9:17 a.m. - 2012-05-19
JILL
The rumor about Jill is that she likes to push the envelope on goofing off at work until she gets called into the boss's office for a lecture or maybe the initial steps of disciplinary action. Then she improves her behavior for a few weeks, then starts in all over again.

On Thursday Jill and I were at the same work station. She called me from her cell phone, explaining that she was going to be late, and arrived about thirty minutes later. No big deal from my perspective, and in fact she apologized so profusely that I just wanted her to shut up after a while and get back to reality. Her story was that she had a "great workout" (I didn't ask...) the night before, and had slept right through her alarm.

So apology accepted, too much information dutifully ignored, and let's get to work.

Except for the rest of the day Jill disappeared periodically for long intervals and then returned with no explanation. Need to mention here that our job involves a lot of time answering telephones, and it's hard to answer two lines when you're the only person at the work station. Then midway through the day Jill announces that she was in such a hurry to get to work that she didn't shower, so she was going to head to the gym and grab a quick shower. It went like that for the rest of the day.

So on Friday I had the good fortune NOT to have Jill a my assigned coworker. Around lunchtime I was on an errand and passed a conference room where a sales rep was providing lunch for some of the company bigshots. Whom should I see sitting at the table with a satisfied look and a mouthful of Panera's but Jill?

Have you ever seen the look on a cat's face--plus feline body language--that it gets when it manages to perch on the highest spot in the room? Smug, satisfied, safe and superior. That was Jill's look. As if by finding another way to screw off AND snag a free meal, she had accomplished something good and meaningful...

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