A change of atmosphere

Yesterday my supervisor, Brent, announced that he was taking a call to be the Regional Director for all of the Eurasia fields. As he broke the news in the office, it was interesting watching the two different roles that he had to take on. The first was one of comforter, that is he was assuring the Russians that our work would still go on (which was the first thing on their mind), that while things were going to be undoubtedly changing, there would still be some degree of continuity. Of course, everyone wanted to know answers to questions that I am not sure if he had answered himself, let along asked. But, after the initial shock, they calmed down and started to adjust to the news. After all, the previous director of the Russian mission had also been appointed the director of the Eurasia region, and so when a few months ago it was announced that he was changing his position, I heard speculation then that Brent would be going (it was almost assumed that the Russia field was the feeder for the Eurasia Regional Director position, a notion that will only be confirmed now that two people in a row from Russian have headed into that position).

Second, the next change was that of Brent and his role. This was the role that I noticed, while it might have escaped some of the office staff. It was the taking on of the lame-duck position, that is he was already beginning--even within minutes--to begin to distance himself from the decision making process. For me, I saw this very clearly. While Brent is usually decisive, forward-thinking, and, as he would say, a "motor," yesterday after he announced he was leaving Brent was already more vague and indecisive. Now, it wasn't indecisive in a bad way, but rather it was indecision based on the fact that he was on the way out, and was no longer a "motor." I don't know how much everyone else noticed the change of atmosphere in the room, but I did. Perhaps it is because it means many changes for me in particular, while for the most part the Russian staff members will be going about life a usual.