Too Many

When I was a girl, my mother sent me in to make her bed telling me to report to her how many times I went back and forth around the bed to get it right. I was clueless.  I thought she was testing how WELL I made the bed.  Oh! I was so careful!  Smoothing each piece to perfection then going around to the other side to do the same.  I don’t remember how many trips around the bed I made.  It sure looked good when I was done.  I confidently reported back.  She made no comment about how good the bed looked, but she scolded me for inefficiently going back and forth so many times instead of smoothing the sheet and several blankets on one side before going to do the other. 

Sometimes not much changes in life. 

We have to submit a contribution report to our supervisor each month reporting how many of each form we process, phone calls we field, etc.  In today’s staff meeting, we were scolded for sending and receiving too many emails – answering questions about the status of something or how to submit a claim, etc.  Without being asked what kind of emails we were sending and receiving we were told we must not be answering questions effectively to have so many emails. 

It would help if we knew what they were looking for.