Self Perception

I ran into someone I knew from another show. We hadn’t seen each other in a while, so we caught up on the usual “How ya doin? What’ve you been working on?” stuff.

Then she said an odd thing. She said she always remembered me as the guy who smiled a lot.

Me? Really?

Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to be thought of as a happy guy. I just didn’t think anybody thought of me that way. Which just goes to show you don’t always know yourself as well as you think.

A little while ago, a very stern memo was sent around the office and set. (I use passive voice purposefully here; I didn’t pass out the memo, for once.) I don’t remember the exact wording, but basically it scolded people for bringing pets to work.

The showrunner’s assistant came in and asked if my boss had written the condescending memo. (The producers frequently bring their dogs.) Since I hadn’t distroed it, I was pretty sure she hadn’t.

When my boss heard the showrunner merely suspected she’d written this rude memo (not an unreasonable assumption, since who else writes stupid memos?), she got really angry. She couldn’t believe he thought she would write something so mean. So, she immediately stormed out to tell the showrunner off.

I thought to myself, Did it ever occur to you that, if people have this opinion of you, maybe you’re not giving the impression you think you are?

Oh, and the AD wrote the memo.