Your Life and Business

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Ruth and Emily were sitting in a restaurant located not far from their office. They were studying the menu while waiting for Peter, their colleague. It was lunch time. “Do you have Aspirin? I have a slight headache,” Emily asked Ruth.

“She said I’m not friendly,” Sam whined, entering the office. He checked his watch and added slowly, trying to sound relaxed: “Something has made me hungry.” “Who said WHAT?” Emily asked quickly, sipping her coffee.

Mike was sitting beside the window looking at the ocean and enjoying his breakfast of fried eggs with ham and bagel. It was his third day on holiday in Southern California . Great weather, fantastic food, and an excellent hotel made him happy.

Good news travels fast but bad news travels faster. It was a day after Peter had sent an email to his colleagues in which he had informed them about his divorce and Peter had taken the day off.

A strange atmosphere of tension pervaded in the office although Peter was alone there. Maybe it was because of the weather, he thought, as it had been a muggy day. He looked through the window – the dark grey clouds were moving closer and closer with every minute. Suddenly   lightning flashed through the sky. Some seconds later a loud clap followed. Peter turned away and checked his watch – it was late.

It was some time ago when I wrote the last episode about a “virtual” company and its team: John (team leader), Ruth (his deputy), Emily (John’s personal assistant), Mike, Sam, and Peter (team members), Ron (senior manager), Helen (HR manager). My blog is going on – enjoy reading it: The door opened and Mike came into a small conference room. His colleagues, Emily, Peter, and Sam greeted him cheerfully.

Emily had just finished checking her appointments for the next day – it had been a very busy working day at the end of the year. She looked through the window and saw hundreds of starry snowflakes ...

 It was a nice and quiet evening - just a winter evening that John always enjoyed after a working day. He was sipping red wine and listening to music. Suddenly he recognized a well-known melody of the song “Why Does my Heart Feel so Bad?”

Ruth was sitting at her desk looking for something in her bag. It was an early Tuesday afternoon – just an ordinary working day. “Oh, I hate this bag. Each time when I want to find aspirin I can never find it. Maybe the bag is too big…,” Ruth mumbled. “Do you have a headache? Can I help you?” Mike asked her empathetically. Ruth nodded: “Thank you. I’ve just had a lunch with a colleague. She was talking non-stop and it made me crazy. Why can’t people listen?”

“Actually, I wanted to leave earlier today,” Emily said looking at her watch “it’s 17h30… John is still having a meeting with Ron. If John comes …” She frowned and sighed fixing her eyes on her watch again: “Why should work always come first?”

It was the second day of a very unusual teambuilding event. Ruth was hurriedly sipping coffee thinking about John’s unexpected idea of delegating authority to the team. She was glad that he was not going to change the team model. However, she knew John well enough and guessed there might be some hidden thoughts or plans.

It was a nice sunny summer’s day. John and his team were on their way to a countryside hotel where they were going to spend two days together. It was the so-called team-building event that they had every year. Each time it was almost the same – some sport activities, workshops, some kind of treasure hunt.

John came back to the office after a long afternoon meeting and was extremely glad to see all his team members lively discussing something. It was 17h30, the end of the working day, but he had some time for sharing thoughts and hearing feedback for the day. Interestingly, such discussions often helped him to bring the whole team together.

It was 08h30. Sam, Emily, John, and Peter were in the office. It was just an ordinary Monday morning but something was different. John was waiting for Mike, the new employee, that had been hired due to Helen’s courageous engagement. It was Mike’s first working day and John wanted to make it great because he knew that an employee’s first day on the job could be stressful. He looked quickly through the welcome activities plan. “Well, a comfortable working place, computer, Sam will do …, lunch…,” John murmured. Suddenly the door opened and Helen walked into the office: “Good morning, everybody!” She was not alone – a handsome man followed her. It was Mike. Helen introduced him to the team. John was the first who welcomed the new employee. “Hey, welcome,” Peter muttered and thought “he should be a nice coworker.” Emily gave Mike an up-down-over look as if she was going to say “It’s impossible not to like you - such a charming smile and soft voice.” Then she looked at Sam whose face expres...

Helen was on her way to Ron’s office. She knew it would be a difficult meeting because he was strongly against the hire of “older” people. Mike, the 55 year old applicant, had made a very good impression on Helen during the job interview and she was glad that John supported her decision to hire him. However, the biggest obstacle was Ron.

Helen was sitting in her office reading job applications. It was 11h30 and she was surprised how quickly time was flying. Helen looked curiously at the next application and started reading it. Suddenly the words “I am 55 years old but I am not without ambitions,” attracted her attention.

Helen entered the conference room where Ron and John were listening to Peter’s presentation on napping. “Sorry, I am late,” Helen said as she took her seat near Ron. Being the HR manager she was glad to use every opportunity to learn more about employees’ concerns.

Peter was sitting at his desk staring at a laptop screen. The noise of the big city was coming through the half open window. He liked his small home office where he could work and relax. But this time he was concerned because John had given him a very challenging task: prepare a presentation on the advantages of napping in the work place.

Ruth was still in the office sitting at her desk. She had just finished writing e-mails. Her mobile rang. It was John: “Ruth, where are you? We are waiting for you.” She looked at her watch. It was 19h00, high time to hurry up to the happy hour. “I am on my way. See you soon,” Ruth lied and didn’t know why. She grabbed her coat and went out.