This morning I had my associate review. This is an Acme administrative bureaucracy thing, it’s supposed to happen every year. It’s where you get to fill out an online self-rating system, pick three other associates that you work with to rate you, and then your leader (manager in acme-speak) rates you also. Then you get *this* meeting which involves the leader, yourself, and the party political officer, I mean Associate Developer (or A.D.) going through the ratings talking about where they don’t measure up or diverge from each other.

I have nothing to worry about, they’re quite happy with my job performance, etc. Of course this doesn’t mean anything in today’s economic climate. In two months there could be a financial crisis of some kind that would require another cut in the payroll, and a good review doesn’t make me any more confident that I would make the cut. All it would take is a *rumour* that Acme was being investigated for accounting irregularities…

Enough about work. During the afternoon Derek and I drove Teresa to the airport for her flight back to the East coast, while Lisa covered for me back in the office. It’s been great having her with us, no matter how short the time. Derek leaves in a couple of days, it’s back-to-school time all over.