on the phone

I wonder if Matt has noticed that I only bring things into his office when he is on the phone. For example if a package comes, even if marked "RUSH", I don't take it into his office until he has gotten back on the phone. If he asks me to make a copy, I make the copy then sit at my desk, stare at the phone, and wait for him to pick up his line and start talking. Why you ask? Because if I go in there when he is on the phone the chance of him giving me more work to do decreases significantly. The chances of idle chit chat are about zero.

I just place whatever it is on his desk and turn around before he gets a chance to tell me to "wait one sec". But every once in a while I knock some stuff over on his desk and in the extra second or two I spend returning things to their original spot in the pile he comes up with some kind of annoying task for me. I suppose it is my job but I like the arrangement we have. I do nothing, and he doesn't seem to mind.

My system usually keeps me without much to do, which I don't mind, the only problems occur when it is really quiet in the office. Like today for example, it seems everyone has decided to take the day off, or "work from home", so the phones have been quiet. Usually that just gives me extra time to read my book and play on the internet. But it gets annoying when I have something to bring into him. Do I take it in and take the chance that he will have something waiting for me? Do I take the chance that I will have to talk about how my weekend was and how his weekend was? Or do I just wait until someone calls?

It is bad enough I already know I have to make a trip to accounting and copy some crap this afternoon, the thought of anything more than that is just too much to handle. So I wait. Hoping one of the annoying partners will call and keep him on the phone long enough for me to sneak in and out of his office. The phone is bound to ring eventually. The worst is when I go in there because I see he is on the phone, just to find out when I walk into his office that he has already hung up. That's a real bummer.

Unfortunately today I have to request some pretty heavy vacation time, not to mention the fact that I have to take off for jury duty next week, and have missed lots of days for "appointments". He is probably starting to question my dedication to the job. But my vacation time has already been approved by the people that matter, so its not like he can say no or anything.

The excitement of Gmail chat has faded slightly so work is pretty boring these days. Although I am about to quit. Even though I really hate it here I feel a twinge of guilt at the thought of quitting. I am not quite sure why. If they hated me as much as I hated them, they wouldn't feel bad about firing me at all.