Folks at workplace

After spending a few months at the workplace, one can identify the torch bearers of typical attitudes. Here is my first hand observation.

The bully. The bully is never interested in peaceful conversation. The bully challenges everything. Domination is the bully’s favorite and most used skill set.

 The innovator. The innovator is the think tank of the workplace. The innovator gets bored by conventional opinions and plans. The innovator responds to your chats only if it is something very important.

 The learner. The learner always carries a notepad in team meetings. There may be new ideas and the learner is always eager to absorb these new lines of thought. The learner never tries to prove a point or convince others. The learner just takes notes.

 The eternally bored one. This person kills all the enthusiasm around. The bored person has seen and heard it all. The bored person does not get affected by a critical code back out. 

 The one who plays dumb. This person asks the most idiotic questions and gets away with it. The dumb person invites sympathy and help. 

The loudspeaker. This person lacks volume control. People in the office get used to the loudspeaker’s  voice so much that they consider it as a default background music. 

The person who has a pen. This person never gets the pen back. The person who has a pen always lends it to others, most of the times to the learner.

Interacting with these folks makes a technical day at work more colourful, more human. 

Mouse in the house

I am scared of mice. And I have learnt a few things about them since last week. Screaming doesn’t do any good. It only scares the mouse and makes it run faster.

Punctured foodstuff packets. A random clinking sound from the unwashed dishes in the sink. Little black flecks at the base of the garbage bin. These are all the unfortunate signs of a mouse habitation and currently the misfortune has fallen upon us. 

I cannot enter my own kitchen without stealing furtive glances at dark corners. I cannot sleep peacefully at night. I cannot have books and clothes strewn on the floor. As I relax in the living room, I catch myself wondering whether there is something nesting behind the TV table or climbing the curtains just beyond my peripheral vision or in my kitchen, feasting on a cornflake. That's the thing, you see. Getting rodents out of your house is one thing, but it's not easy to shift them from your head.

The creature has a strong digestive system to handle all flavors of poison baits we offer. Cheese balls, flour biscuits and bread crumbs is the variety we used in vain.Glue boards and spring loaded mouse traps are next in line. I have no clue if these are going to work either.

I can bear Mickey Mouse or Jerry the Mouse or Stuart Little but not the vermin in my house. Mice can be adorable in literature but house mice are definitely not nice.