My ex-director orderly angered me while I was in that position. We wandered like Ishakis, around the aural, and whatever you go to it – there is just a hole of rest. The eye rested and gave the boat. He is alone, not busy. Without hiding, he is watching a football match. No one needs hell. One thing is good – he sits on the pop right, from call to call. It is always available to everyone, any question is resolved in minutes.

I especially appreciated the ease of traveling. In the other office, I had 17 (!) Collecting and producing documents. Driving for two weeks. The story is a minute oral discussion. I justify, there are two or three questions to answer. Just like acupuncture. He was silent at all. I could have sent out the results of the discussion, polite.

But when he spoke his OK and returned to watch the match, then a miracle happened. I did not need a single paper. Everything turned alone. I called him the secretary of the day and hour, not later than which I was to arrive in a certain city, and not earlier than which to leave there. From these my words from nowhere appeared: an order for a business trip, a service assignment, an application for an external service. Tickets were purchased, hotels were booked, transfers were organized, conference fees, visas and medical insurance were paid – all without my participation. I was asked to choose from a couple of ready options and sign something.

Such a service is now available in Russia except for the rectors of major universities. I am just a middle manager. Not in the shade of a hat. People get used to good things quickly.

I understood whom we lost with the strong reputation of a bad man-director, when he was very poorly removed and appointed a new one. Young and reticent. He went into all the details, introduced exhaustive regulations. We wrote them three months in order, but no one had the strength to read the products of the neighboring department.

Now he’s also history – he has long been fired, and the man who appointed him, and his boss, and the boss of his boss. I remembered the game of bullshit and the fact that I stumbled to break into his office on the most pressing issues. There was always a live line from the other seven chiefs of departments. The documentation for the journeys had to write himself and collect numerous visas. Oral debates, and whether to go at all, and why, stretched up to an hour - the person was clearly not in the topic and enthusiastically entered it. Then the plastic glasses in the dispenser for cold and hot water ended. And then the water itself. The cartridge of the A3 color printer was followed. The paper soon ended for the ordinary. The network began to break. Half of the employees have been fired. However, five of them, the most beautiful, almost simultaneously left in the decree. Two of them were born in the same day. In all these care, the new boss seriously suspected the astute intrigue of the previous one.

I have a nostalgia for the former manager. I called him and met him at the restaurant. We talked about life. He is now the CEO of a large publishing company. “Yes, work, actually, no,” he said phlegmatically, “a well-established collective, a good editor. The edition will. And my job is to always have paper for our toilets and our newspapers.” I said in this order. With such a gentle emphasis.
Are you still watching football at your new job? I asked rushingly.
Well yes. What else to do there?