I was sitting waiting for Henderson, the chief trainer, to come and see me. Patiently, by my standards, but when he was fifteen minutes late I thought it time to take steps. Henderson was never discourteous and would never have been late without letting me know, unless there was a dire emergency. On the other hand, if there was a dire emergency I'd have been informed of that PDQ. Somewhere there had been a breakdown in communications.
I went to the door and asked Taylor, my new receptionist, if she could seem me for a moment. She came in, all bright eyed and ready to help.
Taylor seemed to me to be a very nice fit for the receptionist position. She was pretty and personable, making owners and visitors feel at ease as soon as they walked in. Part of that may have been due to the fact that she was young, about nineteen, blonde, and always smiling. She'd been with me for a month now, and was learning rapidly.
"Taylor, I asked you to let Henderson know I wanted to see him at two. He hasn't fronted, which is most unusual for him. Did you actually get around to telling him?"
"Yes, sir," she said quickly. "I informed him as soon as you asked me to."
"Did he say anything to indicate that he wouldn't be able to make it?"
"No, sir." If in doubt, say as little as possible.
"Did he say anything at all?" He must have. It's hard to shut the man up.
"Ah, no, sir. No reply."
"No reply at all?" Something wasn't right.
Taylor shook her head, pretty blonde curls bouncing.
"No, sir. No reply. I even sent a follow up message at quarter to, to remind him, but he didn't respond to that either."
Bells and whistles rang. Problem solved, was my guess.
"Ah, exactly how did you inform him that I wanted to see him?" I asked.
She tapped a very nice breast. No, wait a moment. She was tapping the phone in her pocket.
"I had his number. I sent him a text message. And I sent him the reminder."
"Did it occur to you that I also have Henderson's number and that I could just as easily have sent him a text message myself?"
"Ah, yes, sir," she said, mumbling a bit.
"I see. I suppose you thought I was too full of myself to deign to send a text message when I could order someone else to do the work. The fact that I explicitly said go and tell Henderson to come and see me just floated past you?"
Taylor said nothing, but she was certainly looking a bit mutinous.
"I have no objection to you using your initiative," I informed her, "but if you want to do something other than what was requested it might be a good idea to run it past the person doing the requesting. The reason I said go and tell him was because the man considers technology to be one step away from witchcraft. I'm not sure if he considers it a step up or a step down. Whichever, he won't have his phone on him when he's with the horses in case it rings and scares them. He may or may not check for messages after work. Probably not."
Taylor wasn't looking mutinous any longer but embarrassed and a little worried. She'd stuffed up. Maybe with the best of motives, but she'd still stuffed up and she knew it, and as far as she knew she was still on trial.
I gave her a moment to digest the situation, then continued.
"Now will you please go and tell Henderson that I'd like to see him. Better make it for about four o'clock. That will give him time to arrange things."
Taylor gave a quick, "Yes, sir," and almost bolted for the door. I stopped her when her hand was on the door handle.
"Taylor, don't worry about it. You're still learning and I'm quite willing to make allowances for the learning curve. It was only a minor error. I'm not going to spank you for a simple mistake like that."
She blushed and left in haste, and I saw her out the window, trotting off down to the stables. I suspect she didn't like going to the stables because the boys would flirt, but she'd adjust quickly enough or go and find a job that was more to her taste.
This time Henderson fronted up as required and we went over his report, planning out things for the future. Everything went smoothly. While he was there I borrowed his phone, flicked quickly through the messages and cleared them away. There weren't many. People learn quite fast not to try and contact him that way.
It was right on knock-off time when Taylor came to my office and asked if she could speak with me. She had a little problem. She was, she said, a little concerned over the fact that I had threatened to spank her.
"Ah, excuse me for interrupting," I said, breaking into her little speech, "but I'm quite sure that I said I wasn't going to spank you."
She paused, thrown off her stride by the interruption, but still determined to have her say.
"Ah, yes," she said, "but saying that made me wonder if you would try and spank me for some infraction. It left me feeling most uncomfortable."
"Tell me," I said with a sigh, "have you read the employee rules and regulations and possible penalties?"
She nodded.
"Was there anything in there, anything at all, that suggested that I might be allowed to spank you as a penalty?"
"Ah, no, sir," she said, but she was looking mutinous again.
"Well, there you have it. You'll find that I'm legally constrained by those rules and regulations and must abide by them. You can't be spanked just because you make a mistake and I apologise if I made you think you could be."
She had an assurance and an apology and had stopped looking mutinous and was now looking a little smug.
