My boss, bless her dear heart (I am practicing being southern,) has a mother, who not only calls ten and twelve times a day, but visits at least once.

This practice is not necessarily looked down upon since we have a very laid-back work place. For that matter, most everyone here takes personal calls, quite frequently on their business line.

Frequently, my boss is away from her desk, well, allot of people in the department are away from their desks frequently, so I end up handling their calls. Half the time, it is family members who are NOT content to leave a message. No. I must go find them. RIGHT NOW, DAMMIT!

This is not once a day. This is several times, over and over. Things like "You got a letter in the mail." Or, "Your out of milk."

My boss, once her mother has called, normally feels the need for a stress-relieving smoke. Predictably, Miss Mother calls her back, THE MOMENT SHE STEPS OUT THE DOOR. So, I sweetly promise to pass along the message and HANG UP AS FAST AS I CAN.

My boss will not call Miss Mother back.

So, this is a endless cycle. At first, it wasn't so bad, but it seems every time I turn around, my phone is ringing and it is MISS MOTHER CALLING.

And this is only ONE of the people whose phone I end up answering. Someone, somewhere feel sorry for me. I think this would be the first time in my life I would lobby for corperate policy against personal phone calls on company time.


Or she could just pitch a tent in the middle of our office space. That should solve things nicely.