Lox - Archived Entries for 2005 / 9

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Friday 30th September 2005 - Scalped!: Today I took half day off to go to Milan to yet another job interview. I guess that technically I cannot consider it a proper job interview as it was with an head hunter that got my name from a friend of mine.

When this friend called she said that they were looking for someone like me, in a different sector, but still in touch with the luxury segment that we are serving. So I called them up, the woman was rather eager to schedule the interview, and that already put me off a bit, mostly because she didn't even read my CV yet.

Anyways I told her that I was going to send the CV on Wednesday and booked for Friday afternoon.

The office is in a very central part of Milan, extremely "basic", would say minimalist in furnishing, but the several rooms in which the space is divided are nicely furbished and rather "warm" (with a squeaky wooden flooring that I absolutely LOVE).

Anyways the woman let me in, we greet and everything, and we start talking. After 3 minutes I can understand that she is not listening to me, I mean, she HEARS me but she's not listening.
After 10 minutes she tells me that she doesn't understand what I do! At this point I think that I am afflicted by a terrible form of dyslexia, but in a couple of seconds I understand that she didn't even read the CV!
She doesn't know that I lived abroad, that I have two degrees, that English is my second tongue and that I am fluent in Japanese!!! Certainly not secondary details on my profile!

The chat ends, short of 45 minutes, and off I go back to my place.

I hate these people. She was clearly looking for a "file fattening" person.
Something that she can show to her client so that she can prove that she actually looked for someone either than the "advised candidate" that she'll pass forward.
Did I add that she kept answering the phone, reading SMS and that I had to wait for 40 minutes? What the fuck is that?!

In the past six months I have had quite a few interviews with head hunting offices. Some of them were extremely professional, and seemed to have an interest in knowing ME, just in case something comes along in the future.

Some of them were just a waste of time, prepacked meeting, questions off the book (this woman asked me if I thought I was a good at sales!!!!!!), rude manners and full-of-shitness.

I was reading an article on an italian newspaper; it was saying that nowadays 90% of the responsibility positions are handled by head hunting offices, not by the company anymore (so that directors can blame someone else for poor employees). This apparently created quite a standardization of the "model employee" that these people are looking for, which is returns leads to mediocrity.

If this is your average head hunter I am not surprised at all.

Fortunately on the way back my attention was captured by a beautiful sunset, the sun was hidden behind a small bank of clouds, but there were a lot of "light blades" emerging from that soft white mass.
The clouds themselves were crowned by a orange-yellow halo and of course behind there was a clear blue sky!

Made me remember that I want to fall in love again.
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Wednesday 28th September 2005 - Fire walk with Me: This week I have decided to speak as little as possible about work, so I'll concentrate on a couple of thoughts that have been crossing my mind tonite.

After a long time I have taken a look at the book that I am writing.
It's still there, unfinished, like many other things in life that are left there to look at us, with no proper shape, no space, no soul.
I remember when it started, I was writing it with Francesco, one of my best friends in Florence, we were all very concentrated on the task, the first part flew away in a month, then I had to move, and with distance came the halt in writing. This whole thing doesn't make me happy, because I really wanted to finish it, but not just by myself, I'd like it to be finished together, as it started.

In the afternoon Ivan called me. He's going to get married on the 31st of October, right in the middle of my next trip to Asia. Ivan is another great friend of mine, and I feel really gutted about not being able to go to the wedding. Unfortunately this trip cannot be cancelled or moved.

I have tried to draw a common line here, and the most evident one is "distance".
It feels so weird to me that in this century of mass communication, of orgasmic wirelessness, of "I am posting from the bog", distance comes along and fucks everything up.

I have tried to convince my friends that this blog could have been a good way of keeping in touch, but I always forget that in order to do something like that you really need to have people from the next generation. Most of us are simply not ready to tackle it. There are a lot of people who still need the physical contact.
Maybe (surely) the kids of today will find natural posting on each other's blog when they are older, talking with Skype and exchanging pictures through some Web 2.0 applet, if life will see them apart at some point.

Better go to bed, it has been a long day, the book is still there, it'll have to wait a little longer, hopefully I'll be back home for good some day.
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Tuesday 27th September 2005 - Jigsaws: I was so taken by my work-related experiences that I have forgot to speak about the marvellous jigsaw puzzles that I have recently acquired through E-Bay. I have been looking for these items for 8 years now. It is a 7 jigsaw collection form an american company called ICE (Iron Crown Enterprises), now closed. They used to make everything Lord of the Rings related, starting from the Role Playing Games ending with figurines and cards.
At first I was able to geth hold only of 2 jigsaws, but I was desperately craving for the other 5, when totally by chance I have decided to look for them on e-bay (after even calling ICE offices to know if they had some stocks). Surprise surprise, I have managed to find them.
Both sellers got them during a bankruptcy auction, so they were rather cheap. I am totally happy about them, need to find enough space on the wall to hang them now!

Person of the day: The perfect salesman
Yet another colleague of mine, very short hair, always in white shirt with a tie matched to the client that he has to visit, dark trousers and leather shoes (not too expensive in order not to put the client at unease). Always busy, affected with ADD (Attention Distraction Disorder), on the phone at the same time with Tokyo, New Dheli and Mumbasa, just because he can.
He doesn't care about the rest of the company, the colleagues, the workers. He just cares about the client, the total turnover, the delays in production.
Nothing scathes him, after all he never makes mistakes, he doesn't spend too much time thinking about the world around him, he's just superior, he needs to work with other people because he cannot do it all by himself.
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Tuesday 27th September 2005 - Jigsaws: I was so taken by my work-related experiences that I have forgot to speak about the marvellous jigsaw puzzles that I have recently acquired through E-Bay. I have been looking for these items for 8 years now. It is a 7 jigsaw collection form an american company called ICE (Iron Crown Enterprises), now closed. They used to make everything Lord of the Rings related, starting from the Role Playing Games ending with figurines and cards.
At first I was able to geth hold only of 2 jigsaws, but I was desperately craving for the other 5, when totally by chance I have decided to look for them on e-bay (after even calling ICE offices to know if they had some stocks). Surprise surprise, I have managed to find them.
Both sellers got them during a bankruptcy auction, so they were rather cheap. I am totally happy about them, need to find enough space on the wall to hang them now!

Person of the day: The perfect salesman
Yet another colleague of mine, very short hair, always in white shirt with a tie matched to the client that he has to visit, dark trousers and leather shoes (not too expensive in order not to put the client at unease). Always busy, affected with ADD (Attention Distraction Disorder), on the phone at the same time with Tokyo, New Dheli and Mumbasa, just because he can.
He doesn't care about the rest of the company, the colleagues, the workers. He just cares about the client, the total turnover, the delays in production.
Nothing scathes him, after all he never makes mistakes, he doesn't spend too much time thinking about the world around him, he's just superior, he needs to work with other people because he cannot do it all by himself.
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19th - 23rd September 2005 - Escargot and Sauternes: Escargot and Sauternes are definitely something that I would never mix together, one is a sweet white wine, the other a snail usually cooked with butter and garlic.
Anyways this is to introduce the concept of the week in Paris. Paris and most of my colleagues are excellent things (like escargot and sauternes), but mixing the two of them is deadly, mostly because it means that we are near Charle de Gaulle airport at the biggest textile fair in the world: Premiere Vision.

The fair itself is huge, there are a lot of textile companies, a lot of people flood the stands, we are lucky if we manage to eat for lunch.
It's a long show, we must wake up early, finish late, then grab something to eat for dinner and go to bed, but the worst thing is that the fair itself is not useful to get any work done.
Yes you got it right, everyone says that it's just a big show, but no real work gets done at all!!
So basically a lot of companies spend hideous amounts of money to go to Paris, to end up with nothing?! Yes pretty much...
I am totally against this fair, I see it as a big waste of time. I have tried to convince my boss to spend that money to make an additional trip to the main markets rather than waste it, but unfortunately this means that they have to committ to a decision that is "corageuos" so it is discarded from the start.
The reasons? "Everyone goes there so we should go as well", "It's a big show but all the clients are coming so we should go"!
Anyways the fair was ok I guess, apart from the usual arguments about the collection and the way we are working... I'd better not think about it, also because the general feeling is very low now and I don't need more sad thoughts now.

From tomorrow it starts the period leading up to the trip to Asia after which I will get the surgery done. I must start working on short term plans, mostly because the general situation of the company is very unstable and I don't need to risk anything right now.
After the surgery things will be a lot more "free" to look for something different.
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Sunday 18th September 2005 - 1 week absence: I will be in Paris for work the whole of next week. So I won't be updating the blog a lot, sorry for that! As for today I have had a very profitable shopping in Milan, and a great curry dinner cooked by myself with all the ingredients that I have bought during my last trip to England.. LOVELY!
Let's hope that fair in Paris will not be too hard...
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Friday 16th September 2005 - Collection Presentation: Normally every season (Winter/Fall - Spring/Summer) we make a collection and the style department have a big presentation to show us all the new articles that we are going to sell. Most of the material is already well known to us, mostly because this idiotic fashion business forces you to make Precollection trips, where basically you show what you are working on and the developements of your idea of collection.
I hate these presentation, half of the offices are there, the room is crowded and hot, the two main" designers start telling you what this fabric is using adjectives that are not of this world (e.g. "... look at this CRUNCHY FABRIC"..WHAT!??), expressions full of "intellectual" links, bullshite of unimaginable proportions.
Every time I want to throw up, it's so false, everyone (but me) gives a round of applause at the end (as if we were at the theatre), big compliments are wasted, "we will do well!", "this year you cannot miss your sales target!!", we have even heard a "this collection is so beautiful that makes me cry" (current boss)...
Anyways I was already quite pissed off when I walked into the room, for the usual intake of shit and what happens?
Right before they start telling their lines, the main salesman raises his hand and says "guys, before you start, I wanted to say that before the collection was made 3 months ago, we had a meeting where the commercial offices asked for a reduced collection (which we have), but full of "new" articles, of things that are very special. Well, this collection is COMPLETELY NOT what we asked for"...
... (revered silence)
KA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM
The bomb was dropped. All of the sudden the head designer and the "collection advisor" start complaining "Oh this is very nice to say! Thanks, I don't feel motivated to present the collection now", people getting pissed off as the room was rumoring, more primadonna behaviour, the boss trying to keep everything in a low tone, but everything is compromised!
More people screaming, fish marketplace in Calcutta scenes. Marvellous, team shattered (it never existed really), rage venting and total chaos!
I was sitting quietly watching when big cheese screams "SHUT UP! Now get on with it!".
The presentation was quick, more argument arose afterwards, the best presentation I have ever witnessed in four years.
I have only one regret.

I didn't bring my camera!
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Thursday 15th September 2005 - Meet the Parents: Today was quite a big day for me, not because what happened changed my life, but because I was sweating over it and I am glad that I got it off my chest.
Basically i was summoned by out Human Resources Director, in order to hold and "informal" meeting with him regarding some problems that he thought were happening between me and my direct superior.
Well, at first, when he asked me if I was available last week, I thought that they wanted to fire me, fortunately this is not what happened. Not that I care if they do, but I'd rather for it to be my choice, and not theirs.
Anyways it was an informal meeting so the feeling was really "relaxed" and easy going, I have explained what I feel both towards my job and and superiors (going into details), what are the problems that we have, and my opinion on the move to Ratti that we are all going to make very soon.
He wanted to know why I am so downhearted, what would I like to do, as he thinks that i have a lot of potential that is untapped and that the company wants to use.
Anyways after 2 hours of meeting I can say that it was quite positive, even though we didn't give the meeting any practical follow up. As for my direct superior I told him that I was one of his major sponsors up to 1 year and half ago (when he joined), but my ideas have now radically changed, so surely I am to blame for 50%, but it seems strange to me that I have had such a bit change of views just by myself.
Anyways let's see what happens, I guess that he will want to see me again, but at least I can do my trips to Asia and get the surgery, these two are top priorities for me at the moment...
There are pitfalls in all of this. As usual the evasive tone was not something that I have liked. He said that he cannot promise anything but will see if he can employ me in something that is not sales related (after all everyone can do it I don't need degrees and massive language skills, many sell in Asia barely knowing english). You cannot trust them too much, I have learnt it on my skin and I hope that I don't make any more mistakes...
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Wendnesday 14th September - Politics: Playing politics it's a rather stressfull job. Today I have had to meet several people to see if they were still interested in making the proposals of Friday's meeting actual. So far I have had one definite dropout, but I am pretty sure that there will be others soon, I'd be happy if all in all we would settle for a count of three people going out from this group.
Being a leader is not easy, and certainly I am not one, let's say that I am trying to pretend to be one. For sure it's nice when you speak with people sharing your point of view, or at least listening to you with attention and respect. On the other side, people who think that you are just doing it for some secret agenda, or generally are non-cooperative, tend to get me down a bit.

Today's person of choice is another colleague of mine, the system administrator.
He's a very big man, quite tall and well built. He's not so youg anymore so let's say that part of the muscles have turned into "beer belly". He always dresses up with very old clothes, rarely matched, with his "kind-of messed up " look from 30 years ago. He doesn't care if we are in a "fashion" business, he's a computer administrator, knows his AS400 like the back of his hand, that's enough.
Smokes a lot, though he doesn't appear to be a nervous individual, I think it's just another habit picked up when he was younger. Has a lot of ideas, dreams, but in the end he's the "computer bloke", who listen to a "computer bloke"?
A truly marvellous guy. Kind, happy, very professional. I respect him a lot.

You cannot find many people like him, simple, honest. I think he's a rare Italian, works his arse off, never complains too much, follows these fools and their crazy ideas. Well I don't want you to think that we are a complete arse of a population don't I ?!
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Tuesday 13th September 2005 - Plastic People: Today much inspired by our new guest, Sheri, I have decided to look at some of the people around me in my office. I'll try not to make comments on them, but to simply write what I see, or at least what I think I see.

Recently I have turned my attentions towards one of our designers, a youngish woman, extremely refined in appeareance, speaks with a French accent though she's not French.
You can see her often going around the company using a cut from one of our fabrics, today using some organza as a shawl. tomorrow using some fine linen as a sash.
Designer by choice, or by incompentence, she's got it all; the luxurious sounding vocabulary, the delicate movemements, the always perfect hair. Fan of Jackie Kennedy, she strives to emulate her.

It seems that nothing touches her, she's a part timer, 2,45PM "I have to go" no matter what. It's a strange "animal", she doesn't really want to mix, though she understands that she needs to have some sort of relationship with others. I think she loves it here.
This is probably why she is always waiting for things to happen, rather than make them happen.

Many italians are like that, they prefer to complain softly about life, but underneath they do what they want, never sticking their neck out, because changements are bad but trying to build something it's even worse.

Sometimes I wish I lived in a different country, selfishness is one bad habit here, in the other countries where I lived there was more "awareness of the community".
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Sunday 11th September 2005 - Football: Nothing much done today, I was feeling crap and I had to take an aspirin plus some other painkiller to fight off a nasty headache. Listed to the radio for some football results, which weren't too good, Fiorentina tied away with a crap team. As for the rest I have been terribly annoyed by the TV news (as usual) they kept talking about 9/11/2001 and all the cerimonies. It is bad what happened and we should not forget, but talking about it on national TV all day... well.. I felt it was too much, especailly for something that didn't happen in our bloody country! Oh well, I guess they needed to brainwash some italians today...
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Friday 9th September 2005 - The Meeting !!: Today I was a bit nervous.

As you might remember from earlier posts me and my colleagues were left shocked before the holidays when the directors told us that part of us were going to be moved to a differnt place 20km away from the main factory. In that occasion we said that after the holidays it would have been a good idea to meet among ourself to discuss about this brilliant idea.

Well today I have managed SUCCESSFULLY, to gather 20 people that usually don't speak to each other, and to have a very positive meeting about this issue, coming out with a proper plan to put in practice that was shared and agreed by all of the partecipants.

Though it might seems a small achievement, to me is probably on of the greatest things that I have done in this company, having to discuss a common action involving people with very different backgrounds, interests, mentality and risk adversions.

The main problem was to make sure that everyone was at ease with this meeting, infact no boss was there to trample our bollocks, but this could have been seen as a possible Gunpodwer Plot (which was not). So the first part of the meeting was spent reassuring everyone that our directors knew of this meeting (I sent them a mail beforehand). The rest was a very good open discussion of the problems and of the way to solve them, and how to present them to the board.

All in all I am happy at this very small step forward, of course the practical part of the job has still to come, so nothing is done yet, but at least today I walked away from the company a bit happier and surely a bit more experienced in the way to manage people.

Now I need to find someone that gives me the chance to prove that I can do it properly, I still hate my job and the directors I am working for!
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Thursday 8th September 2005 - Nothing Major: Nothing serious to report apart from some grocery shopping and a slow day at work... I am preparing the big meeting tomorrow, it's going to be the highlight of the week.
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Wednesday 6th September 2005 - Bulls on Parade: Apart from a very lazy day at work, the only thing worth reporting is the usual fight with my boss. I think that I should make a new section on this very site, listing the numerous attempts of destroying common sense by people who are supposed to be above you.

This time the fight has been on numbers and sales targets.

In the textile industry you are required to come out with sales targets on collections that you haven't even seen yet, basing the target on what clients buy normally and how well the market in general is going.
I have a very "safe" approach to numbers, I always give figures based on what I think I can sell in the next 6 months, keeping it very "real", maybe a bit pessimistic sometimes, but generally (at the end of the season) pretty close to the final result.
My boss has a different view, I need 10 to survive so we must do 10. No matter what happens outside. No matter in what condition the market is. He loks at the past (when numbers were better) and there you go! You must do it because we did it!
After all it's too hard to re-structure the company so that it makes money, changing the way everything is done (his job). Better push on sales!

Boss: "You have to give me your budget for Thursday (tomorrow), but everyone has to do at least 10% more than last year."

Lox : "Well it's not written anywhere that we'll do 10% more just because we are nice people, the new collection is very different from the past, unsuitable for some markets. But we are not changing the way to make the product or sell, so the 10% can only be fluke, or a very good collection (but we haven't seen it yet)"

Boss: "This is not the way you do budgets!! The company has needs, then you must comply to satisfy thoose needs in terms of sales!"

Lox: "What?!?"

Boss: "Yes, you write 30 and I need 40, at that point we negotiate and maybe we do 37, but then you must grant the result!"

Lox: "When I give a sales target I give something that I feel I can grant. Using all the weapons available. I can tell you 100.000 if you like, but it's unrealistic."

Boss: "This is not the way, everyone must grow otherwise the company doesn't survive."

Lox: "Well maybe it doesn't have to survive, we are structured like an elephant, we have more paper shuffling than IBM and there's only 90 our us! Maybe you should work to change the way we work and the way people are employed, instead of going around selling while paying salesmen to do this job!"

Boss: "If you give me a lower budget this season then we have to cut the spending on your areas, so I am forced to do less special designs, less trips, less everything!"

Lox: "Very clever, in this way the market will not be there in 2 years! What do we owe this stroke of genius to? Do you understand that it I could do more I would, or do you just think that I sit on my arse just for the fun of it?! I don't think that it's professional to give a sales target that it's out of reach, it's like lying! Plus I am measured over an impossible target, so no bonus or anything, ever heard of motivation theory?"

Boss receives a phone call (as usual) and walks away.

Note that I always refer to a sales target. A BUDGET is something that I perceive as given, so it's there, while here we are talking about what we want to sell tomorrow.
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Monday 5th September 2005 - The team is back: Today all the team that I usually work with is back from holidays, and we are 100% full staff again. It has been a very har day, I was full of things to do and to care for, all in all I quite liked it.
In the evening I decided to tackle the 1000pieces jigsaw that I got sent from the states, plus ordered another one from the UK. If that arrives my collection will be finished!
It's so strange with e-bay, you order, pay and then you are left wondering about a million things, will the package be sent? Will the post office loose it? Will it have all its parts inside? AAARRRGGG... In the end I decide not to give a shit, that is better!
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Sunday 4th September 2005 - Quite Sunday: Yesterday Marta came back from her holidays together with her parents who drove her to Vedano. We didn't do much to be honest the day was good but we spent it sorting out things at home and working on the Lord of the Rings jigsaws that I have bought through e-bay.
We had Marta's lasagne for lunch they are marvellous as usual, will have to post the recipe on the cookbook sometime!
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1st - 2nd September - Trip to London: This time I went for two days, mostly because it's easier to work this way and I needed a break from Italy a little. Our agents in England are absolutely superb, they are great people (Ros and Valerio) and I really get on well with them, so it was good to spend some quality time going around clients. We have had a nice dinner at their house, played some X-Box with their son (Edo) and had a fairly good business reaction from the new collection. Moreover I managed to do some shopping this time, buying the ever important:

1. JAFFA CAKES
2. BACKED BEANS
3. BASMATHI RICE
4. CURRY PASTE
5. WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE

All ingredients of the most classic British dishes. (yeah right!).
During the trip back I have met these three Italian guys (2 guys and a gal to be precise). They are freelance journalists for several online and paper videogames magazines, it was great to have someone to talk, plus of course we discussed about computers and VG so I couldn't ask for a better company (after all I AM a VG junkie)!!
Anyways I am now back to Italy, funny how the weather in London has been perfect for two days, I come back to Italy and I am greeted by a massive thunderstorm! Oh well...
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Lox, Lorenzo... ME!!: A little introduction about the author and the blog itself. Plus contacts and CVs... You never know!
Pictures: A Selection of the best pictures that I have taken all over the world during the years, all nicely indexed by year and geographical area. Jolly good!
History of this Blog: A collection of all the articles that I have wrote so far, divided by month/year.