Thursday – The Scavengers
Aug. 26th, 2010 02:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ninanevermore.
.
.
The week my boss was on “vacation,” his office was kept locked. We all suspected he might not be coming back, but none of us were sure. I have the key to his office, so I opened it once to forward his phone to my extension so that his calls could be taken care of, but I locked it behind me after that.
The day we all heard that he was leaving the company to “pursue other opportunities,” we were all subdued (even those of us who wanted to get up and dance for joy). For the next few days we kept the office closed. The evening the announcement went out that he was leaving (when your reach the office of vice president, you don’t get fired, you just move on to greater things), he came by in the evening after most of us had gone home to remove whatever personal effects he had in his office. There weren’t many. He had no photos or mementos or any other the other things most people keep in their office. That was another one of his idiosyncrasies. There was nothing in his office that indicated he was a human being with interests outside of his job (or family, for that matter).
A week went by, and the door stayed locked.
On Tuesday, I needed to shed some documents. There are two shredders, and neither of them are close to my desk. Then it occurred to me that there is a third shredder in this building: Frank’s personal shredder, next to his desk. Now it is next to my desk. I did not lock his office behind me.
“You don’t have to walk all the way down to use Cheri's schredder anymore,” I told Mike. “I took Frank’s out and set it next to the fax machine.”
“Awesome,” he said. “I wonder if there is anything in that office I could use?”
“Take a look. No one’s going to complain if you find something you like.”
“I might move to that office,” he mused. “It’s bigger than mine.”
“Knock yourself out.”
Dave took a look around Frank’s office on Wednesday. “Is there anything I want in here?”
“He’s got a printer.”
“I don’t need a printer; I need a scanner. Maybe I’ll take his bookshelves.”
“Take one of his pictures,” I said, pointing to the two pieces of artwork on the wall that go oh-so-nicely with the furniture, “Mike’s thinking of moving in here, so just leave the bare spot on the wall with the nail sticking out. It’ll drive him crazy.”
Today, I pointed out to Dave that no one is parking in Frank’s old parking space. We do not have assigned spaces, but Cheri the accountant and Frank both laid claim to the two spaces next to the door.
“Just like no one wants to sit in his office; it’s tainted.”
“It’s not tainted. It’s a parking space; it sits outside in the sun all day. Parking spaces don’t get tainted.”
“Why don’t you take it, then?”
There is a good reason for that. My car is not cool, and I didn’t want to embarrass the company by parking next to the door. I didn’t want to say this to Dave, though. “Maybe I will. But it’s closer to your office, which used to be Frank’s original office. You’re probably immune to any contamination on that account. Do it out of spite, because you know that if you had parked there before he would have yelled at you. Now you can, and there’s not a damned thing he can do.
“Hmmmm,” Dave said, “Maybe I will start parking there. I don’t know.”
I went to the grocery store on my lunch break today. When I came back, I pulled into Frank’s old parking space, making Cheri’s red Camaro look that much cooler by comparison for being parked next to my 2004 Elantra.
I have to admit: it felt kind of good.
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * # * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
.
.
The week my boss was on “vacation,” his office was kept locked. We all suspected he might not be coming back, but none of us were sure. I have the key to his office, so I opened it once to forward his phone to my extension so that his calls could be taken care of, but I locked it behind me after that.
The day we all heard that he was leaving the company to “pursue other opportunities,” we were all subdued (even those of us who wanted to get up and dance for joy). For the next few days we kept the office closed. The evening the announcement went out that he was leaving (when your reach the office of vice president, you don’t get fired, you just move on to greater things), he came by in the evening after most of us had gone home to remove whatever personal effects he had in his office. There weren’t many. He had no photos or mementos or any other the other things most people keep in their office. That was another one of his idiosyncrasies. There was nothing in his office that indicated he was a human being with interests outside of his job (or family, for that matter).
A week went by, and the door stayed locked.
On Tuesday, I needed to shed some documents. There are two shredders, and neither of them are close to my desk. Then it occurred to me that there is a third shredder in this building: Frank’s personal shredder, next to his desk. Now it is next to my desk. I did not lock his office behind me.
“You don’t have to walk all the way down to use Cheri's schredder anymore,” I told Mike. “I took Frank’s out and set it next to the fax machine.”
“Awesome,” he said. “I wonder if there is anything in that office I could use?”
“Take a look. No one’s going to complain if you find something you like.”
“I might move to that office,” he mused. “It’s bigger than mine.”
“Knock yourself out.”
Dave took a look around Frank’s office on Wednesday. “Is there anything I want in here?”
“He’s got a printer.”
“I don’t need a printer; I need a scanner. Maybe I’ll take his bookshelves.”
“Take one of his pictures,” I said, pointing to the two pieces of artwork on the wall that go oh-so-nicely with the furniture, “Mike’s thinking of moving in here, so just leave the bare spot on the wall with the nail sticking out. It’ll drive him crazy.”
Today, I pointed out to Dave that no one is parking in Frank’s old parking space. We do not have assigned spaces, but Cheri the accountant and Frank both laid claim to the two spaces next to the door.
“Just like no one wants to sit in his office; it’s tainted.”
“It’s not tainted. It’s a parking space; it sits outside in the sun all day. Parking spaces don’t get tainted.”
“Why don’t you take it, then?”
There is a good reason for that. My car is not cool, and I didn’t want to embarrass the company by parking next to the door. I didn’t want to say this to Dave, though. “Maybe I will. But it’s closer to your office, which used to be Frank’s original office. You’re probably immune to any contamination on that account. Do it out of spite, because you know that if you had parked there before he would have yelled at you. Now you can, and there’s not a damned thing he can do.
“Hmmmm,” Dave said, “Maybe I will start parking there. I don’t know.”
I went to the grocery store on my lunch break today. When I came back, I pulled into Frank’s old parking space, making Cheri’s red Camaro look that much cooler by comparison for being parked next to my 2004 Elantra.
I have to admit: it felt kind of good.
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no subject
Date: 2010-08-26 08:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-26 08:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-26 09:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-26 09:38 pm (UTC)I would take it so fast that your head would spin.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-27 03:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-27 11:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-30 04:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-27 03:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-27 03:23 pm (UTC)