A few weeks ago, I was at work but I needed to make some phone calls between nine and four. Because a number of government agencies needed to know Mom was dead. After a few days of playing with words (“dead,” “passed on,” “passed away,” “not with us, if you know what I mean,” back to “dead,”) I became more and more conscious of the thought bubbles of condemnation floating over the tops of the cube walls. Did I sound too sad? Too matter-of-fact? It’s a lot of calls, even if you don’t actually say “dead.” At any rate, knowing the liberal policy TeddyJ has about working from home, I wanted to ask my Team Leader (TeddyJ has no bosses, we’re groovy like that) if I could work from home. so that I didn’t disrupt my co-workers with the “Uh, I need to report a death /passing / deceasement” routine.
What did I do? I walked up to my Team Leader and said “I want to go home so I can make some personal phone calls. During work hours.”
After a little re-phrasing she was cool with it.
Yet even still, today, when I printed out three hundred pages of Powerpoint presentations and white papers, I began to read and got distracted by every little thing. So of course out of the blue I asked the same Team Leader, “Would it be okay if I just go home and read?”
She said I really need to work on how I phrase these things.
4 responses to “In Which I Am Told I Need to Think or Shut Up”
It’s all in the delivery. 😉
Sue – I didn’t even see my Team Leader today. I could have stayed home an painted my toenails.
Steve and I just want you to know we’re thinking about you. We’re sorry to hear about your Mom. Both my parents are still with us and I dread the day I’ll receive “THE” phone call…~ Connie
Connie and Steve – Thank you. I hate to say it, but it’s as bad as you imagine.