So this morning, I decided, for a change, I was going to read the newspaper — the real one, not the online versions I ordinarily read — at my desk. Instead, today, however, I was going to go one step further.

As many of you may remember from such made-for-blog posts as “my company” and “my company part duh” (see “More Company Fun” for some enjoyment), my company has a habit of being the most passive aggressive I’ve ever worked for. Well, today it reached a new zenith. This morning, I was reading the Wall Street Journal (specifically an article on Judith Miller and journalistic freedoms, for those of you who care), and the controller…no, excuse me, Assistant Controller (its something I’ve heard ad nauseum, so I can’t screw it up)…came up to me and started talking.

Now, normal people would put the paper down and start to listen. I am not normal, however. Not only did I not put down the paper, I didn’t even move. I basically acted as if I didn’t hear her. So, as she started, “So, I called someone this morning…” at which point she realized I wasn’t listening. So, she just walked off. After a few minutes, she came back, and started talking. I was onto an article talking about the US Economy moving to a more service based economy as opposed to a manufacturing economy, and didn’t respond again. So, she walked off again.

This was becoming fun. So, I started doing it with other people as they came up to my desk. They were much more persistent, however. They’d just stand there waiting for me to notice them. That became annoying, so it began a standoff. I would keep reading. They would keep standing there.

Sometimes, I really love my work. Oh well, back to tormenting people…