The Uncertainty Principle

Since you took it right on the chin / you have lost that bright toothpaste grin

I'm going out on a limb here, but does anyone else get Alan Pardew and Andrew Fastow easily confused?

Alan Pardew:

Andy Fastow:

Somedays won't end ever and somedays pass on by / I'll be working here forever / or at least until I die

Is there anything more annoying in Microsoft's Outlook than the 'high importance' and 'low importance' tags to emails?*

After coming back to hundreds of emails following a week away from work, surely one should be able to prioritise the messages according to their significance? No chance.

As per usual, the fault as often lies in the man, rather than the cards he is dealt. And in this context: the selfishness and lack of forethought of our office selves.

If, for instance, you have a deadline coming up and you want comments on a document before the end of the day, it is naturally tempting to flag it as high importance to emphasise your urgency, without resorting to red text or capital letters like some sort of crazed-fool. Fair enough?

No. The deadline may be urgent, nay, critical for you. But not to me. Of high importance, perhaps, but to whom?

High importance, low importance and 'standard' are far too crude a system of gradations for me. I am hoping they can sort out a sliding scale for the next edition of Office. Something like:

1. Urgent and important

2. Not urgent but important

3. Urgent but unimportant

4. Not urgent and not important

5. Important, but not to me

6. ephemeral, but of great interest to me in my continuing enjoyment of the esoteric and quaint.

*Some may claim that that smug helping paperclip is in fact more frustrating than this. I disagree. I'm warming to him. He helped me out a few months back.