If I may make a suggestion

attend the meeting, and do a lot of listening. Unless you're seriously doing something that's beyond you, which I doubt, you may find that it's all a lot less complex than you fear it is.

I remember a lot of years ago i was sat at work, finishing off a couple of things and getting ready to go home, when one of the lads kind of appeared at my shoulder and said "Alan can I have a word in private please?" He stank of sweat and his face was red as a beetroot - and this was an office job. So we stepped out into the corridor and he just unfurled a world of woe. He'd been promoted too early, he wasn't up to the task, he was going to go in and resign in the morning.

Reaasoning that if all the above were true, he'd just do it and not seek my blessing first, I pressed him gently to find out what exactly he was doing so catastrophically wrong and it emerged that it was all a lot harder work than he'd imagined and, after cutting out all the self-hatred s**te, that was about it.

So I gave him a few little tips and watched him relax in front of me. We never said another word on the subject. He was fine, and I understand he went from strength to strength afterwards. That's not because of the quality of my advice, it was just because I took the fright out of him.

so unless you've blagged a job as a scientist or interpreter or something that you're absolutely unqualified to do, just listen, work out what people expect and require from you, and provide that. You don't have to impress anyone, you just have to avoid being a dick. Which you aren't.

Posted By: Sugbad The Bad, Oct 8, 19:37:48