Nonfiction Friday

Yeah, switching it up on you today. This week has positively flown by, and I've been informed that they're sending me to El Paso next week for the Day Job. As such, I thought I'd relate a funny little anecdote. We'll call it "Great Moments in Matt's Day Job."

The scene: Mild mannered young professional, Matt, sits in a typical office cube. His walls display several certifications, but are otherwise barren. A corporate calendar is displayed prominently above the clunky Dell laptop, x's drawn through each of the days already spent in service.

Matt swivels to and fro in his chair, connecting complex-looking circuit boards to a fixture, and running a batch of software on his laptop. Cords snake across the desk, hazards for wandering fingers. Matt's head bobs in time to music delivered covertly through earbuds.

Boss enters, a middle-aged man with salt-and-pepper hair, close cropped. His collared shirt is neat, but - this being a business casual environment - there is no tie. Clean khakis round out the uniform.

Boss (sitting): So, we're going to go ahead and have the students do this programming from now on. Makes more sense for them to do it. Problem is, they claim to require a procedure for the task. You know, a step-by-step description of what to do. So, we'll, uh, we'll have to ask you to write that up.

Matt: Already done.

Boss (blinking): Really?

Uncomfortable pause.

Boss: Did someone, like, ask you to do that already?

Matt: Yes, sir. You did.

Boss (blinking): I did?

Matt: Yes, you did. Remember when you mentioned earlier this week that we may eventually be asked to train someone else to do this? You hinted that it might be a good idea to write up a - what did you call it? - procedure. Well, I went ahead and, you know, did it.

Boss: Oh, right. Well, you'll want to get that reviewed.

Matt: I've already given it to the lead engineer for review.

Boss (blinking).

Matt: I think he's been pretty busy, so if you'd like it done right away, you may want to go and, um, urge him to give it a higher priority or something.

Boss (standing): Yes... Yes, I should do that.

Matt: Yep

Uncomfortable pause.

Boss nods and exits the cube.

Matt puts his earbuds back in and immediately notes the conversation for later lulz.

I believe this is called "taking the initiative." Seems to be something of a lost art, these days.