When They Expect You To Hold The Presses

(I’m an administration assistant in an accountancy firm, and part of my job involves dropping various deliveries to people as they arrive throughout the day. Many people, especially higher-ups, seem to have no idea what my day-to-day actually involves, so I’m frequently brought queries about things that I’m not responsible for delivering, like newspapers. This one starts with an e-mail.)

PA: “[My Name], we didn’t get a [Newspaper] for [Ill-tempered Partner]. Can we source a spare or send someone out to get one?

(I head to said partner’s department, and see him in his office reading a different newspaper, which he also gets on a daily basis. It’s just about lunchtime, so I wait for him to storm off, which he does with a demand for his ‘missing’ paper. I’m five seconds in his office.)

Me: *to PA* “Found it.”

PA: “Where?”

Me: “Underneath the one he was reading.”

(Later that day, I get an email from one of our accountants in another office, asking about a file that was sent in to another partner and seems to have not arrived. The email thread before I am included holds his comment that he never got it. While I wait for him to leave his desk – it’s just about finishing time – I cover my bases by visiting everyone who got a delivery around the same time, to check if I left it with theirs by accident. Two trainees are also searching the whole floor. When I come back, the partner is gone. Two minutes later I call the accountant who emailed me.)

Me: “I found that file.”

Accountant: “Where was it?”

Me: “Underneath a bunch of others at the corner of his desk.”

(Naturally, no apologies were offered, at least not by the partners whose items ‘I’ had lost.)