Marina was on vacation. She had taken the week off to paint, repair and do various things around her new home. New to her anyway as she had moved in only a few months ago. During the week, she had taken two day trips just to feel like it was a vacation but on this Thursday evening, she was home. The phone rang and Marina picked it up without thinking and without looking at the display. After she said her customary "Hello", she heard the voice of one of her co-workers.
"Marina, the spectrometer is down."
"James, I'm on vacation. Call the on-call person."
"I can't! The plant manager told me to call you. He wants you to come fix it."
"Well, if the plant manager wants me to come in, put him on the phone and have him ask me."
While she waited for James to get the plant manager, Marina was not impressed. When others were on vacation, she never called them and always dealt with whatever was wrong herself. She had spent hours teaching her two colleagues how to repair the spectrometer and deal with other issues. Why couldn't they take care of it?
The plant manager grabbed the phone and said "Marina, I really need for you to come in and fix this thing. Something about a window blown and you're the only one who can fix it."
Marina stewed. "What about Steve and Suzanne? They also know how to fix it!"
"Well, Steve has the flu and has been sicker than a dog for two days now and Suzanne is stuck home with a sick child. Your boss was here but I sent him home, he's useless."
"Tell me you didn't just say that in front of James!"
"Naw, he's gone. Will you please come in?"
"How did you find out it was the window?"
"I don't know, your boss got the supplier to do a remote diagnostics and they said it was the window but they can't be here until Monday. They said their contract says two working days and that would be Monday. Please Marina? We can't shut down and wait for them."
"What's in it for me? I am on vacation after all!" Marina asked teasingly.
"Well, you can take an extra day later to compensate."
"One day! Aren't you a cheap one!"
"Okay, okay, two days then."
"That's better. Now what else could I guilt you into?"
"That's about all I can give Marina. You know the economic situation is tight."
"How about a hand fixing this thing?"
"You want me to help you?"
"You could be my assistant. Passing tools and whatever else I need."
"You got it. Anything else your little heart desires that doesn't cost anything?"
"Your ear to discuss a few things. And then a hug and a kiss when I'm all done?"
"Done deal, now will you get in here already?"
So Marina went to the plant and went to the lab, grabbing her tools and the necessary parts from her office. The plant manager, Dave, was in the control room and when he saw her through the windows, he came in and asked "So how do I help?"
Marina called up some other windows on the spectrometer computer and confirmed that the problem was indeed the window. She then opened up her tool box and started taking the spectrometer apart.
"Your job will be to hold the flashlight so I can see what I'm doing."
"That I can do. Your boss had no clue what to do so I sent him home. I'm not impressed with him right now."
Marina set all the tools she knew she'd need on the computer desk next to the spectrometer along with the replacement window.
As she worked, she asked Dave "Didn't you tell me that you were once a technical manager yourself?"
"Yes. Why?"
"Well, when you were doing my boss' job, did you know how to do this?"
There was only silence.
"Do you truly expect your managers to know how to do everything we do?"
"I guess not."
"I think you were a bit hard on my boss tonight. After all, he did know to get the supplier to do a remote diagnostic on this thing!"
"I'm surprised you'd defend him. We both know he's not the most competent you ever had."
"Ah, but I've gotten used to him and his limitations and work well with him. You can't expect him to be able to do everything in my job when you couldn't do it yourself. I really think you'll have to call him and apologize."
"Yeah, I guess I'll have to. Tomorrow, it's a bit too late tonight to do that."
Marina finished changing the window with Dave's help, talking about this and that while doing so, giving her opinions on some situations, getting explanations for some others. She closed up the machine and started it up. Within 20 minutes, it was obvious that the change had fixed the issue but the machine still had to stabilize. Telling Dave this, she smiled and said "Thanks, helper!"
"Do you still need me here?"
"Not really. I still have to run standards to make sure everything's fine."
"Well, how about you come to my office when you're all done?"
"Sure."
Marina tidied up around the machine and put everything away, waiting for it to stabilize. Then, she ran the standards and when satisfied with the results, handed the machine back to production and QC testing. She then bid the production crew and James goodnight, saying she was probably going to talk with Dave for a while before leaving. And she headed down to Dave's office.
"Hi!"
"You're all done?"
"Yes, and it's working just fine."
"Thank you so much for coming in."
"Hey, I get two days off later and now, I've come to get my hug and kiss."
Dave got up but walked past her, to her big surprise. Marina turned around to see what he was doing and smiled when he shut the door and then turned off the main lights, leaving only his desk lamp to softly cast a glow in the room.