There are only 13 people on my "to be contacted" list this today. I wouldn't have thought I'd contacted so many on Thursday and Friday. I do hope I'm not running out of work to avoid do.

(Well, there is Project #2, which I've been studiously ignoring for three months.)

You know what I hate? I hate it that my desk faces an aisle where people walk past frequently and I hate how I can see, out of the corner of my eye, that every, single person who walks by tries to catch my eye and chat. The fact that they're up wandering around the building doesn't mean the world is on break.

I also hate people who assume that if you're typing, you're not working.

I mean, okay, I'm not working at the moment but I do approximately 40% of my work in e-mail and I do, in fact, have to think about what I'm saying in e-mail, so I'm not "not busy" just because I'm typing.

People are so selfish and self-centered these days. I'm waiting for the moment, and I'm sure it's not far off, when someone comes up and waves their hand in front of my face when I'm on the phone because they feel that whatever they have to say is more important than anything I could be doing with a client.

Whatinthehell happened to writing someone a note if you needed to tell them something and they were busy?

You could put it on a post-it note, send an e-mail, or just stop and ask yourself if I'm on the phone on what is obviously going to be a long, long call, if you really need to tell me you're going to be away from your desk for six minutes?

I mean, do you have any real expectation that I'm going to be picking up your calls if I'm ALREADY ON THE PHONE?

It's not my fault if you've been working with some guy for three years and he never learned to call your company's main phone number instead of the number shared by all of the companies in the suite. If you want to be positive he can reach your voicemail, give him the phone number that goes to your voicemail. I pick up the shared line when the mood strikes me but everyone calling to talk to me has my direct line, so I don't do it often.

Also, you should ask yourself, "Is Anne the company receptionist and secretary?" and if the answer is no, which it is, then you should stop bothering her with this stuff anyhow because it's sexist to assume that just because she's female she's automatically willing to play receptionist for you.

Also, Extension 17 is really pushing his luck. After not showing up for work for the past two weeks, he showed up for his paycheck on Friday. Big surprise, there wasn't one. Since Buehler was leaving town for four days, he cut Extension 17 a temporary check for most of his money. Today Extension 17 came in and said that if he didn't get the rest of it today, he won't be back to work until he does. Says he won't have gas money.

It's entirely outside my area of authority, but I was talking to Buehler and I volunteered to lend Extension 17 twenty bucks for gas money until Friday. Just now I went back to give it to him and HE'S NOT HERE. He has a habit of leaving the light on in his workroom when he slides out of here, making it hard to know when he actually left the building.
This guy really should be on hourly, but he's on salary and there's just no recourse beyond firing him.