Today at work I had a lot of deadlines and I needed strict concentration to get through my tasks on time. My desk is in a fairly open area with a lot of traffic coming and going and a lot of noise. I could not escape to a conference room and shut the door for my needed peace because I needed the functionality of my dual monitors in able to do my job. It was just about noon when I had finished up with phone calls and was getting ready to hunker down.
I thought to myself "how am I going to let people know not to bother me please." I quickly found a piece of 81/2" x 11" paper and wrote "Do Not Disturb .. . please" on it and promptly reached awkwardly back and pinned it to the back of my sweater. I turned back toward my desk, hooked up my iPod and began to work feverishly away. In a little while as people were returning from lunch, I heard a few people chuckling and I heard a comment something like "only Rita." I smiled to myself and kept on working like a mad woman as the clock was ticking.
It wasn't until a couple of hours later that I turned around to ask my co-worker a technical question. He was seated at a table with a few other people having a little mini-meeting in the center of our work area. As I turned, my iPod got twisted up so I had to turn back toward my desk and untangle myself before I could address him with my question.
What to my surprise when I finally looked over there again . . .my co-workers, unbeknownst to me, had taken a picture of my back side with the sign hanging there. One of them had saved it as their screen saver and in the time that I had glance away to untagle my iPod they had displayed the picture up on our big screen monitor. Everybody roared with laughter when they saw my reaction to that picture. It was a great laugh. What a great tension reliever on a day that was fraught with stress. . . but I guess you probably had to be there to experience the true effect.
I thought to myself "how am I going to let people know not to bother me please." I quickly found a piece of 81/2" x 11" paper and wrote "Do Not Disturb .. . please" on it and promptly reached awkwardly back and pinned it to the back of my sweater. I turned back toward my desk, hooked up my iPod and began to work feverishly away. In a little while as people were returning from lunch, I heard a few people chuckling and I heard a comment something like "only Rita." I smiled to myself and kept on working like a mad woman as the clock was ticking.
It wasn't until a couple of hours later that I turned around to ask my co-worker a technical question. He was seated at a table with a few other people having a little mini-meeting in the center of our work area. As I turned, my iPod got twisted up so I had to turn back toward my desk and untangle myself before I could address him with my question.
What to my surprise when I finally looked over there again . . .my co-workers, unbeknownst to me, had taken a picture of my back side with the sign hanging there. One of them had saved it as their screen saver and in the time that I had glance away to untagle my iPod they had displayed the picture up on our big screen monitor. Everybody roared with laughter when they saw my reaction to that picture. It was a great laugh. What a great tension reliever on a day that was fraught with stress. . . but I guess you probably had to be there to experience the true effect.
