He was a mess, and he knew it.
He was holding another 10am Zoom call, dressed up in a button-up, running ten minutes over time, where he unmuted himself again.
“Yes, well, of course I can see how that would make sense from you perspective, and I really do respect the way that we might disagree on this, but I think— um… I think that if we were to take a step back, we could see that splitting up the user story might create a bad precedent for…”
The others on the call, the few with their videos on and faces showing, had a glossy look to their eyes, looking faintly into the distance. Nobody could tell what he was saying. Not even he could tell what he was saying. Was he for or against? He wish he could stop - just stop - STOP!
“… so, that being said, are there any other thoughts on this?”
This was his default, a lukewarm conclusion and an apparent openness to others’ opinions. He didn’t want to hear others’ opinions on the matter, though. He just wanted the damn meeting to be over with. It didn’t even matter if they agreed with him, if only they all thought the same thing were true.