I returned to Charlotte today. The faithful readers of the blog may remember my last trip to Charlotte. Charlotte's airport was just as I remembered it - every inch of it. The bookstore that I browsed endlessly, the rocking chairs that lulled me in and out of consciousness, the Jamba Juice that dispensed my 128 ounce smoothie + wellness boost + energy boost that served as an IV drip from 9PM to 2AM. So many memories.
Today's visit was to Duke Energy. Good folks there at Duke. As a matter of fact, good folks overall there in Charlotte. I've noticed that people get generally nicer the further south you go. That is until Florida - Southern Florida, to be specific, is a cultural anomaly that can't really be generalized (vacationing Europeans taking advantage of the exchange rate + Cuban refugees + retired New York Jews + palm trees = a tropical version of Manhattan). I digress.
As I said, nice folks. Almost awkwardly nice, I would say. My colleague and I met to pitch a bank service to a cross-functional Duke team (stop me if the corporate lingo is making you nauseous). The dynamic was a bit strange. EVERYTHING was a group joke. Even if something wasn't funny, everyone would chip in and laugh... because that's the nice, friendly thing to do. And when someone was serious/down-to-business about a problem that needed solving, people almost didn't know how to act. Contrast this with New York where people seem to thrive on constructive - and often conflictive - debate.
I did a decent job of being folksy / white-collar-but-wanna-be-blue-collar, but at the end of the meeting my cover broke. As I bid goodbye and shook the hand of the joke ring-leader, I said something to the effect of "I appreciate your candor and humor, thanks for the input today." He looked at me with a totally puzzled expression and said "uh, yeah, sure, definitely want to keep that going." What can I say, I'm a natural.
Today's visit was to Duke Energy. Good folks there at Duke. As a matter of fact, good folks overall there in Charlotte. I've noticed that people get generally nicer the further south you go. That is until Florida - Southern Florida, to be specific, is a cultural anomaly that can't really be generalized (vacationing Europeans taking advantage of the exchange rate + Cuban refugees + retired New York Jews + palm trees = a tropical version of Manhattan). I digress.
As I said, nice folks. Almost awkwardly nice, I would say. My colleague and I met to pitch a bank service to a cross-functional Duke team (stop me if the corporate lingo is making you nauseous). The dynamic was a bit strange. EVERYTHING was a group joke. Even if something wasn't funny, everyone would chip in and laugh... because that's the nice, friendly thing to do. And when someone was serious/down-to-business about a problem that needed solving, people almost didn't know how to act. Contrast this with New York where people seem to thrive on constructive - and often conflictive - debate.
I did a decent job of being folksy / white-collar-but-wanna-be-blue-collar, but at the end of the meeting my cover broke. As I bid goodbye and shook the hand of the joke ring-leader, I said something to the effect of "I appreciate your candor and humor, thanks for the input today." He looked at me with a totally puzzled expression and said "uh, yeah, sure, definitely want to keep that going." What can I say, I'm a natural.
2 comments:
Sometimes I feel like living in Manhattan will make us never fit in anywhere else. Especially the longer we live here.
So funny.
I just read a funny article by Jayne Clayson Peterson about the time she had a last minute call to do an interview with Jessica Lynch in her small home-town outside of Charleston, West Va. Her producer at 48 Hours got her a ticket from La Guardia and she just scrambled to get there on time, and onto the plane. Long story short, she got to Charleston and looked all around for the associate producer who was no where to be found, even though he said he was right where they'd agreed to meet -at the Avis desk. Turned out she was in Charleston, South Carolina, with an interview scheduled in just a few hours. It was a nutty story. We sure have our idiosyncrasies particular to where we live, don't we? I've been told more than once that I'm way too outgoing(translated friendly) and trusting, and that I talk way too fast, by those who live east of the Mississippi. I guess we just speak a different language when it comes right down to it.
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