The Quick Question

“Quick question” is the most expensive phrase in the building. It is never quick and rarely a single question. It is a forty-minute architecture review wearing a trench coat and a fake moustache, and it has found you at your desk.

I have learned to hear “do you have a sec?” the way a firefighter hears a smoke alarm. One sec, in this dialect, is the standard unit of an afternoon. By the time we have drawn the boxes and the arrows, the sec has compounded with interest.

I do not actually mind the questions — they are the job. I mind the costume. Just say “this might take a while,” and I will get coffee first and clear the calendar, and we will both have a much better time.