Asking questions is usually a good thing. Often a sign of intelligence.
Unfortunately, not in Berta’s opinion. Being a new intern, she felt asking her manager questions would imply she doesn’t know everything. Instead, she decided to ask an experienced colleague – Luna.
Berta rolled her chair over to Luna’s desk. When Berta was directly next to Luna, she whispered Luna’s name, preparing to ask her a question.
Luna, who had her headset on, looked up and kindly put up her index finger – indicating she’s in the middle of a call.
Berta smiled. Instead of rolling back to her desk until Luna was done, Berta decided to wait at Luna’s desk until she got off the phone.
In the interim, Berta started reading Luna’s computer screen, her post-it notes, calendar, notebook and other documents on her desk – quite shamelessly.
Luna, still on the phone, finally put the conference call on mute and told Berta to wait at her own desk.
“I’ll let you know when my call ends,” Luna said.
Sheila Valesano, Corporate Human Resources leader who resides in Illinois
“This is a common problem that occurs in offices now,” she said.
Sheila suggests putting important papers faced down, and putting computer screens on a public page when people visit your desk.
“On other side of coin, if you’re going into someone’s office space, don’t read their papers,” she said. “It’s rude, it’s unprofessional. It’s not your work – it’s someone else’s personal work.”
Disclaimer: All characters appearing in this short story, excluding interviews, are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
