group) said, "a broken arm"
• 2 people said, "nothing"

Some people asked how much I thought I would get. I told them "1 dollar.. I want one bill, whatever denomination."

Near the end of my poll, I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was a girl I had just asked. She said, "if I get more than 5 dollars I'll buy you a pair of shoes." I smiled and thanked her.

So the time drew near and I couldn't find Carlo or his friends. I stepped back from the main crowd and looked around at the expectant faces, all looking up toward the cherry picker, which held three men, and apparently had the money in it.

The time came and a countdown was started at 10. The crowd chimed in 9.. 8.. 7.. blah blah blah and they threw handfulls of money.

Absolutely surrealistic, like confetti the bills tumbled and fluttered about. It looked like the view from inside a snow dome at Christmas. The bills tumbled in slow motion, making the whole scene bizarre. The whole concept just seemed nuts to me!

A few stuck-together-ish wads of bills fell, and exploded as people lept to grab them.

Most of the bills flittered lazily with the wind, leading the expectant crowd like an amoeba across the parking lot.

And then snap! a bill would finally come within jumping reach and get snagged. snap! snap! like fish leaping from the water for a snack, several hands would jump at each bill.

One came within my snapping reach and I jumped and snagged it as another guy barely missed it. One dollar. I had reached my goal.

I was still barefoot, and a couple of times I had to press at people as if in a mosh pit, to keep them off my feet.

I looked down for any missed bills and saw a bill under a guy's shoe. So I basically squatted down and bullied him out of the way and got my second dollar. He didn't even know he was on it.

So that was it. A few more small flurries gently fluttered down, but mostly that was it.

I saw a small tree branch on the ground. It had been ripped from its tree in the melee. I felt sad for the tree, and walked purposefully with the branch toward the table from which they were broadcasting. People were thoroughly crowded around the table and I kinda tossed the branch between some people onto the table and walked away. That was my environmental statement of the day.

Amidst shouts of, "that wasn't ten thousand dollars!" with my two wadded up bills, I walked back toward my car, and recognized with some dismay, "uh oh.. now everyone has to leave."

The parking lot looked like a stadium where a baseball game had just ended. People walking and talking and chilling in, on, around their cars, while cars were stuck in lines, or driving over medians and over grass to get out the fastest.

I happened to walk in front of Stacy (a friend of Wende's) who recognized me! "Rob!" she called through her windshield at me.

Wow! So I knelt down beside her window and we chatted for a full 5 minutes before she got a chance to move. She and her friend Dino had not gotten any money in the chaos.

She said something about her mom let her off work and said she better bring a dollar back to make it worthwhile.. So I gave her one of my two bills. "Really?" she exclaimed.

"It's just a dollar."

"Oh yeah.. I guess you're right, but something about it being a Buzz Dollar..."

Hmm. I hadn't thought much about it being from The Buzz.. That certainly didn't make many any less likely to spend it.

She finally got the chance to move and we said bye.

On the rest of my way out, I saw two people had taped their bills to the inside of their car windows. Hmm.. so some people did view them as trophies. At least for today.

I got in my car and spent probably 10 minutes in parking lot traffic before I spent 5 minutes trying to get on the highway.

10 more minutes and I was at work, wearing shorts, ripped up NO Fear T-shirt (with blood still from my most recent skating accident), no shoes, and carrying my work clothes inside.

I politely said HI to Natalie and Tom, who each seemed a bit surprised at my attire.

I walked up 8 flights of steps to the 9th floor and got changed without a problem.

Read my next journal entry (insubordination) to see what happened next.

insubordination

5 June 1998

(all the names (except mine) have been changed)

Yesterday, Jill, my four-level-up superior at work came around saying HI. She went through so fast that I thought she wasn't actually saying HI but counting to make sure we were all here by the official must-be-here-by-9:30am time.

I mentioned to Dan (a manager) that I felt that way. He encouraged me to tell her how I felt.

So I wrote her the following message. I tried to state clearly my feelings, the data I saw, my judgement, and my wanted desire for the whole situation.

-----Original Message-----
From:	Nugen, Rob 
Sent:	Thursday, June 04, 1998 9:51 AM
To:	Jill (my boss' boss' boss' boss)
Cc:	Nugen, Rob
Subject:	saying HI

HI

I feel sadness with a hint of anger today, after I saw you wisk
through the cubicles and say "I'm just saying HI"

My guess is that you are counting people to get a general idea of
who is here at 9:30, not that you are saying "HI"

I would appreciate you saying "I'm counting people" if you are
counting people, or I would appreciate you actually stopping to
say "HI" if you are saying HI.

I would feel happier working here if I saw your actions match
your words.

     - Rob

----------
From: 	Jill  (my boss' boss' boss' boss)
Sent: 	Thursday, June 04, 1998 7:18 PM
To: 	Nugen, Rob
Cc: 	Jill; Marty (my boss' boss' boss)
Subject: 	RE: saying HI

If you want to say something like this to me, why don't you come
by & say it to my face instead of with email? 

Trust me if I was counting heads I would say that; I wasn't even
aware of what time it was. I miss getting a chance to get around
each day so I was happy (until I received this) that I had that
opportunity to do it today. Since my time is so taken I can't
stop and chat with each person, when there are so many, so I try
to vary who I stop & talk with each time I go around. This way
over time I get to talk with everyone; this wasn't your time. If
you perfer, I won't say hi next time.

I have cc Marty so he will be aware of YOUR actions.

Jill

I felt a bit of fear (even though I am quitting in two weeks anyway, none of the above mentioned people know this.)...
so anyway, I felt a bit of fear that I'm going to be fired. I went to her office to talk.

She said that I essentially accused her of lying (about what she was doing) stealing (stealing time from me) and that I questioned her integrity.

She said this was clearly insubordination and that it was not to be tolerated in the business world.

She called in Pete and Marty, my boss' boss, and his boss, respectively.

She told them the same thing, and asked their opinion. Marty said that I could have said it in a different way.

She said this was a warning, but that it would go in my file, and that if I did it again, "I will personally terminate you."

"Thank you," I said, looking clearly into her eyes.

"Do you understand what I am saying?"

I did. "Yes I do."

I tried again to articulate that I used the same protocol that I use with great respect in my men's group meeting: Clearly state feeling, data, judgement, and want.

She didn't seem to feel any better about it. She said that before I made such a rash decision with such little data, that I should have at least asked my boss what he thought.

She also said something like, "this will stay between the 4 of us and don't mention it to anyone else."

At this point I told her clearly that I did not talk to any of my bosses because they were not available at the time, but that I had seen Dan and I talked to him.

"And what did he say?"

Almost trembling, I said, "he suggested that I write to you."

She nodded her head.

She asked if there was anything else, and we all said "no" or said nothing. "Okay then." Meeting over. I left, closing the door, while Marty and Pete stayed in her office.

So I left, and told Dan how I mentioned his name. He said he'll talk to her. We'll see what happens.

I'm still leaving in two weeks.

TWO!!!!