The manager

I walked up to her desk and found her talking to one of the members of her team. I hung around patiently for around 10 minutes. I sometimes amaze myself... at how patient I can be. Normally, I would have given myself 4 minutes tops.

Finally, their talk got over and I went over and said hello. She looked up at me, questioningly.

'It is about that information engineer opening in your team. I had called, asking to speak with you a few minutes ago', I said.

'Oh yes, were you waiting all this time? I am so sorry!' she began apologising profusely and got up almost immediately.

Now I am not used to a manager apologising to me, let alone something as trivial as waiting for 10 minutes.

She began describing the requirements, the expectations of the candidate and things in general, standing all the time. Managers rarely stand up when speaking to someone unless it is someone they respect a lot- usually someone higher up in the organisation. And with the kind of informal culture we had in our office, no one stood up to talk unless they wanted to. We usually remain seated or offer a chair. I think we take it to the extremes when it comes to being informal.

Now this incident could have passed off as an aberration. While I stood still at my place, she kept fidgeting. First she stood in front of me, and then slowly backed by a step. Then she moved to my right and leaned onto a chair. Then she moved back to the desk, in a bid to perch herself on it.

I tried to keep my amusement under check. Soon the talk ended, and I walked over to a colleague's desk not far away from the manager's.

'Tea?' I asked. 'Why not! Give me a minute; let me save my work' she responded.

Soon we were seated, sipping our teas in silence. I guess the previous incident was sub-consciously playing in my mind.

'I have been noticing you for some time now. You have been smiling to yourself for no reason. What's the reason?' she asked. I grinned, but divulged nothing. Playing a little hard to get is so much fun. After a minute's prodding, I described what happened but didn't reveal who the person was.

She laughed. 'It looks like this person has a mild crush on you. Who is she?'

I looked towards the far end of the cafeteria and noticed the manager walking in.

'Your manager.'