Confession time...I've never seen an episode of Mad Men. It seems right up my alley, no? But I always miss it. Maybe someday I'll make a spot for it on my netflix.
Anyhow, yesterday I had a very Mad Men experience at work and it shocked me. Mostly because people were all like "Isn't that Mad Men show so funny and outdated because of how the men treat the women at work." But silly and outdated or not there are definitely still nuances of the Mad Men office environment in the 2010 office environment.
Here's my Mad Men moment. I was in the courtroom with a couple of attorneys the other day and I had to take this court order and make a copy of it for all of the parties. I will admit that making copies of court orders is part of my job...I have no qualms with that. But, one of the attorneys had offered something as an exhibit during the hearing and did not have another copy of it. So, we are both standing about 2 feet from the copy machine and I go to make my copies and he hands me his document and says "Please make a copy of this for me." Then he walked away. As if he was my boss and I was just his little minion. Which I'm not.
What really infuriates me is that I actually thought about whether I should be annoyed about the whole thing. But honestly, in 2010 everyone should know how to use a copy machine. They aren't that difficult to figure out. You put the papers in the slot, select the number of copies you want to make and press the big green button that says "Start". In addition, everyone should be able to figure out a printer and a fax machine. If you can use a blackberry, you can use any of these machines.
I just need to state that I don't necessarily think this is a man v. woman thing. I do think that back in the day it was really important to define your job responsibilities...especially in the legal world. At any law firm or law office there is definitely a bizarre hierarchy of paralegals, legal secretaries, law clerks and attorneys. For instance, a law clerk better never ask a paralegal to do anything for them or help them in any way. But a law clerk can ask a legal secretary to make a copy for them (although they won't like it).
Anyhow, my point is that back in the day no attorney wanted to know how the copy machine or the fax machine worked because then they might have to do that work occasionally and that's considered beneath them. I just don't think this flies in 2010. Seriously, just figure out how to use an effing copy machine.
2 comments:
Yeah that is a weird situation to be in. Was he older? Has anyone ever asked you to make copies for them like that? He might have just assumed that since you were making copies already it would be more efficient for you to make that copy for him. But most likely he has an assistant that does that stuff for him and he probably just assumed that his time is too important to make copies.
My general rule of thumb is you don't ask someone to do something for you at work unless it's their job to do things for you.
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