No, the heat in this place hasn?t gotten to me. And no, you?re not hallucinating. You?ve read exactly what you think you?ve read. I never thought I?d say it, but some workplace drama made me think twice. It all started after lunch yesterday.

Rob, an admin that sits on the other side of my cubicle wall, had called his cell phone company. His phone was on the blink due to no fault of his own; apparently, it?s not the first time that the phone has malfunctioned. So he calls customer service to get an upgrade, a service that he did not want to pay for. He had to explain this scenario at least four times because every time he talked to someone, he needed to be transferred to someone else. The dynamics in his voice would change with each person he called. Rob would start off all calm, then get louder the more agitated he got. So imagine this taking place four times in a row, the dynamic peak reaching a new plateau with each conversation. The phrase of exasperation went from ?Are you serious?? to ?Oh, you?ve gotta be kidding me? to ?This is bulls**t,? and ending with ?F**k that!? Meanwhile, the rest of us are answering calls while all of this is going on, phone receiver under one ear while plugging the other with our index fingers.

Things continued to go from bad to worse for Rob. Before long, whoever he was talking to would hang up on him. This happened twice, possibly three times. I remember Rob being connected to someone and the first thing he said to them was, ?I am not going to curse at you, so please don?t hang up on me.? After a few minutes, that person hung up on them, too. It was at that moment that I realized I was doing something right. Honestly, the mere fact that I?ve stuck with this for eight months is worthy of acknowledgement. Anybody that knows me knows that I despise phones. And yet, I still come in and do my thing. I answer the phone, I return calls, I troubleshoot queries, I try to get back to people as quick as I can, I strive to remain courteous at all times, and I like to think that I succeed more often than I fail. While Rob?s experience on the phone sounded far from pleasurable, it made me feel better about what I was doing. As my co-worker Matthew so aptly put it, ?If you?re talking to a customer and they never have to say ?F**k that,? you?re having a pretty good day.?

There?s an extremely funny TV show on the BBC entitled The Office. There are moments when my time here at Rosen Publishing mirrors that show. Every now and again, I just look around at everyone and think to myself, what on earth am I doing here with these insane people? There?s a boat cruise coming up in two weeks that the office is hosting. While I?m looking forward to it, the idea that I?m going to be on the boat with these fools with no feasible way of getting back to shore on my own is a little?well?frightening. I can?t front, though: I?ve grown accustomed to these nuts. They?re a lovable bunch ? crazy, but lovable.

When the time comes, I?ll fill you in on all the cruise details. Don?t you worry about that. Because after all?I?m here to help.