Sometimes I feel like I have seen everything. Then tomorrow happens.

Especially when it comes to people, we simply cannot have seen all that they can do. It is actually a rare occasion that I can say, “Oh I have seen that before, here is what I do.” Those occasions are when something that I have seen before happens to other people, then I can provide advice about it.

Here is one that you probably have not seen. My boss walked over to my fellow 27 yr old engineer as he sat in our office and asked him, “George, what’s this?” I could tell that my boss was angry and that they needed to have a private conversation, so naturally, I turned around to look. From over 30 feet away I could read the writing on the paper that my boss was holding, a paper George had written.

“A routing,” came the most basic response.

“I know it is a routing, but why are the letters so big?”

Have you ever received instructions on paper with letters written 2 inches tall? It would either be a notice to be posted on the wall, or the person was yelling at you. George’s co-workers receiving those instructions were offended, thus the paper returned to his boss.

“Because I wrote with my left hand.”

Ever seen something written by a person using the non-dominant writing hand? I had to write with my left hand while I had a broken thumb on my write hand. I was teaching, so chose not to write anything on paper. I could however write on the board in large 3 inch letters that were readable, perhaps more formal than I write with my right hand.

“Why did you write with your left hand?” came the final question.

Holding up his right index finger displaying a band aide, George whined in response, “Because I had a cut on my finger.”

I don’t know what to say to that.

Neither did my boss, who dropped the paper on the desk and told him write it again with his right hand. Just a side note: why I searched for the picture used for this post, 4 out of 20 pictures were of a right hand. Most of us use the left hand to hold things. Then we use our right hand to hit, throw, slap, flick, fan, or squish what is in our left hand. We don’t write notes with it.

Have a Happy Friday.