20090219 First Steerco V234.21

The Consultant woke up to her new-fangled alarm clock. This one didn't buzz her awake- all it did was slowly increase the light in the room simulating the natural patterns of daylight. It was what the office had gifted her in lieu of a big fat bonus at the end of the year, (We are sorry the economy is not good enough for you to get a big bonus, but hey with this alarm clock, you can come to office earlier than ever!)
"Well, I know how to handle that." She hit the snooze button , tucked her head under the pillow and went back to sleep.

One hour later, she blinked again and tried hitting the snooze button, but it was just the pesky daylight streaming in through her curtains.
"Note to self. Draw drapes before going to sleep. Sigh."

After her ablutions, during which time she was adding little mental post-its that she prefaced with Note to Self (When had she become so J?), she went back to her bed, booted her computer and logged on to the mail server to commence working from home!

A new day in the life of a consultant. Ah. They thrive on challenges.

The whole day, indeed, was a challenge. Her eyes kept going back to the paperback thriller she had picked up. At the end of the day, the deck was almost done and yes, the novel had been done and dusted.

The phone rang, and she picked it up. "So, are you done yet?". It was her Boss on the line.

"Uhm, well, apart from the numbers that are yet to come..."

"Could you do the graph in 3 colours?"

"Wha...?"

"The Big Man asked for it." She could almost hear her Boss shrugging on the other side.

"Uhm, okay."

"Also, Consultant, while you are at it, could you also copy what was on the excel and put it on the doc file of the report and then put it in the slide with some pretty pictures on the side?"

"Okay. You do know I will be going and having an extremely expensive dinner just to feel better about this work, right?"

She logged off the phone and sat looking up at the little spotlights set up in the high ceiling in her room. Sighing, she logged on to the Instant Messenger.

Answer First wants to pack.

She pinged him. Without a smiley. It was an online sacrilege!

TC: Pack what?

AF: This. :(

TC: Me too. On the happy side, I am working from home.

AF: Work is a monotonically decreasing function of time spent at home.

She considered the statement thoroughly.

TC: Maybe so.
But when I am in the office for 20 hours, I work for 10.

AF: :D

TC: :D

And, that was the insight of this deck.