The worse day of my life will be the day Carlton dies – or the day that we learn he has a terminal illness.
If I am first to go then this is the worst day of my life. I did the best I could for my cobbled together family and I was found wanting. And now, and now I am bereft.
This is altogether too much public display of angst – but this records my life. And my life is currently unraveled. I shall wallow in misery for several days – then kick myself in the ass and get on with life.
In life you have bosses.
For one reason or another, someone handing you tasks or orders.
Mom & Dad, Teachers, Spouses, & Work Managers.
Peggy wasn’t my first boss but she is the most interesting I had. I learned a woman could be a great leader and a major pain in your ass all at the same time. That’s because I’m probably the laziest programmer on the planet. Hey everyone needs a standout attribute.
Peggy says ‘every project needs a Mom’. Someone that kicks you out of bed and puts you to work with a wry grin. Some who cares enough to threaten you with a butter knife if you interviewed with the competition – again with a smile. Kept you guessing. Partied with the troops after long hours meeting deadlines and cared about all of us. Managed to impart wisdom in pithy nuggets that never seemed directed at you until a couple days later. You couldn’t help but like her even as she breathed fire to get you moving. Quick note : Dennis never needed this – he was off writing AI agents to produce his programs before that tech was invented. In fact I was probably the only one she needed to deliver a swift kick to. Ok maybe Chuck too.
If you watch ‘Mad Men’ and enjoy the character Peggy ( weird eh? ) you get a feel how hard it was for women to be leaders in male dominated professions in the 70’s. If I may be forgiven for some of that same sexism of the day, our Peggy looked hot. Very Hot. Snappy dresser. All of the single guys dreamed of the boss – all of us. Not that it got us anywhere. We all knew from her quips that she had a secret guy. Everyone had bets, but we never knew. Years later when she married Carlton we were stunned – the exec with the pink shirts?
So cool the way those two had us all fooled. Classic Peggy.
Like probably many early technical woman she had to fight every step of the way. Many of my first technical meetings I would attend I would watch her outmanuver experienced players to protect her projects and champion the technical approach we needed. I remember many engineer’s stunned looks when she gave them just enough rope and then tied them up with a precise arguement. She could marshall resources but watched us like a hawk to make sure we produced with them. My instructions were always the same “Keep quiet and listen unless I ask for something.” My first instruction in the art of the technical meeting was from Peggy and it honed my knife for later years when I would need it. Peggy is so technically sharp – to this day she has a quick mind.
Her example showed me women may be different, but not the fifties images we grew up with. It was scary – I never felt my boss was outthinking me before. Poor Ron Notes at Postal – he never had a chance in a meeting with her.
She moved on and became a VP in the scrappy little computer company that I will always enjoy happy weird memories of. If IBM and the seven dwarves was how you looked at tech companies in the 70s/80s, CDSI was a rogue squirrel. We were definately nuts. As Peggy would say “Always get a return ticket upfront.” when we traveled. Sometimes everyone would get called to an office to collate pages and fill boxes when the company was too cheap to have a job printed that way. CSC hated us and would bid engineers at $7 a hour trying to put us out of business. We did it all on a shoestring and routinely ate their lunch.
Peggy gave me tremendous confidence that I could approach any technical nut and crack it. She had a saying “No Problem, You’ll have the manuals two weeks before you have to be the experts.” That one serves me even today.
Anyway when people ask who was the best boss you’ve had, I think of a number of people I respect and admire but I always answer the same.
“Peggy Bethany. No contest.”
Feel better if you can Peggy, all your ‘ex-kids’ are rooting for you.
Love,
Dave