The Cards on the Desk

The intern had brought a deck of playing cards to work.

This was already unusual. Instead of playing Solitaire on the computer, which would at least have looked like a conventional form of office boredom, the intern spread the cards on the desk and began telling fortunes.

I did not expect an intern to behave like an experienced employee. Internships exist partly because people are still learning what work looks like, and I was prepared for unfinished tasks, basic questions, and long periods of uncertainty. I had not realized that one of my responsibilities might include preventing fortune-telling.

Then the manager saw the cards.

The manager did not speak to the intern.

The manager spoke to me.

That was when I discovered that responsibility in an office can travel faster than information. The cards were on someone else’s desk, the fortune belonged to someone else, and somehow I had become the person who should have prevented the event.

The strange thing was that the intern’s mistake was not even hidden. There was no complicated investigation required. The evidence was physical, visible, and arranged neatly on the desk. Direct communication seemed possible.

Instead, the problem moved through hierarchy and arrived at me.

Afterward I wrote that interns should be selected the way people select watermelons. Examine carefully. Tap the surface. Listen. Hope for the best.

It was not a serious hiring method, but neither was the day.