Everyone else left around four to get an early start to their weekend. The phone on Ron’s secretary’s desk had been ringing on and off the hook for the past three hours. I was almost done with the shipping lists for the POS and tray liners for Hardee’s new Big Deluxe sandwich introduction. Before he left Ron told me, “Don’t leave until you get this finished, and then put it in this envelope and drop it in the FedEx box on your way home.” The phone was ringing again and it was driving me crazy.
“Hello, Hardee’s Marketing, Brian Hunt speaking,” I answered. “Is Ron there?” a desperate voice asked from the other end of the line. “No, he left a while ago,” I replied. And so began a telephone conversation that changed my life.
The call was from the printer who was producing the materials I was finishing the shipping lists for. He had sent press proofs for Ron’s approval and they must have arrived after Ron left because they were sitting on his desk. If the proofs were not approved tonight the materials would not be shipped on time. That was unacceptable. To make matters worse everyone I tried to reach including Ron had unlisted phone numbers. (Remember, cell phones hadn’t been invented yet.)
I grabbed the FedEx package from Ron’s desk, looked at the proofs and shared my observations with the printer; he agreed, I approved the proofs with corrections as noted, put them aside and got back to the shipping list. About an hour later I finished the list, dropped it off on the way home and called it a night. I had no idea what I’d done.
