Twenty-Two

My Dear Fellow,

Er Indoors worries about me in my current job. "You've become institutionalised," she warns. "You'll get a shock when you have to do an actual day's work."

It is true. From my initial shock and dismay at how little I am allowed to do, and how inert I am forced to be, I have got used to it. Now I can take an entire morning to arrange a meeting. Writing up the notes afterward can take WEEKS.

However, Replacement Me already seems to be in the swing of things. I told him what I currently do.

"I'm not sure I can do all that," he complained. "There was no mention of some of those things in the interview." He is going to take it up with our manager.

As you may recall, I gave him some brief notes on Monday to describe the job and the background to our project. "Read those through and then if you've got questions we can chat," I said.

Because I like to be helpful. You know me. And honestly, they were good notes. I wish I'd had them when I started.

He has taken 3 days to read through them. They didn't even take me that long to write. "Do you have any questions?" I asked.

"Not yet, I'm drawing a diagram," he explained. Then he showed me an organisation chart, which roughly represents the team make-up as described in my notes.

"Okay," I said.

"I'll speak to you once it is finished," he went on. And then spent the rest of the day armed with a pencil and rubber, writing and re-writing the diagram.

I think he's going to fit in here just fine.

Parsones

p.s. Also, he's one of those people who does that tuneless little, "Tch-tch-tch, tch-tch-tch" thing all the time. It hasn't driven me bonkers yet, but we'll get there by week 3.