Peter Campbell was more than a little annoyed. "Miss Moore! Miss Moore! Damn, where is that girl now!" he said, as he looked all over the office for his secretary. "I swear that woman cannot sit still long enough to finish anything! I need those proposals typed up and ready for my presentation first thing tomorrow morning!"
Not finding her, he turned to another girl in the office. "Mrs. Thompson, could you do me a huge favor and finish typing up these proposals. I have to meet with Mr. Davidson first thing tomorrow morning and I can't find Miss Moore anywhere."
"Sure Mr. Campbell, I'd be happy to. I'm almost done with what I was working on anyway... I can have these on your desk by the end of the day," she said with a smile.
"Thank you, Mrs. Thompson, you just saved my butt! Corporate would not be happy if we blew this account because we weren't ready! This is a big account and will mean a big boost for the company... and a big bonus for us if we pull it off!" he said.
"Well, we can all use a bonus–especially this time of year!" she said.
"Isn't that the truth! Christmas just seems to get more and more expensive every year! Funny thing is, I'm buying fewer presents this year, but spending more money doing it!" he said.
"Try raising a teen-aged daughter some time, then you can tell me about expensive!" Mrs. Thompson giggled. Then she turned and headed back to her desk with the proposal to type it up.
A few minutes later Miss Moore came back, oblivious to what had transpired while she was gone. That is until Mr. Campbell called her into his office.
"Miss Moore, please come into my office for a moment," he said over the intercom.
Miss Moore came in a moment later with her pad and pen, assuming he wanted to dictate a letter or something. "You wanted to see me, Sir?"
"Yes. Could you close the door then come have a seat here. We need to talk about something," he said.
She closed the door and came over sitting on the chair in front of his large imposing desk. "What is it, Sir?" she asked innocently.
"Miss Moore–may I call you Crystal?" he asked.
"Yes, Sir."
"Okay Crystal, we have a problem. You seem to spend a lot of time away from your desk and I have to wonder if you are getting your work done.
"This afternoon I looked for you to see how you were doing on the Davidson proposal and I couldn't find you anywhere. Then I looked at the file and you hadn't even begun typing it up! You are aware that I need it tomorrow morning when I meet with Mr. Davidson to discuss the deal."
"I'm sorry, Sir, but I had to use the ladies' room. Then, on my way back, one of the girls was having troubles with a program on her computer and I was helping her," Crystal said.
"Crystal, your job and your responsibility are to be my secretary. That is your desk over there and you work for me. That is what you were hired for and that is why you get a paycheck every two weeks.
"This company spends a lot of money to have our IT people here. She could have called them to help her with the computer," he said.
"Yes, Sir. I will get on that proposal right now and..." she started to say.
"Nevermind, I already gave it all to Mrs. Thompson to type up. I couldn't find you and didn't know if you were going to get it done in time. This is a huge account and my tail is on the line if it falls through," he said.
"I'm sorry, Sir."
"Crystal, this is not the first time this kind of thing has happened. And it isn't fair for me to have to give your work to someone else to do because you are off doing something someplace else. You don't even tell me when you are leaving–I have to come in here and find you MIA again!" he said.
"Mr. Campbell, I'm really very sorry, but you see I suffer from ADHD... Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. It's not a real bad case–I mean, I can get by on my own. It's just that I can't seem to stay focused on one thing for very long. I get everything done, it's just that I do a little here and a little there.
"I had problems with this in school too... I couldn't sit still long enough to complete my work all the time. In grade school where we had one classroom all day long it was terrible. Once I got into high school and we had several classes a day it was a little more tolerable," she explained.
"I see. Well, Crystal, I am sorry that you have such a terrible time with this. I have a nephew with the same problem and I can tell you he's a handful.
"But the fact remains that this is a place of business and no matter what goes on during the day, the end result has to be that we do what we must to turn a profit. If we don't, we don't survive as a company.
"I'm sorry, Crystal, but if I can't count on you doing your work, I'm going to have to let you go and put someone in here that I can depend on," Peter said.
"Please, Sir! Please, don't fire me! I'll do anything you want! Please, I need this job! I like working here. I will try to focus more, I promise!" she implored him.
"Well, I'm not going to do anything today. Let me think on it and see if I can come up with something that will work for all involved," he said.
"Thank you, Sir! Thank you for giving me a chance! You are a wonderful man and a great boss. I promise I will try harder to stay focused."
Crystal went back to her desk and got straight to work. And despite the urge to get up and move around, she stayed for the next four hours until it was time to go home.
Meanwhile about two hours after his conversation with Crystal, Mrs. Thompson came by his office with the prepared proposal. "Mr. Campbell? Sir, I have the Davidson proposal all typed and ready for you," she said.
"Oh thank goodness! Thank you, Mrs. Thompson, I really appreciate this," he said. "I'm sorry I had to drop this in your lap, but I had a long talk with Miss Moore and I let her know I wasn't too happy with her leaving her desk all the time. I basically told her that if I couldn't count on her to do her work, I would have to let her go."
"I'm sorry to hear that. Crystal is a nice girl and we are friends. Yes, she's a little bubble-headed but aside from work, it's kind of cute. She's like a hummingbird–always busy, but getting nothing done!" she giggled.
"Yes but this IS work and things need to get done," he said.
"I agree." then she looked out the door at Crystal. "Mind if we talk a moment Mr. Campbell?"
"No, what's on your mind?" he asked.
Mrs. Thompson went to close his door so they could talk privately. Coming back to his desk, she sat down. "I have an idea that might work. It's kind of unorthodox, but I don't want to see Crystal leave," she started.
"I'm listening..."
"Well, the problem with Crystal seems to be her leaving her desk all the time and going in search of another flower, to use the hummingbird analogy. But what if she couldn't what if we clipped those hummingbird wings a bit so she couldn't fly off whenever the mood struck her?" Mrs. Thompson said.
"How could we do that?"
"Simple. Chain her to her desk!"
"WHAT? We can't do that!" he said.
"Listen, Mr. Campbell, you are a good man and wonderful to work for. You pay us an above the average salary and you give us all plenty of benefits and other perks. We all love working here and no one wants to quit or get fired.
"If chaining Crystal to her desk helps her focus and get her work done keeping her here, then no one will complain–especially her.
"She has told me how hard it has been for her to find a job she likes and can do. She won't put up much of a fight... after the initial shock of the idea, at least. And you won't have to try to find a replacement that will fit into our little family."
"But what would someone outside the company think if they saw it? And what if there was an emergency?" he asked.
"Mr. Campbell, we have a receptionist downstairs to greet anyone coming to the office. She can let us know if there will be a visitor.
"And as for emergencies, they make remote-controlled locks that can be unlocked via Bluetooth linked to a cellphone. You wouldn't even need to get out of your chair to unlock her if she needed to use the restroom or if there was an emergency of some sort. Just create a panic button on your phone that would automatically unlock her.
"Sir, this is only until she can get her impulses under control and it beats having to fire her–for her benefit, as well as ours. It's not the best solution, I'm sure, but it will work, it won't cost much, and it is immediate–unlike therapy or counseling or something," Mrs. Thompson said.
"I just don't need the Labor Relations people coming over telling me that I am being sued for unfair work practices or something," he said.
"Mr. Campbell, the people in the office here will know what's going on and why. We all like Crystal and we all really like you. We don't want to see either of you leave. Janet down in reception will be our watchdog, and the rest of us will back you up should anything be said about this. We are a team here and we have each other's backs," she said, putting her hand on his shoulder.
All the rest of the day Peter thought about the situation with Crystal. It was a close call and had it not been for Mrs. Thompson helping out, they would surely have lost the Davidson account–an account that could conceivably bring in as much as a hundred thousand dollars to the company, maybe more.
