Eric seemed so gruff at first impression. I would listen to him grill the upper management in our All Hands meetings, hear stories of his extremely tough interview protocol, listen to scolding of the unprepared engineer after they asked a easily researched question or push sloppy coding practices. My initial impression was to stay out of that guy’s way!
The more I listened, the more I realized that he was extremely fair with his criticism and his gruff tone has a hint of sarcastic comedy if you listened carefully. I would listen to the work related banter across the wall and the less work related banter during the after-hours. His humor grew and grew. I would find myself laughing at his comments over the wall. Usually safe from direct interaction and avoiding direct notice, my laughter would draw his attention. “I hear you over there! What’s so funny!? (turns to co-worker) I’m gonna make it a goal to see how often I can make him chuckle.”
Eventually, I would trust his opinion for making the right moves to grow myself as an engineer at Intel. Fighting through the fear of his seemingly gruff interior to find that he is one of the most earnest and generous people that I have met in my life. He helped me with everything from career advice to why skiing was better than snowboarding. I tried to show my appreciation where I could and I hope he realized at least a little of how much of an impact he had on all of us.
Even after they moved our cubes around, he would still take the time to come to the break room to check out the boardgames being played (and give us a hard time for “goofing off” at work).
Jonathan