Dialogue from the trenches with a junior employee:
- Her: Isn’t [person’s name] misspelled on that slide? If so, I’ll change it.
- Me: You already know his correct spelling, or you need me to look it up? Because I’m looking it up now.
- Her: I do! It should be [correct spelling]
- Me: Why u creating work for me? lol. Thanks for catching it.
- Her: Just wanted to make sure there’s not something I’m missing about Indian names.
- Me: Imagine me opening two fewer browser tabs, not doing searches in our HR system, and so on by simply saying: “I think [person’s] name is misspelled. It was [right spelling] last I checked (or when I saw XYZ thing that led you to know this info) – can I fix it? Or, if you’re certain, just fix it. Or say “I just fixed [person’s name] from X to Y.”
- Me: I’m determined to drill the secretary right out of you. You can be an executive one day. Much higher ceiling.
- Her: Thank you for drilling :joy: You have no idea how much I appreciate it.
- Me: Just gotta think “does what I’m saying COST energy or SUPPLY energy?” Be more judicious about when you’re costing us energy.
