Self Evident

A man said to me yesterday the following, "You are honest, so you expect other people to be honest as well. 97% of the time they will be"

I realized that this is the truth. I expect honesty from people because that is what I give. I'm not going to pretend that I am always honest. But I try to be honest with people and with myself. Lying generally hurts my soul. Not the kind like when I tell my mom that the popcorn on TV really does expand to look like a house in the microwave (then giggle when she believes me because she really is that gullible), but the kind where I tell the neighbor I am a Lesbian in order to get him to go away. (Refusing his homemade juice seems to have fixed that so far). I won't lie to my customers and tell them I like a pastry that I hate or that I have tried it if I have not. There's no reason for it. In this case, lying will not save my life. And I think that my customers appriciate a candid answer.

I like knowing that my expectation of the truth inspires truth. And it's like I said the other day, It's so much easier to be truthful. Then you don't have to remember what you said.

In other news...

Coworker and I have been getting a long pretty well and her work ethic is inspiring me to work harder. (says the blogger...) Today though I was frustrated by her when she told me that A) She made so and so pick up the drawings that had been sitting forever in our office. I said I need to start sticking to our rule about only holding things for a week. Her argument was that thier drawing sets would be incomplete, I responded that they were already incomplete if they are not picking them up. It boils down to the fact that I don't think we should deliver them or constantly remind them to come and get them (for goodness sake, they are in the trailer next door) and she thinks it is our customer service responsibility to make sure they have them. Both are good arguments, really, I just don't like it when she tells me how I should do my job.** and B) that the drawings were making it hard to close the file drawers. That we need to find something else to do with them.
We have a space issue. Ongoing projects stay in flat files until they are complete. If they are big, the drawings go on sticks when the project is finished. Smaller projects are folded up and put in drawers. There is no where else to put them. She has a habit of putting binders in the drawers and then they get stuck and all that, and I keep my mouth shut about it because I know there is no where else to put them. Except on the book shelves that abound in our office which are mostly empty and that she keeps complaining that they take up too much room for items we don't use.
My answer was to fold the drawings up smaller.

I think we will always argue about these things. I know she is loking for another position. My plate will be very full if she goes. I'm ok with that.

Meanwhile, I think I have found the source of my job apathy. It's that I don't rise to the occation because other people are incomplete with thier work. Today a set of drawings came in. No drawing log. Which means that I can't check to make sure that the set is complete before I distribute it. The project managers don't ask for or force the architects to behave, and so it sits on us to try and figure it out.

At least that's one source. Sigh.


Later:
**OH I get it! I should be harassing people to get their stuff, but it is tedious for her to make sure that the two documents that we publish as tools for other departments match.

sheesh. I am no longer concerned with her opinion of how I do my job and for goodness sake, would someone please let me take back the duties she took?