WonL
The random thoughts of an architect-turned- lawyer from the deep south living in Washington, DC...
Monday, January 31, 2005
Cleaning
JB approaches me this morning at the coffee pot to give me "the run down" for today. First off, DO NOT TALK TO ME BEFORE I HAVE HAD MY COFFEE. Not only am I from the South, where we actually have a
State Coffee, but I am my mother's daughter. This means, I cannot and will not function properly in a conversation until I have had that hot burst of caffeine. Speaking to me before that moment should be done at your own risk. (Much like the time my younger brother did not wait until I had my coffee to ask if I had been 'saved'...that was not pretty either.) Considering I'm pretty terrified of JB, I was not about to stop him from speaking. I just did that smile and nod thing they taught us in the sorority. I do not actually know what he was talking about. After the first sip, my eyes were opened to him discussing cleaning up my desk for me. Hang on, WHAT? "Well, we have clients coming into the office today and I wanted to make sure your desk was clean" he says. Understandable, except that I keep my space pretty immaculate. (How else would I be able to spread out my law school books once I get to work.) He then proceeds to explain how the clients coming in don't like another one of our clients so we need to be careful around them. This is all he needed to say, but for whatever reason, he felt this feud meant that he needed to clean my desk. I probably would have spoken up in protest at this point, but I had coffee:-) To show me why this is important he says "for example, you have a calendar that says 'For Client A'. If Client B sees this, he will get upset." To which I respond, "Oh, that's true. But, that calendar is tucked away in the bottom drawer of my desk." JB says "yeah, I found it. It's a damn good thing, because I was able to take it out and turn it upside down." I am now pretty awake and thinking a bit more logically than JB. However, I do refrain from asking him to please explain to me why he thinks taking something out of the bottom drawer of my desk and placing it face down on top of my desk will make a client less likely to see it. Nah, he probably does not have a logical reason for this other than he felt like it and he can because he is the boss. (Those words ring in my ears.) So, after learning all of his supposed justifcation for invading my privacy and rumaging through my desk, I go to sit down. I immediately notice there is stuff strewn about everywhere. Papers, pens, post-its, crap all over. He walks by and says "yeah, you are going to need to clean up this desk, it looks like hell and we have clients coming in." So starts another day in the office...
