WHAT THE?

Why is it that when I'm the busiest people pick that time to bother me with something truly stupid? I tell you it is as if some people have a sixth sense about knowing when to totally ruin my day and ask for things they don't really need. Or for things that they don't need at the time.

The other day for example, I was working on this budget problem and my secretary came in all frantic because she was out of staples. She was totally upset and wanted a supply request signed so she could go to the stationary store to get some more staples. Our supply closet was out and so she was worried that the world might come to an end if she didn't get some more immediately.

Now bear in mind that at the time it was five minutes to quitting time. It wasn't like she had anything emergency stapling to do in the next five minutes. Honestly, it was so absurd from my point of view.

I would have had no problem letting her stop by the stationary store in the morning to get some more, but she said she could get any peace that night if she was worrying about staples. Oh that is mild compared to some of the things she sometimes stresses over.

Even though I didn't exactly have much reason to worry about it, I finally stopped what I was doing in order to sign the stupid request. I just got wore out sitting there watching her freak out over the problem of staples.

Plus, regardless of how appealing the whole process of watching her grovel might have been, it just didn't have the same value at that moment as it might have when I wasn't busy. So even though I did find a certain value in her prostrating herself on my carpet and begging, I just couldn't muster the enthusiasm to keep savoring it as entertainment.

So in order to keep her from having a heart attack, imagined or otherwise, I quickly signed the paper. I will admit that it didn't satisfy me to have to end her misery. There are times I get a certain joy from seeing her face turn so many shades of purple.

Alas, I do have to make choices. And serving the public's need in this case was more of a priority. I will confess that my idea of serving the public's needs might be a tad different than some people's, but it is the one that sounds to darn good.

Of course I do have to admit that I'm not about to tell the public that my idea of working on a budget problem wasn't perhaps one that matches their idea of serving their needs. In this case, I was figuring new ways to suck more funds out of the system for my own benefit. That is such a minor detail from my point of view. Obviously, it isn't not the kind of fact that I will repeat in terms of the press without a little massaging of the information.

Ah, in the meantime, I do savor the times when I can avoid those pressing demands from unreasonable employees. It just gives me pause to be grateful for when I can myself be unreasonable.