A great choice

It’d been a long time coming, Alvin in Storage Testing thought. He slurped his Starbucks while chatting with Ken Melville in Product Engineering on his cellphone, walking from Building 4 to Building 5 at the Booble campus multi-plex. He’d given himself exactly eight minutes to walk from his last meeting – a one-on-one sync-up with Inga Muhlberg in Data Center Acquisitions (yes, he’d managed to catch up on his operations e-mail while getting the low-down on the data centers) – to his next one.

And the next one would be a real biggie. Alvin in Storage Testing had finally come due for his promotion to Manager of Storage Applications. He’d waited year after year at Booble, knowing full well that he’d always deserved to become a manager. A manager, finally – Sue’d let up on him at home, stop telling him he was a failure and should’ve left Booble long ago.

He’d be leading a great group, too. There’d be Scott Simpson in Persistent Storage, Wendy Wilkes in Imaging Apps, Herbie Bummlicker in Database Management Services, and Fred Finklestein in Logs. They’d all be reporting to him, just as everyone had thought for a long time when Martin McScrew in Storage Applications finally moved up the ladder himself.

Alvin in Storage Testing walked into Building 5 and up to the conference room. The whole team was there for the announcement. And the boss, too – Quing Chao, Director in Storage and Data Services. Alvin in Storage Testing took the only chair left at the table, on the right side of Quing Chao in Storage and Data Services. He’d be the right hand man, of course!

“Good afternoon, everyone,” Quing Chao in Storage and Data Services said. “I have an important organizational announcement to make, a long-overdue promotion for a well-deserved employee who’s worked long and hard for Booble. Herbie Bummlicker in Database Management Services will be promoted to Manager of Storage Applications, taking over the position vacated by Martin McScrew in Storage Applications.”

Alvin in Storage Testing spilled his Starbucks on his jeans.