Susan is still on leave. How much leave has that woman got? She’s only been working here for a few months. Ronald was also off on personal leave for some reason. I wonder if he’s got COVID.
When Stuart came in today, I tried to look busy for an hour or so, then went and told him we could do with a temporary casual Man Friday or Woman Wednesday to help around the office, to allow us highly paid professionals to get on with the jobs we’re supposed to be doing. I said the person could mind the phones, run Stuart’s errands instead of Kylie or me, file, photocopy, maybe do some of my data entry. Surprisingly, he was quite receptive and said that he’d been thinking the same thing for quite a while, so I said I had a friend who I thought might fit the bill. He looked at me suspiciously for a minute, as if I had an ulterior motive, so I looked back as if I didn’t, and then he said OK, he will pay for someone for three days a week for the next month, and we’ll see how it goes.
Tonight, when I got home, I told the news to Agnes that she starts next Monday. Her face dropped, she went red, and I thought she was going to burst into tears. She said there is no way she’d be able to do that. Anyway, after about three hours talking and as many glasses of wine, I finally convinced her to give it a go for four weeks. I said I could drive her in and out and would help her out while at work. She finished up just laughing at herself and saying OK.
Great, maybe now I can be a mentor as well as a student.