The Office Assistant - The loaded smile

It doesn't take long to realise that people here get very uncomfortable if I smile at them. Especially if they are scurrying through the lobby. There is nothing like a smile to make them all study their feet suddenly and seriously, as they hammer their way to the elevators.

Some of them seem to spend an awful lot of time actually IN the lobby - passing through it so many times that I have bestowed nicknames on them. Don't they have something to do at their desk? Or perhaps that is it - they DO have something to do, which is why they are travelling through the lobby so often. At least if they are going to be so 'busy' they should carry a file or something and play the part. Wouldn't that be a hoot, seeing all the dodgers carrying manilla folders around all day. Some bullet straight through, as if to walk around the block and come back, while another actually circles the lobby itself, paying respects to the ATM machine, the front doors, a lonely vending machine, and reading the information panel, which come on, must be as boring as heck after 17 years of working here!

There is also a lot of input on the installation - although the Frequent Travellers have never come over to see what I am doing. There are two types of comments at the moment - numerous pieces of advice on how to improve my craft project, such as spraying it with color, or making snow flakes. Others actually understand the premise and laugh quietly to themselves at the irony of what I am doing. This is how I met Darrell the Painter - who needs to take the next step beyond his comfort zone of exhibiting with the Employee Show each year. David the Writer is sitting sweet with half time work and half time writing - possibly planning the Big Move or the Big Novel. The mystery guest gave the squares a test run to see if there really is warmth and comfort in the metaphor. His response was that 'plastic doesn't breath'. Neither does an unhappy job.