by A. M.

I had just gotten off a phone conversation with a colleague. He was home with family, practising distancing from the rest of the world, but this call was important – it had to do with some unfinished business at the office, or so I had convinced myself.

But after a few minutes on the phone, I changed my mind.

“This can wait,” I told him. “I’ll call the client to find an alternative,” I concluded.

It occurred to me that I was insensitive to the environment he was at that time. I had made the call based on what his job was – and the lapses with his deliverable.

But he isn’t a deliverable-producing machine. He has a life outside, with hopes and fears and needs. And he brings those aspirations to work daily.

The least I can do is to acknowledge that.