Coffee Table Declarations
Tuesday, June 10, 2003
Well now I have a dilemma. My company is having a Magical Mystery Tour or something this afternoon. A bus is coming at 4 and taking people away to some undisclosed location for a few hours. I opted not to participate. I just feel that riding aimlessly along in a bus with no idea as to my destination just isn't my thing. It just doesn't sit well with me.
So anyway, I asked my "boss" (that's in quotations because I don't really have a boss per se) if I could just go home at 4 since it was the same thing. She thought it would be fine, but because it involves turning the phones off for the evening an hour and a half early, she wasn't sure it would be o.k. with the powers that be. She told me she would check with the CEO for me or I could just do what I wanted. I told her I thought it was best to check but she was reluctant to do that thinking the answer would be no. So she leaned in and in a very conspiratorial tone, told me it was up to me and if I wanted to leave early I should.
Well, what the heck does that mean? Of course I want to leave early. But what would I say later if I'm found out? I don't feel as though she was authorizing me to do it, so later I couldn't really say "she said it was o.k." I mean, what kind of guidance was I given here? To act on my own assumptions? Well that generally spells trouble. And speaking of assumptions, I've been giving a good deal of thought this afternoon to trying to figure out the difference between assumptions and presumptions. I mean, I think they're the same thing but then it occurred to me that you can be presumptous, but can you be assumptous? And if not, why?
So anyway, I asked my "boss" (that's in quotations because I don't really have a boss per se) if I could just go home at 4 since it was the same thing. She thought it would be fine, but because it involves turning the phones off for the evening an hour and a half early, she wasn't sure it would be o.k. with the powers that be. She told me she would check with the CEO for me or I could just do what I wanted. I told her I thought it was best to check but she was reluctant to do that thinking the answer would be no. So she leaned in and in a very conspiratorial tone, told me it was up to me and if I wanted to leave early I should.
Well, what the heck does that mean? Of course I want to leave early. But what would I say later if I'm found out? I don't feel as though she was authorizing me to do it, so later I couldn't really say "she said it was o.k." I mean, what kind of guidance was I given here? To act on my own assumptions? Well that generally spells trouble. And speaking of assumptions, I've been giving a good deal of thought this afternoon to trying to figure out the difference between assumptions and presumptions. I mean, I think they're the same thing but then it occurred to me that you can be presumptous, but can you be assumptous? And if not, why?
