Audrey sighed as she started shutting down her computer. Somehow she had ended up working quite late. The work she was doing wasn't all that urgent but she had got on a roll and by the time she had reached a good stopping point it had been well past what was the 'standard' end of her work day.
As Audrey packed up her workspace and organised her bag to head off, she thought about what she would do when she got home. Even though it made her feel guilty she thought it was a littIe too late for her to go to the gym. She also wasn't in the mood to cook dinner so she thought that she would pick up some food on the way home. She could then sit in front of the television and watch something fun that didn't require her full attention.
On her walk out to the elevators the office was empty, it looked like she had been the last person in the office. She then saw that there was an office with the lights still on. The office belonged to Simon and Audrey was curious about what could have kept him at the office this late. She realised that she hadn't seen him throughout the day and thought that he must have been in meetings all day and was catching up on important tasks or perhaps he was just flat out busy.
When she was outside his office, Audrey saw that Simon was focused on his computer monitors and was typing rapidly. She would have walked on by but he noticed the movement in the side of his vision and turned his head, meeting her eyes. Simon smiled at her and Audrey found herself smiling back, then stopping and opening the door. He turned his chair around to face her properly, taking his hands away from his keyboard.
"Hey Audrey, how come you're here so late?"
Audrey raised an eyebrow and laughed. "The same reason as you I'm guessing. I just had some work I wanted to get done."
"Fair enough. Was there something that was giving you a problem?"
"Not really. I was just making sure that I keep on top of everything."
Simon nodded and took a quick glance back at his monitors before grimacing. "In my case I've got a looming deadline."
It was a curious thing for Simon to not have a matter under control, he rarely if ever had to race to meet a deadline. Audrey furrowed her brow. Simon saw her expression and began to give her the background of the work he was doing.
"Yesterday I got an email from Michael asking me to take on one of Daniel's matters that needed urgent attention that can't wait until he's back from vacation.
There has been a development in the client's matter that involves a third party and we needed to file applications for injunctions and recovery orders as soon as possible. We also need to amend our pleadings and try to get the current proceedings fast tracked."
Audrey winced in sympathy.
Simon grinned sardonically. "Yeah. If that wasn't bad enough, apparently there wasn't anyone free to help me."
Audrey frowned. That was a rough break. Simon was hard working and diligent so it made sense that he would be given urgent work. Even though he could handle the work, it was still unfair that he was expected to take care of a matter like this without any assistance, forcing him to have to work long hours.
A few years ago when Audrey had first started working at the firm, Simon had acted as a sort of buddy/mentor to her. Whenever she had needed help or advice, he was the first person she went to. Even now she would go ask Simon for his opinion on how to approach some issues. Despite how late it was, Audrey wanted to help him in return for all that he had done to assist her.
"That's not cool. Is there anything I can help you with? Maybe we could split up what needs to be done between us."
Simon smiled with gratitude but shook his head. "Thanks. I really appreciate the offer but it's too late at this point. I would have to give you an explanation of all the relevant details and problems. Unfortunately with the amount of time it would take to get you up to speed, it would be quicker to just take care of it myself."
She felt bad but Simon was likely right, she wouldn't really be able to help. She became aware that by talking with him, she might be causing him to have to stay back even later.
"I should get going. I don't want to hold you up. Try to not stay too late."
Simon nodded. "I'm getting close to the limit of my concentration so I probably won't stay for much longer. I've gotten a lot done already so I'm not too worried that I'm going to run out of time."
"That's good to hear. Take care Simon, I'll see you tomorrow."
"See you Audrey."
As Audrey closed his office door, Simon waved goodbye and then turned back to his computer. Audrey continued on to the elevators, feeling sympathetic stress regarding Simon's situation and looking forward even more to getting home and relaxing.
The following morning as Audrey walked through the office she found that Simon was already hard at work. At first she was worried that he might have not gone home at all but she noticed that he was wearing a different shirt. Still the fact that he had left the office after her and was back before her was bad enough.
Audrey would have stopped to talk to him but he looked deeply engrossed in his work and she didn't want to interrupt him. She had her own experiences of her concentration being broken by someone dropping by to talk and she wasn't about to do that to Simon. Wishing him a problem free day in her mind, Audrey continued on to her own office.
Audrey's day turned out to be a frustrating one. After a relatively straightforward early morning, Audrey's supervising manager Ryan called her into his office to discuss a draft letter of advice she had sent him a few days ago. While he praised what she had done, there were a lot of changes required to be made. It wasn't any fault of Audrey's though. Ryan had been in a telephone discussion with the client the advice was for and they provided further information on the matter that almost completely changed how the issue should be dealt with. On top of that, the client was looking for advice on other somewhat related issues.
Audrey wasn't pleased with the prospect of having to completely rewrite the advice but there wasn't anything she could do about it. The real problem was that Ryan had promised the client that the redone advice would be sent out to them by the end of the week. That meant Audrey would have to get the work done today so that Ryan would have time to review it and suggest any further changes before it was sent out to the client. When she heard about the tight time frame a spike of annoyance ran through her at Ryan failing to ask her about her workload before making the promise to the client. She didn't let Ryan see that she was annoyed though, there was no point, it wouldn't change what she had to do.
As Audrey began working on revising the advice to the client she was interrupted by her co-worker Lisa who needed some help with a matter she was involved with. Once she had finished helping Lisa, Audrey tried to get back on to rewriting the advice but had some problems with determining how to address the issues. It also didn't help that she received a number of emails that required her attention and broke her focus.
Around midday Audrey's work friend Delaney came by and convinced her to take a break to go out and get some lunch. While Audrey was initially reluctant, Delaney was able sway her by saying that the break would help clear her mind and she could come back and make a fresh start. The break did help Audrey a lot, when she got back to work she was able to really immerse herself into the task. There was a lot to do but it seemed possible to get it done.
