Papa Bear on a rampage

Yesterday was kind of a funny day at work...Papa Bear was in really rare form, and he was NOT happy.

Some background for the newbies...Papa Bear is the big boss here. There are five partners (Boss Foxy is one of the others) who are mutually in charge, but he is the Managing Partner, so he is technically the #1 person at the firm. He is unquestionably brilliant, and everyone here loves working for him, and loves whatever chance we get to work with him.

However, he sometimes has a bit of a temper, and when he is irritated by something, he can be very, very sharp-tongued, and somewhat frightening (in the professional sense). So much so that, when he is in a state, word passes pretty quickly that we should all do our best to avoid him for a while. Except for me...who he never yells at. This is, in a nutshell, the actual value that I bring to the workplace: the ability to deal with Papa Bear when no one else can. I am not sure what else I really do that well...lol.

Yesterday was one of those days. There is a pretty big deal that we have been working on (for those that technically understand what we do, it wasn't our deal, but we have been consulting...the target has a pretty big government business, which makes things tricky, and required a little bit of outside help to get it done). Well, it fell apart yesterday, mostly because the buyer (that is who we were working for) just basically changed its mind on how much the target was worth. Things have changed since the deal was first put together, and they just don't wanna do it any more.

Now, this really doesn't have any effect on us. Our fees in this were all simply hourly-billed consulting fees (actually probably just a fixed fee, I am not privy to that stuff) and don't change based on the deal falling apart. We probably would have done some additional implementation consulting if it went through, but that is not really a huge deal. Mostly, he just doesn't like to get involved in things and have them fall apart. He takes great pride in being able to put together even the trickiest of deals, no matter the obstacles.

Which means that the news yesterday that the deal was being killed really set him off. I am not really sure who he was mad at, to be honest...I don't think he really blamed the buyer for changing its mind. He was just kinda ticked at the whole thing, and was just on a rampage all day. Usually that is OK...he has a big office with a heavy door and privacy glass, so he can shutter himself away and we can all avoid him.

However, there was something else he really needed to do yesterday. There was a proposal on a totally separate deal that needed a good solid hour or two of his time to review. So at about 1:00, the two people who put most of this together came by my desk and said "AM, we really need you to bring this to Papa Bear and get him to review it, we promised it by 4:00 pm today." This wasn't really what I wanted to do, but I understand the issue, so I took it in, which lead to this conversation.

Papa Bear: What?
Me: You need to review this so we can send it to XYZ, we promised it by 4:00.
PB: You have been working on this?
Me: Well, no, but they wanted you to review it more than they wanted to sit here for an hour while you yelled.
PB: You mean they sent you in because they are scared of me?
Me: Kind of.

(His mood lightened at this point as he found it kind of funny. So he called Boss Foxy in her office)

Boss Foxy: Yes?
PB: VP1 and VP2 just sent AM in here with the XYZ proposal. Because they are scared of me.
BF: I probably would have done the same thing.
PB: What?
BF: Yea, we do that all the time, you never realized this? She is our go between when you are in a rage.
PB: Um, no, I guess I didn't know that.
BF: Well, yes. Now you know.

So there you go...an example of the value that I bring to the firm...