I’m not going to mention the name of the company I used to work for. It’s not a secret, and I’m not hiding anything, and I think I’ve mentioned it before (and only that one time) recently, but it’s just not something that needs to be put out there for search engines to find. And it’s not like I’m trying to hide anything either, because I know that several people who still work there pop into the fuju every once in a while, and that’s okay. But again, the people researching me, or the company, don’t need to be privy to my ramblings. Let’s call the company “Gee”.

There are employees at Gee that blog, many of them Facebook, some even Twitter. I follow some of their blogs, some of their Facebooks and some of their tweets on Twitter. And some of them follow mine. All cool.

I had a “sabbatical” from Gee from 2001–2003 and while I was away I still had many friends who worked there and that I stayed in constant contact with. When I returned in 2003, and now for the last five years, many of the old crew have since moved or drifted away. I become, de facto, the source for many for social updates, client updates, managerial updates, all that stuff that departed employees want to be up-to-date on. Now I’m no longer in that position. And that became clear this evening.

An ex-coworker and friend posted a tweet about how beautiful tonight’s sunset was when the sun finally cut through the wet winter clouds. I know this sunset, or at least the view of it, from the 7th floor and still during working hours as the winter brings. I also know some of the summer sunsets that happen later in the day. 

The thing that distanced me from the visceral viewpoint was the lack of the photo. And this status update was by someone who is a great photographer and frequently posting to flickr and other accounts, who even started a great idea of a Gee graffiti wall where employees could put up their own artwork. So I thought it a little odd that there was no link, no twitpic, no upload to Facebook. I almost commented on the status of the lack of a picture but then I hesitated. Not out of awkwardness of communicating with this person, but maybe I didn’t think it simply wasn’t my place anymore.

Now, hours later, I check out the Gee work blog and the picture is posted there. Bam. Now it sinks in that the distancing from Gee, where I worked for eight years, is a crack that will slowly get bigger over time. I hope to not lose the friendships, but there is a another step of removal now. I’ll have to rely on those still there to relay information onto others, and maybe that relaying road to the others will slowly come to its end. 

This transition of communication between layers has happened. Now I’ll be the one relying on my friends still there to answer my questions of hey what’s up, how is business and who are the new clients. I’m at peace with this.

I’m hoping that the phoblographer won’t be upset for me sliding that pic over to my desktop and then dropping it into my fuju style. I don’t think she will be.

The company I work for is redesigning their website and incorporating an employee blog. The blog is up and running while the new site is being designed and tweaked and all employees are invited to contribute. We are told that content will be posted unedited and the subject matter can be anything. While most are posting about design-related issues or the economy I don’t think it would be appropriate to post there about guys on trains or bitching about my commute. So here’s my first contribution:

There is a gasoline energy company whose new ad campaign has taken over the South Capitol Metro Station. The aim of the campaign is to move the consumer’s perception of the company from a gasoline company to an “energy provider”. 

The components of the campaign feature headshot closeups of the perfectly (think: Benetton) racially-mixed group of models, who are looking thoughtfully concerned into the camera. Typeset in a handwritten-font are phrases like “I will leave the car at home more” and “I will unplug things more”. Pretty bland and trite copy, if you ask me. As if people taking Metro would actually choose to triple their commute time or unplugging a 30-watt lamp is going to really make a difference. I’m all for turning off the lights in a room you’re not in, but unplugging the television everytime I turn it off? Not going to happen.

But I think where the ball really gets dropped is the way the energy provider has bought out all of the ad space (and more) of the station. It’s in all the typical places, the backlit dioramas and wall posters. But it’s also wrapped around the concrete columns. It’s on floor decals that are larger than my living room. It’s on vinyl banners hanging from the handrails. The effect is very Disney-esque; it’s overload. I’ve seen this happen before with the South Cap station, but it is usually focused on some Congressional legislation that the purchaser is trying to get passed. As if the people voting under the dome take public transportation to work.

UPDATE: Actually, the more I read this, it seems a little too negative to be putting up on the work blog.