March 9

I knew something was up the instant I laid eyes on this American guy while waiting for the elevator this morning. He was ahead of me in the queue but he kept turning around to look at me. The fact that he was so tall kind of makes it a big deal. Anyway, when the doors finally opened he positioned himself at the back of the crowd. Me being me, I stationed myself at the front, pressing 10th. The next thing I knew, he was booming, "Oh! Lawson, huh?" I turned around and found myself staring dazedly at his braces (he was around 50, dude). But I quickly came to and gave him a chatty-mode reply, assuming he was acknowledging a lowly employee. "Yes, sir, just started last week." He said, "That's tough." Then all of a sudden, he was like, "You didn't choose ***, eh?" I didn't know what to make of it so I just kept quiet. By the time we were on 5th it dawned on me the guy was openly attacking me. And the whole world could hear! By the 7th floor he managed to convey he thinks I'm the world's biggest twit for not "choosing ***". "*** hasn't called you yet? You're not considering moving to ***?" By the time we arrived at the 10th floor I was freaked out and the wittiest reply I could come up with was, "No plans at all, I'm afraid", before stepping out and running into the arms of my mothership.

At the office, the first thing I did was to find out what the hell *** is. Apparently it's a services company bought by Lawson's biggest competitor and the number one ERP vendor to date.

Then I told my teammates about this incident during flunch (Friday power lunch) and everyone looked utterly horrified. I haven't been with Lawson long enough to understand exactly what kind of battle I faced today. But when I do, I'd simply remember I wouldn't shine that guy's shoes for twice the pay.