Lockdown

Periodically, when you have 100 weary, strung-out temps forced to review documents for 11-12 hours per day and only 2-3 supervisors to oversee the whole dysfunctional operation, the project goes into something known as "lock-down" mode. In "lock-down" mode, woe to those who dare go to kitchen to grab a cup of coffee or even take an extended bathroom break. In "lock-down" mode all bets are off, it's every woman/man for him/herself.

It just happens that last Friday at 5p.m., the project unexpectedly shifted into "lock-down" mode. The perpetrator of this sudden shift was Anita, the project manager.

Anita, with her six foot male sidekick, begins to troll up and down the aisles. A thin, pale, middle aged man in the center of the room is clueless about what is about to hit him. Apparently, unaware of the sudden "lock-down," this eye-strained individual, exhausted from nine straight hours of document coding, thought he could get away with a surreptitious game of mine-sweeper. He is in for the public scolding of a lifetime.

Like a tiger on the hunt, Anita closes in and pounces on her helpless prey.

"How dare you!"

A hundred people gather around to watch the impending slaughter. As if she were scolding an out of line school child, she tersely admonishes:

"You can't play a game. How did you get that game?"

"Brian {the tech guy}, I thought I made it clear to you that you were supposed to take everything off the systems of 'those' people."

The man, red as a tomato, and understandly mortified beyond belief, remains shaken like a leaf. The next day the man's possessions were packed away and his seat sat empty.