Yesterday, Jeremy, a guy from our office who is currently out of town, called for the Boss. I told him the Boss was currently on the line, and he asked that I pass on a message as soon as the Boss is free. I dutifully wrote down that the Boss should call Jeremy back, and placed the message in front of my keyboard, as a reminder to give it to the Boss once he gets off the phone.
I look up from what I am doing and realize that I have no idea how long it has been since Jeremy called. I do know that I have that gut clenching feeling. You know that feeling, the one that tells you that you’ve forgotten something important, have slept through a final exam, and probably forgot to brush my hair. Sure enough, the Boss is off the phone, so I grab the message and take off toward his office. Our conversation goes a little something like this:
“Jeremy wanted you to call him on his cell when you have a moment.”
“Oh, did he just call?”
“Yes.”
This was a lie. As I have no idea how long is actually had been, how much of a lie is unclear. Still, my ‘yes’ is clearly skirting an ethical border.
I’m not normally the kind of person who lies. Because I believe it’s wrong and because I’m incredibly bad at it.
“Oh, I just talked to him ten minutes ago, but I’ll give him a call back.”
“Oh, well, I mean, it might have been before that, I’m not exactly sure…”
“I’ll give him a call just to check.”
I scurried from his office, and as the Boss never mentioned it to me again, I can only imagine what their conversation consisted of outside of my stupidity.
That same day, I receive another call. Again it was for the Boss, and again the person wanted me to take him a message as soon as he got off the phone. This was a stranger calling, so I took down his name, company, and number, leaving the message in front of me on the desk. At least this time I was assured that I would not forget.
I look up from what I am doing and realize that I have no idea how long it has been since the man called. Again the Boss is off the phone. But by this time a couple of guys had come into the office and were talking in his office. We don’t have many visitors from outside the office, and given the quality of their suits, I feared they were important. Now I have the option of interrupting a possibly tense meeting with an embarrassing admission. At roughly the same time I noticed it was 5 p.m. I’m not proud to say I then left.
Today, the phone rings, and it is a woman calling for the Boss. After I inform her that he is currently on the phone, she responds with, “That’s okay, I’ll wait.” I’ve never had anybody say this before, and was slightly thrown. After all, how could you assume that his call was going to be short enough to be worthy of waiting? Then I considered that my inability to take a message was getting around, and she decided to combat my ineptitude the best way she knew how. I put her on hold, and placed the phone receiver down on the desk in front of me, guaranteeing I would remember this time.
I look up from what I am doing and there is the phone, and there is the beeping light showing that the woman remains on hold, and there is the lack of a light, showing the Boss is no longer on the phone.
I might be on the wrong career path.
Senility?
