Friday, November 20, 2009

Shattering Office Zen

For the past 2 or 3 days, I have been as busy as a bee. I have been processing like a madwoman, fixing mistakes, closing up gaps, getting s**t done. It has even made time go by somewhat more quickly. I have felt productive.

I should have known that my state of office zen was only a momentary blip on the radar.

Amy is in a good mood today. She must be feeling better. Or she hit a child with her car on the way in to work. But she seems in fine spirits. Which should mean that she is back to being on top of things.

But she isn't. Yesterday I discovered huge gaps in things that should have been completed that weren't. It sounds vague because this is all kind of anonymous and I can't really share the details. Although, I'm not sure that it would make a difference. When I tell The Boyfriend the specifics, his eyes kind of glaze over. I'm not offended. I work here all day, I know its dull.

So anyway, I found these date gaps and told Amy to run it by her and let her have some semblance of control. I made it sound like less of a big deal because I didn't want Anna to get in trouble (her name was attached to a whack of them but because she is constantly getting pulled off her duties to do something else "more urgent" it wasn't her fault at all. I didn't think that Amy would see it that way in her desperation to pin the blame elsewhere) and offered to take care of it.

Amy was visibly relieved.

I would be too if my minion totally saved the day. And my a**.

There I am, contentedly plugging away, making progress, feeling good about my contribution to the efforts of the team.

Then this morning Maurice spoke. Apparently he had been looking at the same list and noticed that I was doing the same thing as him. Turns out he had been assigned another job. Still only one at a time, but this is some kind of progress right? He turns to me and says:

"Hey. Are you looking at the list?"
Me: "yes"
Maurice: "For the 17th?"
Me: "yes"
Maurice: "Oh OK, if you are going to do that, then I have other things I could be doing"
Me: "Well I'm only doing this because it was missed in the first place. If you have been assigned them then I can go back to my own list and sort all the other ones out"
Maurice: "No no, that's OK. Don't worry about it. Carry on."

Me: "??????????????????????"

What just happened? Did I just get told to carry on? By Maurice??? Are you kidding me???

In case you are wondering, I have carried on. Mostly because I am still too stunned at being told what to do by Maurice. I have no response to that. How does one respond to being told to carry on by the office dunce?

And let's not forget about the bigger issue here. When Amy came around this morning we discussed what I was going to do. And I told her that I was planning on finishing the 17th. And she said that that was great. After that, I was lost in my work and didn't do enough eavesdropping. But evidently she turned around and told Maurice the same thing? Or that's what he got out of it.

How is she so out of the loop that she is unaware of what 2 people sharing a workspace are doing?

As an added bonus, I'm fairly certain that once Amy realizes her mistake (sorry, our mistake) she will have a chat with us about not having come to her to work it out. Making your own decisions is a no-no in the Cubicle Kingdom.

All I have to say about that is that its Friday. I can't care anymore. All my caring was used up. Not that there was very much to begin with. I do get to wear my jeans today and that always helps to take the sting out. Oh and you know what? We get to have a cleaning party this afternoon! I'm a firm believer that if you attach the word "Party" to anything it instantly becomes more fun. Cleaning Party? Awesome, I'm there. Study Party? I'll bring the dip! Moving Party? I've saved the date!

A cleaning party in the afternoon of a Friday? You know that that is going to be a Prime Waste of Time (I love it when I rhyme).

I can't wait.

Happy Weekend everyone!

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