Career

Change Agent

As told by Missy Johnson, CMP

I was on site at a hotel, getting ready for a board meeting at a previous job I had as manager of meeting services for an association. I had sent everyone all the materials they needed for the meeting in advance, but our association president had not printed out some-thing he needed to review. So he asked if I could just deliver the printed materials to his room. He said that he had some questions about it, which is why he wanted me to come by, not just have a bellman deliver it. It was early evening, and I was like, “Oh sure, I am on my way up to the guest rooms anyway, I will just drop it by.”

So with everything in hand, I knock on his hotel-room door. And he answers the door in his bathrobe. I was like, “Oh god, where is this going?” But in his suite are his wife and brand-new baby girl. I had no idea that he was bringing them to this meeting with him, but there they are, and he insists that I come in while he reviews this material. And he is offering me a drink, so on, and it is just weird. And I am thinking, I really do not want a drink, just look at this stuff and let me know what you need and then I am out of here.

But I come in and I am just sitting there. And this baby is just darling, so I am kind of, you know, flirting with the baby. And his wife says, “Do you want to hold her?” And I am, like, okay. I’m thinking, I’ll just fill time while he reviews this stuff.

Then she gets this phone call and she is gone into the other room dealing with her business on the phone call. Meanwhile, the baby is fussing and fighting and whatever, and he is reviewing the material and he has really no interest in helping me figure out how to deal with this baby. I say, “I think she needs to be changed.” And he says, “Oh, do you mind? There is stuff right there in the diaper bag.”

And I am like, oh, okay, so I am changing their baby. His wife finally gets off the phone and comes to kind of rescue the baby from me, and he finally gets what he needs.

And I am like, “I am out of here.” I mean — it was just so awkward.

Convene Editors