I did something really stupid yesterday.

The trucker�s daughter has made a habit of keeping tabs on the comings and goings of my assistant. My poor sainted assistant has found herself in the unenviable position of being lunch partner to the trucker�s daughter. She is much too nice to ever say anything directly to the trucker�s daughter but she deeply resents being monitored by her.

As a sort of joke, I wrote a note on a post it note to the trucker�s daughter:

FYI
It pisses ~insert assistant�s name here~ off when you comment on her arrival time. It doesn�t matter if you say �She�s here� or �You�re here early� it still pisses her off. Just thought you might want to know.

I put it on the trucker�s daughter�s computer screen. My assistant asked me to take it down and I told her if she wanted it down she could take it down but I wasn�t going to and I left for the day. She evidently got distracted and didn�t remember the note until she was well on her way home.

I didn�t sign the note as it was obviously on paper from my desk, written with my pen, in my own hand, with my trademark perfect punctuation. Dim as the trucker�s daughter is, it shouldn�t have taken a team from Scotland Yard or one of �Blue�s Clues,� for that matter, to alert her to the fact that I wrote this note and in fact another coworker told me that she immediately deduced the source upon the initial reading of the note.

I expected her to confront me about the note at which time I would say in perfect imitation of one of her saccharine disclaimers, �I was just trying to help. You didn�t seem to notice how mad that makes her.�

Instead, I was called into a conference room by my supervisor and found our manager there waiting. The manager tells me that a note was placed on the computer terminal of another team member and after comparing handwriting samples of the team *as if* it has been determined that I probably wrote this note.

�I did write that note.� *Picture Sa doing everything in her power to keep from rolling her eyes at the ludicrousness of this discussion and their assumption that she might try to deny being the author of the note.*

�Why did you write the note?�

�To let the trucker�s daughter know that that behavior pisses off my sainted assistant�

�It was unprofessional for you to leave this note.� * Okay, you got me dead to rights there. *

�The trucker�s daughter was very upset, she was crying and saying she wanted to leave the team.� *Extreme self-control of the eye-rolling reflex exhibited by Sa at this point*

�Also according to company guidelines, this note can be construed as harassment.� *Incredulous wide-eyed look from Sa.*

�We will have to investigate the company guidelines and decide what we are going to do about this and we will get back with you this afternoon.� *Sa trudges back over to her desk.*

Then they call my sainted assistant in there and reduce her to tears by telling her that she should have brought this treatment she was receiving to the attention of the supervisor. She already feels guilty for not having remembered to remove the note and now they make her feel as if everyone on the team has heard her complaining incessantly about the trucker�s daughter�s inordinate attention to her schedule and yet she has said nothing to the proper authorities.

The trucker�s daughter has, of course, by this time left as she was only working a half-day today. The prot�g� has figured out that something is going on and asks me what is happening to which I rather tersely reply, �Nothing.�

I heard my supervisor back over at her desk so I went over and asked in typically blunt Sa style, �Should I be concentrating on trying to get some work done or should I just go ahead and pack my shit?�

�You aren�t going anywhere.�

I didn�t hear back from my manager and I went about doing whatever I pleased for the rest of the day safe in the knowledge that I could chalk-up my lack of productivity to the stressfulness of the day and my concern about the trucker�s daughter and having upset her so.

Hardly the ending she envisioned, I�m sure.

Sa-land

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