Saturday, October 25, 2008

Speaking of Manners ...

My last post reminded me of a man I worked with. He had NO manners. It still makes me laugh when I think of this.



Just a little background. Before I had Madelyn I was a Corporate Office Manager in Alexandria, VA. Sounds big doesn't it? It wasn't. It was me an 3 executives. I was a lonely office manager. The 3 executives were men who weren't much for conversation. I need conversation even if it's just work related.



Okay, so the one man actually lived in TX, but he would come up to work most weeks. Well, one day I was ordering lunch and asked him if he would like me to order something for him. He said he wanted some kind of salami sandwich (I had never heard of the type of salami), not your typical lunch order for the little sandwich shop in the next building.



Of course, the shop didn't have his type of salami so I inform (let's just call him Joe) Joe of this. He gets so angry and yells, "Well, tell her she can just go to hell!" Yes, that's right. I am supposed to inform the nice lady on the phone who probably has never even heard of the type of salami he asked for that she can go to hell. Yes. That was Joe, a hard-core German man, who I swear was born in the wrong century. He always wore a 3-piece suit with an ascot. And, he would pick his nose at his desk and go on typing away on his computer. eek. I stayed as far away from his computer as I could.



The funny thing about him though was that when it came to his wife and children he was always so sweet. So, in between dropping the f-bomb, yelling at people on the phone, hanging up on them, he would then answer a call from his wife, "Hello sweetheart! How are you?"



And, when I later talked to Joe on the phone. I was home with Madelyn at that point. He was very kind and said if I ever needed anything to let him know. Aw.



Nice Joe was so nice. Mean Joe was so mean.

1 comment:

Mrs. J said...

isn't that why we got to know each other so well? Because you were a lonely office manager & I...well, we talked how many times a day back then? Sheesh. Remember when we actually HAD to work? HA! Such an inconvenience it was to our conversations about Jack Diamond in the morning:)