Last Thing Friday Afternoon

Yet another little truck. Where does he keep them when they're not locked to a bike stand?

At 5:15 yesterday afternoon, I hung up the phone after a short chat with the person we call the Accommodations Specialist. He'd just given me the good news that he'd found a solution to a problem that had really upset one of my staff. I was grateful for that, and resolved that my very next step would be that I would go onto the online system and make the change the Accommodations Specialist advised.

Instead, as I looked up from my desk, I saw two other members of my staff hovering around my door. I invited them in. They started talking even before they sat down. They were impaled on the horns of a dilemma involving four separate processes with four different timelines that all depended on one thing that almost no one knows how to do. Could I tell them the answer, like, right off the top of my head.  Giving it my best shot I suggested they should check with the one person on the staff who actually does know how to do that one thing that almost no one knows how to do. Satisfied, they left.

I turned back to my computer to go online and make the change discussed with the Accommodations Specialist. A person from the assistant deputy minister's office, wearing felt antlers festooned with bells, came to my door wanting to know if "the letter" was ready. "The letter" was what I had been working on when the Accommodations Specialist called me. It was still on my screen, about four sentences short of completion. As the person stood at my shoulder, bells tinkling softly, I finished the letter, added a note for context at the beginning, and fired it off to the antlered person and several others who had been waiting for it since Friday morning.

As I sent the e-mail with the letter, I remembered that I needed to broadcast an e-mail about another member of my staff who had taken a new position elsewhere in the Ministry. My staff's new boss had already sent out the announcement from his side, and every minute I left mine unsent shamed me more deeply. My notice was not quite completely drafted, so I took a minute or two to polish it up, another minute or two to find the group distribution list, and hit send.

I was actually at the online site to make the change discussed with the Accommodations Specialist when another member of my staff came to my door. She asked me a question I completely down to its last detail did not understand. I hazarded as a response that staff were well enough on top of the situation that they could make a good decision and that I would support it.

The phone rang. Another Director from another Ministry was not patiently waiting for something I'm not sure we had promised to send. I left my desk to find the staff who could help with request. I found them. They sent the other Director's object of desire.

By the time I got back to my desk, there was an e-mail from the other Director saying, in sum, "thanks, Sucker!"

Simmering just a bit from my fellow Director's scam, I finally got to make the change to the online system that would solve my upset staff member's problem and make my life a little bit brighter.

That wrapped up, I closed all the open windows on my screen. Just as I turned off my computer, I looked at the little clock in the lower right hand corner. 

It said 5:30.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!