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When Is The Xeroxing Over?

by Kim on January 24th, 2007

I’m using the word Xerox as a metaphor for, supposedly, “menial” tasks…or more to the point, our own sense of self-importance.

For me, as a small business owner, the xeroxing and the envelope stuffing, and the running to the post office are never over.

I have to do these things myself…and goddd, I think I’ve been collating documents for 30 years.

But when I was in corporate-land, I had “people” who did these tasks.

We learn when we start life at a big corporation that assistants do certain things, and managers…well..don’t.

I was speaking to a colleague, a very Sr. manager at a large company here in NYC.

She complained that another Sr. person in her department made a comment to my friend that goes something like: “…done Xeroxing yet?”

To which my friend responded, “…want to help me..?” And of course, the answer resulted in an expletive.

Here’s my feeling about this…NO ONE is beyond these tasks.

It’s true that as a person moves up the corporation — the busier or more Sr. one becomes — as in, more valuable to a company — there is a direct correlation to how time is managed.

But as a human, we should never feel or behave as if we’re more important than anyone else at the company.

And by the way, it starts at the top — if you want your department or your company to behave with sensitivity…it won’t kill you to stand and chat at the copy machine, as you send your Power Point presentation through the machine.

Now, who wants to run to Staples for me?:-).

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