The story of the beaver and the jellyfish

Here I am, staring into the screen of my PC. Trying to look busy. That’s my target most days… trying to look busy. Am I not busy, you ask. Well, no. When I’m swamped, I’m swamped. When there’s absolutely nothing, I’m left high and dry.

I’m one of those who cannot work with a messy desk or workstation. I like to keep everything neat and in its place. Everything on my desk has its own proper place. Plus I file all documents as soon as I receive them, leaving none to pile up in my trays. My in-tray is almost always empty, unless I go on leave for a few days. Even my desktop in my PC is clean. I do download, but to store them on the desktop? Tacky and menyemakkan. What can I say, I’m a geek. I’ve seen those signs which say A clean desk is a sign of a sick mind. Maybe that’s true. Hahaha!

I had a colleague once who was so messy. She manages to mess up other people’s places with her clutter as her own place looks like a beaver’s home. I don’t understand it. Papers stacked a mile high. Two or three coffee cups stained with lipstick and crawling with lil ants. No leg room what with the storage boxes under her desk. No available space to write on her desk. Books, files, magazines fight for space. Her partitions? Filled with notices, brochures, and little scribbled notes which upon closer inspection is from two years ago. Her PC is framed with yellow post-its. Her phone is there somewhere, underneath all that clutter. So how does she do her work? I don’t know. That’s why she’s always at other people’s workstations. Other people with neat desks and clean desktops. Other people like me. Why am I always the mangsa?

One time, I was away from work for about a week, and when I came back, I had a beaver’s apartment under construction on my desk. And my desktop was half full with all the things she’d downloaded and copied and pasted and what not. She apologised and said her PC rosak. How to get angry like that? Just grin and bear it lorr….

Okay someone get me some spine….