Height Of Irritation

@5.50 AM
I peeped out of my blanket to look at the clock. I didn’t want to get out of the bed for two reasons. First of all, I wished I hadn’t another tough day to face. Two, there was less than an hour for me to leave for work. I jumped out of the bed, brushed my teeth and then sat on my bed sipping my coffee thinking of the day ahead.

@6.10 AM
I realized, I had about 30 minutes to get ready and I was still sipping my coffee. I sprang out and rushed to have a quick shower.

@6.40 AM
I picked up my shirt only to find that it was not washed properly. I picked up another and found that as dirty as the first one. The third time I pulled out a printed shirt, wore it quickly , went into the kitchen picked up an apple from the refrigerator, then sprayed some perfume and ran down to find my bus waiting for me. I got into it and sat quietly thinking, “Why did I make it to the bus just like every other day?”

@7.30 AM
I was on my desk switching on the dumb PC and sipping my tea. Being the last day of the week, I had no wish to take up new tasks, just wanted to finish off my pending tasks. I had one big item on the list, not a very interesting one to be done on a Thursday. I browsed through my emails and found one of the jobs done the previous day was questioned (not rejected though). “Oops, why does this happen only to me?”

@8 AM
I had replied to my emails by this time, including the “questioned” job. Then I walked across to my friend’s desk to check if we could sit together at 11 AM to finish of the big pending task and he was more than happy to do that with me. I got back to my seat to find one unread email on my Gmail Inbox. It was from my brother. I could guess that it was about an issue that was bothering both of us for the last week. We exchanged about ten emails. (Chat applications are disabled in office. So this is our way of chatting.) Yes, the issue is still not resolved. “I don’t feel like working today. When will the day end? I want to go home and sleep”

@10.15 AM
By now, I had completed couple of adhoc jobs and looked at the bottom right corner on my PC and was startled. “I am late for the meeting by 15 minutes already.” I slipped 2 pieces of apple into my mouth and picked up the required docs and ran to the basement only to find that none of the attendees were there and the meeting had been postponed. “At the least, allow me to do my work.”

@11 AM
After greeting all my colleagues in the basement, I went back to my desk to find that I had about 20 emails to read. There was one email that again deteriorated the working mood. It was intended to four other people in the department though and served as a warning for the rest of us. “Not just me. Others have had a bad day as well”

@12 PM
As I sat glancing at the email, there rose a voice beside me. “Swathi, there is an issue with the release that we made day before yesterday. I don’t know how you want to term it, issue or problem or serious .......” When he completed his narration, I said “It’s a disaster.” We both walked into his manager’s room first and then into my manager’s room to explain the situation, before they could jump on us. While I walked back to my desk, I thought “Why the hell is all this happening to me, that too on a Thursday. What about the job that was planned to finish today”

@5 PM
We sat testing the solution for the disastrous problem after I had taken a short 15 minute break. It was far beyond the working hours and almost everybody had gone home. We were a group of six people still sitting tied up. It happened so that all of them were at my desk for a break. As we started discussing the current state of affairs, we burst out laughing. Here is a group of irritated people laughing their heart out. All that I discovered is that every other person is as irritated as I am, though for different reasons.

@6 PM
Three of us got back to work, while the other three drove home. We quickly finished our testing. I completed the final documentation and sent the solution for implementation. My friend drove me back home as we discussed a dozen other things. When I reached, I felt lighter and had a better evening.

p.s:- There is nothing called a bad day. Perception matters a lot. Look around, you might feel better.