Reading: A Lost Art (The Puppy is Saved!)

In my last post I wrote about how the dim-witted secretaries at my work can’t read, and therefore leave packages clearly marked “refrigerate upon arrival” out at room temperature for days when they sign for them. Monday was the most recent offence…until yesterday anyway. That was what?...a three day respite in secretary-related ignorance squelching my productivity (and my faith in the existence of a modicum of intelligence among the general public)? Granted, the “Freeze Upon Arrival” message on this package was not as in-your-face as the bright green sticker on the last package (see the images). But still, after the little talk about the last incident, I’d like to think that the secretary at fault would scour every package fervently for instructions fueled by the desire to maintain her current employment status. But alas, this is apparently not the case.

On Monday I had to order a new antibody to replace one that never worked. That’s a whole different story for a different day, but in short, this shady company sold our lab a product that they knew didn’t work, and I spent about three weeks trying to troubleshoot it before the company finally got back to me and admitted the product was crap. Anyway, I ordered a new antibody from a reputable company Monday, and was told it would ship in a day or two. When I got into work today I checked the cold room and still had no antibody. Wondering where it was (and also being a bit suspicious of my own secretaries at this point) I called the company and asked them for a status update on the shipment. Sure enough, it was delivered and signed for yesterday at 10:09 am. The customer support lady gave me the name of the signer. Yup, one of my secretaries.

I marched over to her desk and asked if she had recently signed for any packages for me. She said “yes” and that she had put one in my mailbox. First of all, I didn’t actually even have my own department mailbox until this week. Seems it was created because of the arrival of this package. So if I didn’t know I HAD a mailbox, why would I check it? Secondly, my lab is about 30 steps down the hall from where the secretary sits. Could she not have walked down the hall and handed me my package? Seems to me that would have been easier that making me a mailbox with it’s own little printed name label on it.

Before even going to check my mailbox, I asked her if the package had said anything about refrigeration or freezing upon arrival. She said no. Doubting her, but still giving her the benefit of the doubt (something I clearly need to stop doing), I went and got the package from the mailbox. Sure enough, there was a stamp on it reading, “Ship Ambient. Freeze Upon Arrival.” I marched it back over to her, put it on her desk and pointed silently to the stamp. She began to apologize profusely but I cut her off saying that what’s done is done, but in the future I want all my mail, letters, packages, even my pay check, to be delivered directly to the cold room. Then I walked out.

Just four days ago I had said I’d stake the life of a puppy on something like this happening again. Well good news animal lovers…a puppy has been saved! That sure didn’t take long.