Let me just say this up front- after yesterday's debacle with our in-house MG, I was pretty much dead-set that today could not even come close to topping the hilarity a few of us witnessed and felt throughout the day. Well, I've been proven wrong. Not only have I learned the TRUE title of MG (Marketing and Public Relations Specialist.... WOW), but a few of us have now managed to give him a more fitting name- VAM. Preferably, VAM!!!, replete with exclamation points. Here's why.
I had an hour-long phone call with one of our customers yesterday, requesting capability for video display on their site, as well as archiving of said video, as well as pictures, newsletters and whatever else, for a year. For the uninitiated, that really poses some physical storage problems and bandwidth problems. Not insurmountable, but problems irregardless. During the conversation, the customer mentioned that he'd been in contact with MG, and he felt that more of an emphasis needed to be made on videos ("Google LOVES videos" is one of MG's favorite lines) on their site. Immediately, the 4 of us in my office groaned inwardly and rolled our eyes at each other. Apparently the quiet pause was felt on the other end of the phone, as we were asked "Are you still there?" repeatedly until we could compose ourselves enough to answer. I squelched the whole mention of MG by saying I needed to check in with El Presidente and our IT department before committing to anything.
Fast forward to today.
I managed to get in touch with El Presidente while he's out of town, and we talked about this particular customers needs, and we ended by both of us agreeing that again, I needed to talk to IT. So off I went.
Most of my visits to IT are met with a bit of nervousness and apprehension, because as they put it, "You don't even come back here to talk, you just say hi and start demanding stuff- what do you want?" Awesome! So I decide to just drop the bomb on them about the video and archiving requirements of our customer, and the expletives start dropping. Not at all surprised by the reaction, I keep forging ahead to the groans of the IT duo. How does this all tie to the new word of the day and the MG, you might ask? I'm getting there now.
The head of the production team overheard us and walked in, just as the groans were escalating and asked what was going on. Of course, this was preceded by the now-standard comment of, "You're in the brain trust (might explain this later), you should know how to solve this", or something along those lines. I did a quick recap for him and he asked why the video- my answer, MG has been talking to this customer and they're convinced that they can benefit greatly from his mad V1|)30 5|<1775 and populate their site with videos. The door to the IT office was immediately shut behind him.
"What? You mean the guy that sits over there making stupid videos all day?" "Yup" is the only reply that was fitting. "I don't know why we're paying that a$$ monkey as much as we are! What's he marketing for us anyway??!" Ooooh yeah, tempers were starting to flare now. Ranting, name-calling, and outright mocking ensued, loud enough that people outside were later asking what we were DOMINATING! and why was it so funny. "All he does is sit over there and rip stupid videos off of Jib-Jab and put pictures on bodies....why are we paying him for that??!" Minds and directions move quickly in an alpha-male pack environment.... "HE'S THE VIDEO-A$$-MONKEY!!!!" It was really too good to be true. "VAM!!!" instantly came out of my mouth. Coming from my last place of employ, acronyms are like a second nature to me now, and I really couldn't help myself.
It makes for a verbal version of a super-secret handshake now..... walking down the hallway, or into a room with each other and "VAM!!!" is all we need to say make the day a better one.
"VAM!!!"
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