Bad Day at the Office

Bad Day at the Office

         I started a new job.  Being the most junior of employees I was seated at the smallest desk and in the worst location of anyone in the office.  One copier served all the employees and it sat directly in front of me.
         
         This copier was the size of a standard bathtub and three times as high.  The exhaust vents were strategically located to direct the air across my desk and, though I moved my desk farther away and off to one side, the smell surrounded me.  The copier ran all day long and I smelled toner burning against the paper and breathed the leftover fumes.  It was nauseating.  When I took my complaint to my boss more than once, she laughed it off.

         One day I thought I’d try a more dramatic approach to getting my point across.  I pretended I fell out of my chair and lay on the floor hoping someone would notice and think I had passed out from the fumes.  A coworker walked by and asked, “What are you doing down there?” and kept walking.

(indent}Another coworker saw me and came rushing over, threw her stack of papers on my desk and knocked over the cup of newly sharpened pencils.  Once the pencils took flight, gravity took over and they fell straight down and stuck in my arm like darts on a dartboard.  Someone else stopped by to help and rolled my chair out of the way not knowing my hair was wrapped around one of the wheels.  My screams proved I was not passed out.

         The accident report was a little difficult to write, but it did get me a desk in a much better location. 


(284 Words including title)