Monday - The Most Argumentative Man in the World

I had a run in today with the most argumentative man in the world. Of course, he works in Jez's team and for that reason alone, is seen as one of the rising stars in the department.

I don't know what hold Jez has over Anne, but it can only involve Polaroids or a plain brown envelope. But I digress. TMAMITW who will from this point on be named Argumentative Man accosted me on the stairs and started bemoaning the high volume of calls that the department is currently struggling to cope with.

"We need more people on the phone," he said, argumentatively.

I agreed with him but this only seemed to annoy him even more. I got the distinct impression that if it would have stood up in court, he would have disembowelled me with with his company issue biro there and then. To Argumentative Man, even agreement is not enough, agreement is merely asking for trouble.

"Jo in your team has been on a break for over half an hour!" he cried. This I knew was a lie. She'd been away for two minutes at the most.

"I'll go and ask her to return if we're inundated," I said Chamberlain-like.

"That's far too long," Argumentative Man continued as if he hadn't heard what I just said. "The phones are far too busy. We need more people taking calls," He shouted, raising his voice even more.

"Everyone who can be on is on. We'll start taking ring backs to ease congestion." I told Argumentative Man.

"Ringbacks are no good. We need more staff," Continued Argumentative Man as if he expected me to pull some fully trained temps out of my pocket.

I left him on the stairs to continue his argument alone. I imagine that the fire extinguisher would have been a more suitable opponent for him.