Being Filed

being filed

so i do a lot of filing at work. that's all i do. i know the alphabet forwards and backwards. technically i'm a file clerk.
realistically i'm a glorified ABC's know-er.

when i'm finished organizing a group of forms i head to the file room to file them. in case anyone should be searching for them during that time i took it upon my self to make a note for them (okay, a post-it) that i place in the empty in-box that says "Being Filed".

being filed. in the process of being put away.

"don't worry HR office. i have them. i know exactly where they belong. and that is where i am putting them."

at least that i what i hope the note implies.

as you can probably guess that when one is being a file clerk there is much time to think. alphabetizing, recognizing letters, doesn't take up nearly as much thought as it would ifyou were, say, a preschooler. and in the three months that i've worked in this office i've been having what i call a 'parallel moment'.

i have these quite often. it's a moment where my physical life imitates something very close what i'm dealing with internally. one day weeks ago i looked at the note and i thought to myself:
being filed? i'm the one that's being filed...

but being filed as what?

when i'm at work and someone hands me something to file the first thing i need to know is what it is. if it's something that needs to be filed right away, like a person's entire file. or if it's something that can wait. like random screen print out of some changed information. i have a bit of a system i'll have you know.

so let's say for instance that someone brings in a student status verification. that is piece of paper from the college or university proving that someone is a registered full time student. when i look at this i need to know who this student is. and who their mom or dad are. because it is their parents file that this will go in. is this person a current employee? or a retiree? does it need to be attached to anything else before i file it? (i don't claim that this work is involved. i just claim that it is sort of a process.) so, once i've figured out what it is, who it belongs to, and what the priority of it is, i can find out where to put it. most times this goes smoothly.

other times it does not.

what if i can't find where it goes? what happens when there are 16,000 files in the file room and the one you need isn't there? what if you're looking for Myra Lewis? you go to the L section. then the LE's. then the LEW's. you seen Adam Lewis, Billy Lewis, Frank Lewis, Jackie Lewis, Louis Lewis, Mark Lewis, Mitch Lewis and then...

Norman Lewis. no Myra.

here's what you do. you bring it back to your desk and it sits there. with a pile of a few others that you can't find. you put a post-it on it. a different one this time. and it says "FILE NOT FOUND".

and there it sets. and sets. the good news is that after a while some executive assistant will just look up the person's information, create a label, then put it on a file folder and stick it back there. (cozy, right between Mitch and Norman)

wouldn't that be great? if the thing you were looking for was just created for you. and you didn't have to spend time looking. seeking and not finding.

here's how this parallels my own life. (aren't you glad i'm not above spelling it out?) most every day i wake up and i ask myself the questions. who am i? where do i belong? what are my priorities? where should i put myself? and throughout the day these questions are unanswered. and if i don't have the answers then i can't find the file. i can't even begin to.

this is more difficult because i am both the questions and the file. so i don't quite sit on the desk with the "FILE NOT FOUND" post-it.

i never make it out of the in-box.