Wednesday, November 28, 2007

"Let's Take It Offline"


With my involvement (complicity?) with our monster systems conversion project, I go to a lot of meetings. Sorry, a LOT of meetings. And, like any meeting, the amount of time is not proportional to the number of attendees -- it's proportional to the number of attendees SQUARED (a conservative estimate). Invariably, things get taken off topic to someone's particular pet issue ("We need to know an accurate balance for each customer!" or some such BS). This will drag on for 3-4 days before you hear the magic words, "Let's Take This Offline". I ALWAYS smile when I hear this; I now think it's a Pavlovian response, independent of conscious thought.

I like it so much, I've started to use it socially. At a party and someone rambles on about some boring topic? "Let's take it offline." Chatting up an attractive, cool woman you want to get to know better? "Let's take this offline." Credit card rejected & waiter embarassing you in front of others? You got it! "Let's take it offline."

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