Today, it’s out with the old and in with the new! I love the energy around the office after the holidays. Everyone is closing end-of-year accounts and there is a constant buzz about the halls.
Brigid has been especially buzzy as of late — she’s my superstar this month. Alone, she’s brought in three new clients and upgraded several others. She has so many clients on her plate, I thought her head might explode at the idea of Office Clean-Up Day. A whole day without addressing client files? It seemed like a lot to ask.
But, to my surprise, she’s ahead of schedule and thrilled to join the office in a low-key day of chore work. She passes my office door with an arm-full of papers.
“Next up, shredding!” she says to me with a smile. I can hear the loud crunch of the shredder already — Andy has been doing invoices for me all morning.
But then, a not so pleasant sound. The crunching turns to cracking and finally a loud thud.
“Andy!” Brigid shouts from down the hall. I leave my office to see what’s happened to our poor, old shredder.
“It wasn’t me! She’s an old girl,” Andy says pleadingly to a ticked-off Brigid.
“Sure,” Brigid rolls her eyes, “just like it wasn’t you who broke the toaster last month.”
“I didn’t know you couldn’t stick knives in there!” Andy says, seeming a bit defeated.
“Has the old shredder finally given out?” I interject.
“See?” Andy turns to Brigid, “old shredder.”
I give a laugh at Andy’s retort. Everyone has been working so hard for me today, and as it’s a day of new beginnings, it’s the perfect time to unveil something that just arrived last week. In all the excitement of the holidays, I completely forgot to unpack it.
“Hmmph,” Brigid sighs, “what are we going to do without our shredder?”
“I might have the answer…” I say, “just wait here.” Andy and Brigid exchange a puzzled look as I’m running out the door toward my office.
A short moment later, I’m back with the coveted package.
“Is that?…” Andy starts.
“The new Swingline® Stack-and-Shred!” I beam. It’s everything our old shredder was not. “Now, you won’t have to hang around in here shredding all day, Andy,” I say. “With this shredder, you just fill it with your stack of papers and walk away. It shreds up to 100-pages at a time.”
“I never thought I’d be so in love with an office supply,” Andy jokes while batting his eyelashes.
“Just, don’t stick any knives into it,” says Brigid.
