Back40 News
Sometimes we work late. Sometimes we work way too late – we actually dream about work. I thought it was just me, but as Back40 staffers recently confessed, working in our sleep, while not billable, is practiced regularly.
Jaimi Aycock, designer, has dreams of organizing large groups of new employees. “Well, Dave hired like 40 new people in one day. I was supposed to do something with them. They were like cattle. I would herd them around the office, past the copiers, down to the conference room – over to Mecca’s office…” At the end of the day, or the dream, when all the dust had settled, everybody had a new office and Jaimi had completed another task.
Donna Walker, account executive, even gets stressed out in her dreams. “It was deadline and I was way behind on getting ads in,” she recalls while wiping her forehead. “Then I got the call, ‘We’re going up 20 pages this month,’ said the voice on the other end.” Reluctantly, she shared this story; knowing one day her dream will become reality.
Dave Miller, President, had a dream (see photo) that he was in a room with dozens of programmers. They were sitting around a horseshoe-shaped table. No one was talking. The room was dimly lit; all you could hear was the clicking of keyboards. None of programmers would look up. “Walking around the room I saw Chad Dahlgren, our project manager, barking directions like a general in battle. Then one of the programmers spoke and Chad screamed, ‘Silence!’” I’m thinking we either need more programmers or perhaps Chad needs a vacation.
Not everybody dreams of work at night. Take designer, Sarah Bailey, who’s been obsessed with preparing for her wedding. With all the excitement one would think that she would be dreaming of the magical moment when she and the groom walk down the aisle, or when they rush off to their waiting limo and begin their new lives together. “Actually, I dream that I’m wearing the wrong dress, and nobody even showed up.” Perhaps Sarah should think more about graphic design.
Peyton Hutchison, project manager and half-marathoner, has running dreams. “I keep having the same dream over and over. It’s a windy day. I have new running shoes on and I am running, but everyone is passing me—friends, people at work, Back40 clients—my mom. And then I realize I’m running in place and I can’t go forward, no matter how hard I try. I’m stuck.”
Teddy Burch, managing editor, had a dream he was pumping gas. “I was there at the pump and I couldn’t get my car filled. It kept going and going. I kept watching the dials spin on the gallons and dollars. I couldn’t turn the pump off; no one would help me, And then the really scary part, I look up and the sign says, UNLEADED – $4.04!” If I were to interpret that dream, I’d have to say it has something to do with Teddy buying an SUV recently.
Poor Don, Mecca Seymour’s husband, doesn’t have it easy. Mecca admits “Sometimes I have dreams that Don is leaving me, and depending on the severity of the dream, I can wake up and be mad at him all day.” She says that some days she can carry the resentment all day and then let him have it at dinner. Suggestion to Don: Watch your back and pass the potatoes in a loving, caring way.
