Today was spent in an all day meeting with my (relatively) new direct reports. We went through what's called a "manager assimilation", which sounds rather Borg-like but is actually very valuable. I've done this with every new team I've managed in the past 8 years or so and I've learned something new and important in every one. One of our HR people runs the session and it works like this: everyone gathers together to hear the instructions about the meeting (all information is confidential, yadda yadda) and then the manager (that would be me in this case) leaves the room. The employees are asked to discuss three topics:
1. What they know about the manager
2. What they want to know about the manager
3. What they want the manager to know about them
4. What concerns and challenges they are worried about

The last time I went through this one of the things my employees knew about me was that I had nice jewelry. That wasn't mentioned this time which apparently points to a perceived decline in the quality and/or quantity of my jewelry. I believe I am therefore completely justified in the purchase of some tastefully elegant piece of gold and/or platinum and diamonds.

Dreams: I was standing over a big vat of very orange orange juice that was full of pulp. My job was to strain out the pulp for some unknown reason.