The Lion King

Well, I achieved one of my fourth quarter goals...of getting in trouble at work.

Rooted in my intrinsic respect for authority, I challenged myself to push the envelope so far that I actually got reprimanded. I don't plan on setting this goal too often; I just wanted to prove that I could get in trouble and not die or suffer dismemberment.

This happened on Tuesday. Passing each other in the hall, my CFO met my eye and sternly said one phrase: "we need to talk."

Crap. Here we go.

So after a day's worth of meetings, I gingerly knocked on his office door and let myself in. He commended me for how I've been single-handedly addressing a wicked lawsuit and commended me on it...then firmly and objectively reprimanded me for not telling him about the dollar amounts involved.

The CFO wanted to know about the financial hit to the operating margin two weeks before year end? Whoops.

Duh.

My bad!

I've never actually had this happen, but it reminded me of how a daughter would have felt when taking daddy's credit card without permission and charging a new pony. The CFO *is* 30 years older than me and he probably sees me more of a daughter than a colleague.

Later that week, Nurse Jackie and I got into a quasi-fight with him about the Lion King. He purchased stuffed lions for his grandkids and was telling us about it. He mentioned that he "bought the big, fatherly lion, Simba, and still needed to find the cub lion."

I corrected him. The big, fatherly lion was Mufasa, not Simba. Simba's the cub lion (friend to Nala and son to Serabi). The monkey is Rafiki and the evil uncle is Scar. The big is Zazu. His friends are Timon and Pumba.

I know my Lion King.

He insisted that the dad lion was Simba and then admitted he'd never seen the Lion King.

Me? Trying to earn respect with the senior executives and differentiate myself from the daughter role into which they cast me...I gave the CFO a DVD copy of the Disney cartoon movie, the Lion King.

If you can't beat 'em, join them!