Where The Time Goes

I used to enter Mr. Panty Waist's time in our company's electronic timesheet partly due to his complete technical incompetence and partly because he couldn't be bothered to do something as mundane as account for his doings, or lack thereof, all day, by himself.

His timesheet was a constant source of annoyance to me mainly because he'd insist on leaving it for several weeks unattended despite nagging, then have a hissyfit when the Cobra, a constant thorn is his side on just about every matter, started getting shirty about the fact they couldn't accurately bill the client until they had this information. This in turn would make me snort with indignant mirth because "accurate billing" were not two words usually found in the same sentence at The Company of No Hope. Anyway, Mr. Panty Waist would get in a tizzy, sulk, stomp around and demand I "take care of it".

Since there were no job codes in the system for "Slept till noon", "whined for two hours then commenced sulking", or "read Wall Street Journal for 30 minutes while pinching a loaf", we always had to take a little artistic license with his time and where we billed it to.

He therefore would have me bill his time in what I can only describe as "corporate code". You see, when I say I've never really had a truly creative job, that's not entirely true. Mr. Panty Waist's timesheet was a work of fiction worthy of a Pulitzer.

His work day, according to his timesheet, would look thus:

2 hours - Description: Confidential Project
Translation, "I don't have even the remotest inkling where the time went on this day or what I did with it. I’m sure it was important and involved sighing incessantly and farting. I know I slept till 11 a.m. I also know I arrived in a cab and it took a long time."

30 minutes - Description: Strategic Materials
Translation, "I read Time Magazine while straining on the pot then crop-dusted the corridor on my hasty way back to my office, leaving people for the rest of the afternoon commenting on 'that stench of rotten broccoli'".

3 hours - Description: On-site support
Translation, "Went to the client's and whined, ate a $100 lunch with a shot of scotch at “Pietro’s” with said client where I whined some more, mostly about people who hate me, which is just about everyone. Naturally, I will bill the client for this meal."

30 minutes - Description: Video Work
Translation, "Talked to SBAS for about five minutes and may have mentioned the word “video” in passing, in between whining about other employees and the other partners and how they all have it in for me."

30 minutes - Description: Conference Calls
Translation, "Actually one call. And it was less a conference call and more of a 'call to a friend of mine at the client to discuss how Democrats are Satan and I'm totally beat because I work too hard.' Also I arranged to meet for drinks later in the week for some more “on-site support".

1 hour - Description: Edits to Materials
Translation, "Watched some news. Scratched head fruitfully producing impressive cloud of dandruff. Changed one word in a document, argued with The Passive Aggressive Blonde Chick over the color of the blue font and had The Guv'ner attach the Word document to an email because I am a giant camel's scrotum who wouldn't know how to find his own ass with both hands and a cattle prod."

30 minutes - Description: Creative work
Translation, "Thinking bitter thoughts about fellow partners, in particular "Mr. Vagina Chin" and how he gets all the praise and yet does absolutely nothing all day unlike me, who gives it his all."

My good friend, the Evil Queen, who worked in finance, sat diagonally opposite my desk. You could always tell when she was reviewing Mr. Panty Waist's timesheets because I'd hear her snort fruitfully and an IM would pop up on my screen that said, "So by 'Media Practice' you mean, he watched baseball all afternoon don't you?"