Sure, I’ll Help With Your Pet
A faint elevator bing pokes through her computer focus. She can sense who is coming, without even looking. A bent woman, with a cane, a cardigan, a shawl for extra warmth, and a fistful of paperwork in an arthritic hand. She moves like a miniature on the horizon, toward her door, down an extraordinarily long hallway.
The woman makes her way with bluish upswept hair. Her floral skirt brushes her calves as she ambles and sways. A cream and mauve vision, juxtaposed against the burgundy walls and smoky berber carpet.
Moments pass, and now she knows the woman is passing through the fruity air freshener puff, that wafts invisibly out from under the bathroom door and into the hallway.
Several moments again pass, until crooked fingers rattle the bronze doorknob on her redwood-stained door. Swinging it open slowly, she brings the fruity air cloud with her, trapped in the numerous folds of her skirt, cardigan and shawl.
“Can you help me register my pet?”, she sweetly warbles.
“Yes ma’am,” her most professional voice coos in response. “I can help with your pet.”
You’d think finally making it from the apartment into an actual office building would be a boon for our startup digital agency.
But alas: “moving up” in our case meant “moving in” – to a sublease. We shared office space with our client, no less! A risky move to be sure, with potential to spin into a quick nightmare. But thankfully unlike other clients, they were our fans. And, they had us right where they wanted us: at their beck-and-call for challenging web projects.
This particular client registered pets across the city. And walk-ins were welcome.
We packed our bodies into every available space that winter – sales people working the phones in hallways, and a single production room at the back for developers. Inconveniently for me, a “Project” and “General” Manager of all trades, I took up a nook right near their front door.
Which meant that I became a defacto Pet Registration Guide, ushering people from all walks of life into the bowels of our client’s office for assistance.
Mostly, I received confused “Am I in the right place?” kinds of looks, as incomers peered at our web agency signage emblazoned on the adjacent wall. I found myself explaining “yes, yes” most of the day, whilst simultaneously guiding creatives in producing web designs.
Recognizing the customer’s confusion, our client soon placed a rightful “Pet Representative” by the front door. I moved into the production room: notoriously cited at one point for being a fire hazard, given the masses of designers and web developers packed into the space.
But I felt I had arrived: overlooking a beautiful treed Texas landscape, with no more responsibilities for watering plants (except for my own small cactus on a spacious window sill). Surrounded by up-and-coming talent, and fast friends: Bone, Presto, Sass, Beckums and Dame.
This experience created a powerful lesson learned: when it’s not your job, just help. Greet the occasion with professionalism, and treat every circumstance with graciousness. You can’t go wrong.
As always, I hope you enjoyed this and it brightened your day.
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