Everybody Be Extra Nice to Jackie - Please

[tom-champion.livejournal.com]

Last night's snow emergency declaration came at the end of an extremely demanding day for my interim successor at the City of Somerville.

Mayor Joe and his Chief of Staff were down in Washington helping Michelle Obama launch her national initiative to combat childhood obesity (based in part on Shape Up Somerville).  The Mayor's office was already short-staffed to begin with, and Dep/Dir Communications Director Jackie Rossetti is trying to do my old job, her own very substantial job and generally hold down the fort.

Given everything that's going on, she's doing an amazingly well, so cut her some slack on inconsequential typos.  I got the call (on my cell phone as I sat in my new office out here in Needham) and I thought it was extremely professional.  I know I can count on my fellow DSLJers to be  supportive while Jackie -- through no fault of her own -- is required to wear so many different hats.

On a completely different topic, you know how the business world is supposed to be an overwhelmingly PC environment?  Well suddenly I'm in an entirely Mac universe.  I've got some seeeerious adjusting to do.

And finally -- and changing topics once again -- I hope to see many of you at Dracula:
http://www.theatreatfirst.org/shows/dracula/dracula.shtml ;      

Comments

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

I think people were more making statements about missing you, Tom, without thinking about the somewhat snarky and unproductive criticisms they were making.

Also, snow makes people irrationally crazy.

Good luck with the macversion! It gets easier.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

I read the comments to the other message and none of them struck me as particularly mean. Were there additional deleted comments?

(If it had been Tom, I think people would have been more likely to tease, since "we know him".)


PS: I'll be there opening night!

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

I didn't say or intend "mean", but a few of the comments seemed a little more critical than necessary (but not to a great extent). That's all.

I've also been the junior to a director of communications who left leaving me to cover things short handed (twice, in fact), so I am probably over empathizing with the situation Jackie is in :)