One of my objectives after my last work experience was to have a better relationship with my boss and colleagues. I have decided that it was ok to be friendly, but there were certain rules I needed to follow:
- my private life (wait, do I have one?) is private. No one needs to know about the men queueing up in front of my house every day of the week.
- never complain (one of my biggest mistakes)
- do not make up excuses if you make a mistake (another thing I've always been good at)
- express yourself clearly and succintly
- remember you are here to work
At first sticking to them is not easy, I admit, but it worked. My social interaction with colleagues was limited to a sleepy: "Jutro!" in the morning and an occasional smile, until I decided that establishing some kind of human contact wouldn't do any harm to anyone. I started taking regular breaks and go for a fast "walk" down the corridor. Most doors are closed and all you can hear is the sound of frantic typing. However, some colleagues have discovered they actually don't mind interacting with other human beings, albeit for a quick: "Is everything alright?"
That's what my tutor does too. She's a very reserved and quiet person indeed, but she's also incredibly nice, competent and efficient. Since she's such a nice tutor, I have decided I am going to be a good tutee and make sure she's not working too much. The day before yesterday, ten minutes before I had to leave, I decided to go to say 'hi' to her. As I walked in she looked at me and shook her head going:
"I am going crazy with this financial report. Just as well I have someone to keep me company here in the office."
True, our offices are big, but not so big for me not to notice another human being in the room. I looked around thinking that maybe she had managed to bring in a dog/cat/rabbit, but all I could see were heaps of paper, more paper, dictionaries and more dictionaries. I thought:
"This is it, she's lost it, buh-bye tutor!"
She noticed my bewildered look and turned quickly to her desk. On the right side of the keyboard was an upside-down yoghurt lid and on it lied a tiny wee brown beetle.
"I just couldn't throw him out of the window. With this cold weather he would freeze instantly!" she said. "I gave him water, thinking he might be thirsty. I then thought he is probably also hungry. I had no idea what I could feed him, so I tried with a piece of tangerine. You wouldn't imagine how happy he was. He just wouldn't get away from it. I even started talking to him, but in the afternoon he suddenly disappeared and I have to admit I was a bit offended, I thought he liked me!" she said, clearly amused.
Her face darkened and she went:
"I really hope the cleaning ladies won't kill him. They seem to have the urge to re-arrange things their own way."
I couldn't agree more: cleaning ladies can be extremely annoying. I also felt sympathy for these two lost souls who just found each other, so I suggested:
"Why don't you write a note saying: 'Vous êtes priés de ne pas toucher mon animal de compagnie' or put a notice on your door saying: 'Accès intérdit - bête à l'intérieur'."
Both of us probably imagined the face the cleaning lady would make and we burst out laughing. We just couldn't stop. It took us about ten minutes to pull ourselves together. When I eventually managed to make a straight enough face to leave my tutor's office, we both had tears in our eyes and I am pretty sure some colleagues who saw me teary-eyed wondered what was wrong.
I guess this was the end of my career as a a serious and professional trainee. The good side of the story is that I now know the words for beetle, cockroach and cockchafer in all six languages (yes, even in Swedish). The bad side is that I'll associate beetles with my tutor for the rest of my life!
P.S. In case you were wondering what happened to the new institutional pet...He's alive and happy in his new environment. Let's see if he survives the weekend :)
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