7:20 p.m. | 2003-05-08 I Have Decision Making Skills. And, I�m Not Afraid To Use Them. Boss is out of the office for a bit and she left me the task of preparing the ImportantWeeklyReport (IWR) for this week. Right before she left, she gave me some printed instructions about what I needed to do and stressed the importance of the strict deadline. Of course, I already am familiar with the IWR and the importance of the deadline as we work around it every week and she refuses to answer my questions and/or entertain me while she�s preparing it. In fact, she usually tells me to get the hell out of her office. Then she closes and locks her door. So, today I got to work ready to tackle the IWR. The first thing I did was read her instructions. She left me all the information about who it goes to, how to send it and the importance of the deadline. As for preparing the report itself? She left me this: �The report is pretty self-explanatory.� It was right about then that I came up with a million questions. Which, of course, I had to answer myself. And answer I did. The main part of the report is fairly �self-explanatory�, but it now includes some additional information that it didn�t previously contain. Whether that�s good or bad, I don�t know. I do think I made Boss� job a little harder and mine easier, or I made both our jobs a little more difficult or she won�t ask me to do the IWR again. Heh. It�s all in a days work, you know? And, I was working against the deadline all they way up to it. In addition to Boss being out, DivaHair ran off to get married so I got all the calls on the extra job I punted her way. Lots of calls. Well, and then there was my real job too. About an hour before the deadline, I came to the part of the report where it, essentially, says: �Include stuff you think is important here.� Ack! Nothing in the instructions about THAT. Well, except that it should be inclusive of the last seven days. Oops. I did some frantic digging around and managed to come up with a fair amount of things just in time to send off the report 3 minutes before the deadline. It�ll certainly suffice. And, boy, am I glad to have that out of the way. Next week is Colleague�s turn. That should be fun to watch as he tends to be a little indecisive. He�s already dreading it. Here�s that. (Colleague:) So, are you all ready to train me how to do the IWR next week? (CI:) Train you? You already have the instructions. (Colleague:) Yeah, but you�ve done it now so you can train me. And help me. (CI:) Train you and help you?! How much training and help did you provide for me? (Colleague:) None. (CI:) Well then, you should expect that much in return. Speaking of indecisiveness, when I dashed out to pick up some lunch, I couldn�t decide whether I wanted a gyro pita or gyro salad. On a whim, I asked the man taking my order for an opinion. This is that. (CI:) I really can�t decide which one I�d rather have. What�d you think? (Man:) You should flip a coin. (CI:) Hey, that�s a great idea. (Man:) You want to flip a coin? (CI:) Sure. But I don�t have one on me. (Man:) I do. (He produces a penny.) Okay, heads will be a pita and tails will be salad. (Flips coin � it lands tails-side up.) You�ll have a salad today. (CI:) Perfect. Thanks. (Man:) It�s the easiest thing to do, you know? To flip a coin. It�s easy. If you don�t know, just flip a coin. (CI:) You�re right, that is the easiest thing to do. (Mind you, it may not be the best way to make a decision, but it is the easiest.) I�ll have to remember to share that wisdom with Colleague next week when he�s doing the IWR. I�ll call it "training and help" though. your thoughts? seed flower