Office

The music filling the hallway of the Mesa office was interrupted from time to time today by a cheerful woman saying she can’t wait to start the Christmas music. She doesn’t say when this travesty starts but if it does before Thanksgiving I plan to call the radio station and say something most unseemly. I suppose I could sabotage the clinic stereo system (child’s play) but that sounds extreme. I may just change the channel and see how long someone connects the dots before turning it back to cheap Christmas trash.

Like a lot of workplaces with a lot of people and few protocols no one seems in charge of community things. Who determines the radio channel remains a mystery. Even more mysterious is the person(s) in charge of the clinic fridge. Right now it is overflowing with half-consumed beverage bottles and unidentified lunch leftovers from the time of The Punic Wars. I used to go through the kitchen cupboards to discard items older than five years old but I fear by doing so I am enabling the dysfunction.

I remind myself I am an employee; how the boss-man (and woman) run their place and how it looks is not my job. I can only be responsible for my parts. I have purged my desk of unnecessary do-dads and bricolages which leaves me with only some blank forms and tea things. There are a few odd-ends I can’t make up my mind about whether or not to keep. In the lower drawer in the back is a full-sized plastic replica of the human brain. One doesn’t just drop this into the rubbish bin I suppose. Can it be recycled along with the plastic water bottles?

When I inherited my Mesa office and contents I was surprised to find in the desk drawer next to the stapler and scotch tape dispenser a single packet condom. Goodness knows how it got there or what it was for. I notice its expiration date is 12/2012, so it doesn’t have much use but as a prop. I think I will leave it in the drawer for the next person to find or maybe I shall toss it out with the brain. Imagine the custodian going through the rubbish and finding that combination……