Last week I was asked to do a small task for my boss that, like a pebble in my shoe, just won't stop irritating me. The initial request was simple and straight-forward: open my wireless headset and email me the type of battery it takes so I may purchase a new one for the headset in my winter home.
Now, to back up a little, I was alone in the office due to an emergency in my co-worker's family and the boss' being at his winter home. In addition to running the office by myself, we were in the middle of some sticky issues with inventory. When this request came in, I didn't mind complying, but to say I was busy with more pressing concerns is not overstating the situation.
So, I got the headset from his office and spent 10 minutes locating a screwdriver small enough to remove the battery (thank goodness I wear glasses and carrry a repair kit in my purse or I would never had anything remotely small enough for the job). I pulled the battery out and found that it was defintely NOT a traditional battery. It wasn't even a watch-type battery. It was white and square and relatively flat. I wrote down and then sent the details to my boss by email, as he had requested. I put the headset back together and got ready to head to lunch with my mom and sister for mom's birthday, a fact I had indicated in my email to him.
All was well to this point. Just as I was grabbing my coat to leave for lunch, the office line rang. Caller ID indicated it was my boss. To be completely honest, my first instinct was to ignore it and head happily off to lunch. In hindsight, this may have been the best choice, but I digress. I answered and received a request to send photos of the battery to him so that he could purchase a new one while he was out. Instead of reading the email, which he requested I send, he now wanted photos of the battery that I had, of course, already put away. I asked if the request coudl wait since I was just running out for my lunch date, but it couldn't. The words "take it with you and text the photos" came out of his mouth and ran right down that nerve in my spine. You know the one right? The one that causes you to flinch and wondered why some people are wired so differently.
With much irritation, I retrieved the headset from his office and ran out to lunch, late. On arrival a few minutes later, I plunked my purse on the table and pulled out the headset to remove the battery (again) and then take some photos. When my sister asked me what I was doing, I hate to admit that I was more than happy to give her the full, annoying story in relatively colorful detail. Her response was quite logical, "Why couldn't he just take the one he has there with him and have the battery store open it and put in the new one for him?" Great question! I had some not so nice reasons why that was the case, but detailing those might make me look worse than I possibly already do. However, my co-worker asked the same question when she returned and I related the story to her. The simple answer is that he was already out and did not want to delay this errand to another time or day. Somewhat understandable, but having this headset battery was not an urgent matter, and he was definitely going to be out of the house again soon, if not later than same day. Why this had to be done on my personal time and during a birthday lunch with family is still beyond me. Would an hour delay of these photos really have made that much difference? I doubt it. It was a matter of his own convenience and desires without any respect for the other person.
I was hoping that venting a little more of the steam here might be the metaphorical dumping of this particular pebble from my shoe, but no, it's still there, grinding it's rough edges into my skin until the next one arrives to either increase my discomfort or take its place. Let's hope it's the latter.
