The Alpha boss and the PA

The week without a PA

David POV

Everything was fine. It was Tuesday afternoon in the trial week and I was doing just fine, thank you very much. Granted, Monday hadn’t started off very well because I had forgotten a meeting, but I had everything under control now. I had figured out how to work the overly complicated day planner all by myself. I had only needed to call the IT-department once because I accidentally deleted something and I managed to find out what that place was called where Sarah always got my lunch from. So, just like I had predicted, I was doing perfectly well by myself.

I leaned back in my chair to enjoy my moment of triumph, when someone knocked on  my door.

“Come in!” I called.

The door opened and Collin, my head of development and Delta to the pack came in. He seemed a little uneasy.

“What’s going on Collin?” I asked.

“Well Alpha, I was kind of wondering when we were going to receive the feedback on our new product idea. The investors have been promised a fully updated plan by Thursday and there isn’t much time left. We really do need to get your notes on the proposal by tomorrow morning at the very latest, so our department can still make adjustments.”

“I understand,” I said, frowning, “but I haven’t received any proposals to give notes on.”

“But it was sent out first thing on Monday.” Collin said, also frowning.

“Sent to where?” I asked, getting a bad feeling.

“Well to the PA inbox. That’s where all messages and proposals are send to from all the departments. Sarah then goes through them and sends them to you. Did she not forward it?” Collin asked with a confused look on his face. “Come to think of it, I didn’t see Sarah when I came in, where is she? Is she alright?”

She is, but I am not I thought. I started clicking wildly around my e-mail program trying to find the PA inbox. Surely I had access to it somehow, but I couldn’t find it. No matter…  A small bump in the road. I would just make Collin go away, call IT again, get into the PA inbox and work on that proposal. A small setback. Nothing an Alpha like me couldn’t handle. I looked up at Collin who was still staring at me slightly confused.

“Sarah is taking a week off, but all is well. I will look into the proposal and I will make sure you and your team have my notes waiting for you first thing tomorrow morning!” I said, with a confident smile.

It must have been convincing, because Collin smiled back at me with relief and, after wishing me a good day, left the office. I rummaged around my desk, trying to find the number for the IT department and started dialing.

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61… 61 unread e-mails in the PA inbox. How on earth is that possible. It hadn’t even been 2 working days. Did these people have nothing better to do? It must somehow be an unusually busy beginning of the week I guess. I scrolled through the list trying to find Collin’s proposal. Words jumped out at me from the screen: urgent, important, input, rush job. Some of the e-mails came with little red exclamation points attached to them. How could all of this possibly be urgent? Ugh, if only somebody could go through this mess for me and just send me the ones that were actually important. Like… a PA. No. Nope. No, I did not need a PA. I would just focus on finding Collin’s proposal, work on that and then look at the rest. How much time could that possibly cost?

At 1 a.m. I started to get really fed up with everything. It had taken me forever to get through the proposal Collin send me, because I kept getting interrupted by the phone. I had had no time to go home and have a nice, home-cooked meal at the packhouse, so I was forced to order takeout. But since the place where Sarah always ordered my lunch from was closed for dinner and I couldn’t find anything else without spending too much time and effort on it, I had ended up with pizza. It’s not that I don’t like pizza, but I do try to keep fit and healthy and eating pizza on a Tuesday just felt off somehow.

At 2 a.m. I had not only sent Collin’s proposal out with my comments on it, but I had also reduced the e-mails from 61 to 41. There were still a lot left, but at least in was less than when I started. I felt like I finally got a hold of the situation again. I shut my computer down and went home. After all I had to start again tomorrow at 8 and it would be nice to get at least a little sleep.

When I started up my computer first thing on Wednesday morning  I was shocked to see that the amount of e-mails in the PA inbox had slightly increased to 50 again. It was pretty early, so I had no idea how that happened. I started answering a few, but then I realized I had a meeting to go to. I rushed out of the office and barely made it to the meeting in time. The meeting ran late, as these things tend to do, and I didn’t make it back to my office until 11 a.m. I was greeted by the phone that was ringing non-stop. I tried to ignore it for a while and focus on the work that I really needed to do, but it wouldn’t stop ringing. So I gave in and started answering it. By the time the phone calls had died down and I was ready to get some work done, I was already running late for my second meeting of the day. When I came back at 2 p.m., I found no nice lunch waiting for me, because I had forgotten to order it. I did find 88 unread e-mails in the PA inbox.

Things did not improve from that point on and by Friday morning I threw in the towel. I had even had nightmares about e-mails with angry little exclamation points and ringing phones chasing me. I called Sarah and begged her to come back. She laughed for about 10 minutes and then told me she was on her way. This really was the ‘office-chair-debate’ of last year all over again…. I guess I was getting a temporary new PA.