i can be nasty, too

One very small group in my company wants to be independent from its supervising division, and has been harassing me about it for the past few weeks. I managed to set up a meeting to discuss this situation between the group and the chair of their supervising division, and volunteered myself and another colleague from my office as mediators. (My office also happens to hold the power to grant them their independence, if we deem it necessary and appropriate)

The meeting is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, and will be a 4-5 person informal discussion about whether this group really just needs to work better with its supervising division, or if this group really warrants being independent.

About an hour ago, the group leader emailed me asking if there will be a projector present in the particular conference room where we're meeting because they have a PowerPoint presentation they would like to show. In my three years here, I have never been to an internal meeting like this and used powerpoint (or seen it be used). But whatever, no matter how unusual, fine it's a valid request. We use powerpoints always when we meet with clients.

However, the final comment in his email made me fume:

"There is a very nice conference room with projection capabilities down the hall on my floor, but I cannot reserve it unless our group is independent."

Only division supervisors (and others designated by him/her) have the ability to reserve conference rooms, so what he says is true ... but was it really necessary? It was an intentional, in-my-face comment highlighting another "disadavange" they have just encountered as a non-independent entity. F- that.

Normally, there is a projector I bring along to that room when we meet with clients, but his comment pissed me off so much that I simply wrote back:

"Hi Group Leader,

Since there will only be 4 of us, I think a laptop will be just fine.

-Seine"

Gosh, it bugs me so much that he thinks he can impress us with a powerpoint presentation. There is not a culture of powerpoint at internal meetings in our company, not even if I'm meeting with my most senior supervisor. Everything is informal, and everything is roundtable. He really is shitting his chances by bringing a presentation, especially since I will be present.

You see, he comes from a consulting world. He worked as a consultant briefly before joining our company, one of those top firms who convince you that they're teaching you the "soft" skills ... like the fact that you impress when you show up with a powerpoint.

What he doesn't know is that I know that consulting world up and down. I came from that world, and I left because I couldn't stand the pretentiousness. He has no idea what he will getting himself into tomorrow. Unnecessary presentations won't buy my loyalty. They will only piss me off more and align me biased against them.

I really was planning to show up to the meeting tomorrow completely unbiased, just to talk to him and his supervisor to gather some facts and really evaluate if the group's request for divorcing the parents division is valid valid. But now I'm just pissed, and I actually don't want to help them at all. I want to be immature and fight against them, make it hard for them to become independent.

It's bad because I actually do have that power. This situation was entrusted to me, and I will be writing up the review report. I feel like I already know what I will write, without having ever set foot in that meeting.