Sunday, December 16, 2018

Bad Dreams 09 -- Morning of 12/14/18

In my dream, I am a fairly new employee of a company that does sales-type work.  I am accompanying a senior member of the company on a customer visit.  We walk through hallways and spend some time in an office.  

The conversation between my "superior" and the customer seems to go well.  There is friendly chatter mixed in with the business issues that we were there to discuss.  My job is to stay quiet and listen and observe.  Learn the ropes.  Watch the pro do his thing.  

The conversation wraps up and the two guys shake hands and smile.  My "superior" and I walk out of the building and (I suppose) towards the parking lot.  But I'm deeply concerned:

Listening as carefully as I could, I thought I had heard Customer say that our company would be doing "X" part of the upcoming project.  And I also thought I heard my guy say that the customer would be doing "X" instead.  And the pleasant chatter between these two kind of covered over this possible misunderstanding.  (The non-commitment from the two of them to do "X" was separated by a minute or two of pleasant conversation.  So misunderstanding might easily have happened.)  

So I bring this to my guy's attention as we stand there outside the customer's building -- thinking that he might want to clarify this before we left to go home.  He seems irritated and told me not to worry.  Not my job.  And I try (internally, of course) to figure out if he's angry at me for mouthing off or he's angry at himself for missing this mistake and worried about the consequences.  And doing "X" will cost a lot of money for either us or them.  The words he uses to tell me not to worry carry a veiled threat -- about my professional future in and continued employment at the company.  I back off.  

I realize that it will be easy for me to be the fall guy in this event.  That I may well be blamed for not clarifying the "X" situation.  And the result being that it will cost my employer extra money (if we do "X") or else lead to ill will between my employer and the customer (if they have to do "X").  Either way I could "take the fall."  But I don't see any way to avoid this -- and I'm curious to see how the situation will unfold.  More curious than frightened or cowed.  

There is some interruption in my dreaming -- perhaps I almost wake up or something -- and when I return to dreaming, I see a small metal frame that is holding onto a baby doll's head.  And a hand comes in from the left side of the "scene" and removes the head from the frame.  This may be totally unconnected to the "story" of the first dream, but I thought I would mention it.

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