So, my manager, who is not based in London, asked me to go down and bring up Karen. She tells me that Karen's here for a meeting and has short blonde hair. I think to myself, that sounds like a highly doable and not at all complicated task. Off I pop downstairs and, after a quick scan of the lobby, I find such a lady. I go up to her and ask if she's Karen. She replies yes, that she's here for the meeting with Richard. Perfect! I sign her in and we head upstairs to look for the meeting room. I make polite chat in the lift despite the fact I've no idea who Richard is, a fact I put down to my bambi-esque freshness. Searching the floor, Richard is nowhere to be found so I ask my manager if she's sure of the meeting room as we can't find Richard.
"Who's Richard?" she asks perplexedly.
"The guy Karen's here to meet", I answer straightforwardly.
It's at this point Karen pipes up. "Who's Karen?" Cue blank stares from my manager and me. "I'm Susannah." Excellent. I've essentially kidnapped someone from the lobby, brought them to the wrong floor, made them late for their meeting and goodness knows what's happened to Karen ... the real one, not this imposter Karen.
By this point, imposter Karen is getting a bit shirty. She's on the phone to Richard.
"Richard, which floor are you on? I'm on the fifth. I'm with a very confused girl."
I felt like calling up my friend and saying "I'm with a woman who can't even remember her own name" but, you know, I'm highly professional so I restrained myself. I popped her in the lift and headed back to the office.
My manager gave me the look as a mother to a child. I got the feeling she was contemplating how on earth I got the job in the first place ...
