"Where's my desk?"

Friday, June 25, 2010

I had a very unnerving experience today. I work for an agency that has me in two locations, with offices in both. I went to my secondary location today, headed to my office, unlocked the door and walked in. I stopped just inside the door because the office was all wrong. My first impression was that I was in the wrong place…but no…it was right. I’d had an L-shaped desk, but it was gone. In its place was a simple, wooden desk, scratched, dirty and missing laminated edges. Files of clients I had left out on my desk were, I hoped, in a pile in a box on top of a filing cabinet. As for the things I’d had inside the desk…well…there was no way of telling. The computer was sitting on the window sill and, in a nutshell, it looked like the place had been ransacked.

I don’t work directly for the agency in which I had this office and I didn’t really know where to start to find out what had happened. I was feeling shock and anger. I felt violated…like someone had broken into my house and gone through personal things. This place was mine, I thought, but clearly someone else did not. I knew the CFO of the company from my home office since until recently, he had worked there, as well. I went to his office and explained the situation. I think he was angrier than I and embarrassed for the agency he represented. He came with me to my office to witness the situation and, I think, this made him angrier, still. We went together to the head administrator of the organization and she fumbled. She knew what had happened though hadn’t been personally responsible and was also embarrassed to have to face me, the victim. We returned to the office where I tried to determine if all of my files and paperwork was there. I really couldn’t be sure and since the door had been left unlocked (I discovered) there would never be any way of knowing.

Another employee of the agency came by and admitted to knowing who had done the desk switch and why. It was needed by someone else because they had new equipment coming that needed such a desk and so the person who orchestrates office equipment throughout the building determined that taking my desk would be a logical answer. Calling, emailing, or leaving me a note as to what had happened…or was about to happen…was not something that occurred to her and so I was left to walk into an office a day later and discover the situation and have only questions.

What goes through the brains of some people? What would ever make anyone think that such an action, without explanation, could possibly be acceptable? How does she even begin to hold a job of responsibility? She is so far beyond the Peter Principle that it’s laughable…except for people trying to work with her or the agency she represents. Oh well…when I get this frustrated…

I run.

I decided an hour was appropriate and if it had to be slow…so be it. I started with short, choppy steps hoping this would make the early going on my still-sore abs feel better. I noticed after 10 minutes I was feeling pretty good and moving reasonably fast. I hit the normal 26-minute point in 24 minutes and though it was quite muggy, I felt good throughout and arrived at the stream in 58 minutes – 2 minutes faster than ever before. There was a hiker with five dogs utilizing the cooling effects of the water. They were a friendly bunch and didn’t seem to mind sharing the stream with me. Once I plunged in though, they stopped lapping the water so much. They knew what my sweat would do to it.

Run duration: 61 minutes.

Training Heart Rate: 140.

Calories burned during workout: 1025.