Possibly, A's most annoying quality is his attention span. Easily distracted by TV screens and the like he can lose track, at the drop of a hat, of what is being said or done by you or himself without discrimination.
Many a time, the words I say fall on deaf ears. This occurs especially when I speak to A on the phone at work. The genius thinks that just because I cannot see him, he can go ahead and surf on the web or type emails while I'm talking just by responding 'Achha' or 'Hmmm' or 'And then?' at intervals. Sometimes he throws in an 'I love you' or some sounds of endearment to fill long pauses but this is usually so out of context to the conversation that it results in him getting caught for not paying attention. I can always tell, anyway. But the out-of -context 'I love you' is undeniable evidence.
It so happened one fine Thursday afternoon as I was chattering away happily to him during lunch hour that A saw fit to choose that minute to quickly shoot off a reply email to a potential sponsor for his event. As always, I immediately discerned his waning interest accompanied by the faint tap-tapping noise of the keyboard. As he was typing away, he failed to notice my prolonged silence and growing rage.
'What are you doing?' I snapped at him. 'Why can't you pay attention for 5 minutes in the day when I'm talking to you?'
Guiltily he confessed 'Babe, I'm just quickly shooting off an email to someone who may be interested in sponsoring my conference, it just took a minute."
Angrily I responded "Why can't you wait for a few minutes till I'm done talking? It's not like we are going to talk for an hour! The one time in the day that I call you, you can't just listen properly? Then why do we talk at all during work. Let's just forget it..."
I continued in this vein for a few minutes and A hurriedly saved his email to his drafts folder and turned his full focus on smoothing my ruffled feathers and promised (falsely for the thousandth time) that this would never happen again.
After hanging up the phone, A decided to complete and send that email. So he opened it and gave it a quick once over. To his horror, he discovered that he had ended the email in the following manner:
"... and so, I look forward to having a detailed discussion with you on how we may proceed with this proposal in order to ensure that your sponsorship is of mutual benefit to both our organizations. Thank you. Mwah mwah mwah.
Warm regards,
A. R."
The man fervently thanked his lucky stars that he wasn't able to send the e-mail when he wrote it and temporarily retained the lesson that any one with an attention span of a 4 year old should really refrain from multitasking.
And once again, the woman's snapping saved the day.
8 comments:
golden lesson learned, though the kind of multi-tasking world we live in....we always have a tendency to forget such lessons. I remember one time i ended the an escalation mail with the Party while talking on the phone. Though forgot the lesson quite soon...
well at least you know he's thinking the right thoughts even when he isn't paying attention to you... there's something to be said for that :)
Urfi - were you multi-tasking when you wrote this? what is 'the an escalation mail'? please explain.
Minky - yes that's all very well, but what of the unsuspecting professionals who are in imminent danger of being 'mwah mwah-ed' at all times?
oops did it again....c multitasking lessons are learnt & forgotten.....damn
but he should've posted that email. i don't get it, wouldn't it have ensured "the sponsorship for mutual benefit" and all that?
Suk - it may have led to some expectations from the other party that A would be reluctant to fulfill. But u can go ahead and use this as a tool to market your skills. :-p
when is the next blog coming out....
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