Last week, I had a meeting with my manager, in which he showed me the paperwork for what my raise will be this year. (It was a nice number, I’m not complaining.)
Anyhow, he hands me my copy of the paperwork for my records, looks me in the eye, and says, “You’re doing an excellent job, Gin – keep up the good work.”
And as I smiled, shook his hand, and thanked him, I realized that he has absolutely no idea what I do all day.
I haven’t done more then about half an hour of real work in an entire day since well before Thanksgiving. I’m between tasks, so the lull will be short-lived, but still – I’m getting a raise for cruising blogs and shopping online for the past 3 months.

I was talking to J about this the other night, and had an epiphany – how many people that I work with half-ass it and get away with it like I am? I work with incredibly smart people; I am PROUD to tell people where I work and what I do, because there really is a Cool Factor to it. But how hard are we really working, or are we pretending to work?
I had an hour long discussion with my coworkers this morning about Lost. Afterwards, one of them sent out an Outlook meeting invite, requesting my attendance to a Lost new episode forum tomorrow morning, in his cube at 8 a.m., complete with IM conference room for those that cannot attend in person. I accepted, because DUH, but how many hours of our work day tomorrow will be spent dissecting new plot points and rehashing old ones?

Maybe it’s my old, rusty conscience kicking in.
But I’m still gonna slack tomorrow.