Easter Surprise

I had one of the most ridiculous arguments with my boss last Thursday. What complicated it was that it was over the phone because he was working from home in anticipation of the public holiday. We were working on the financials of a new product and he was arguing that the profit margin should be lower. I kept telling him that the effect the new product would be for lower spending customers to substitute the new product for the old. The higher spenders would continue buying the older product resulting in the higher profit margin. However, he would listen. He wanted me to subtract something, add something and multiply something. I don’t really remember the specifics but I do remember that it made absolutely no sense and I didn’t sugarcoat my disagreement. I said that what he wanted wouldn’t work but I would do an analysis and send it along in a few minutes. This was at five thirty and the next day was a public holiday.

I quickly put together something simple and direct in a spreadsheet and sent it off in an email. As I log off from my desktop, the phone on my desk rang. I ignored it and walked out the office door. The next day was a holiday. I knew it was probably bound to bite me in the ass but I didn’t want it to affect my four-day weekend. I put the whole incident out of my mind so I wasn’t expecting what happened this morning. When my boss arrived, first thing that he said was that I did a good job the previous Thursday. He said he had been looking at it from the wrong angle and that my spreadsheet helped him see the right angle. Sometimes the win comes when you least expect it and I’ll take whenever I can be it big or small.