Wednesday, June 04, 2008

The Benchwarmer


Had a spontaneous (they always are) lunch date with The Benchwarmer today. He is like no person I’ve ever met. I love him to bits and he has a good hug on him. He’s enthusiastic, intelligent, disorganised – despite a plethora of laptops mobile phones and Blackberrys. He’s reliably late (except for lunch with me because he knows I’d do my block). He's needy and impetuous, spontaneous and hot-blooded, exciting, full of ideas. I always come away from our soirees energised and wanting to throw in my job and go on some new venture with him before coming back to earth and realising that at my age I can't make a living selling geeky T-shirts or copywriting some obscure website. I need something more concrete than a fabulous idea! And he's full of those. He’s well-read, intellectual, romantic, and slightly self-obsessed yet selfless, does that make sense?

He’s one of the few people I can sit down with and have him distracted by mobile phone calls. He apologises because he knows I don't like it but he takes the calls anyway. Or a pretty blonde sitting behind us only to enquire about her Oraton Umbrella or Louis Vuitton Satchel, making me wonder if he's actually trying to pick up while having lunch with me or just interested in the fashion icons. So deep and yet so shallow. The man is a walking oxymoron.

The Benchwarmer first came to us as receptionist a few years ago. A tumultuous romance during his HSC year had seen this incredibly bright selective school student bomb his exams so we provided a filler and a meagre income until he decided what he was going to do. He revolutionised us, thrilled us, made us laugh and infuriated us - had he not left , I probably would have fired him but we've always stayed in contact.

He bought headphones so that he could multi-task at the reception desk. He filled in with IT solutions, he was designy and helped me with marketing material. He bought decent biscuists and did a regular coffee run (Espresso only for him, none of this instant shite but it worked out well for us) He was fun, noisy, emotional, outspoken. Clearly this lad was not going to stay long in a servile position paying a pittance. He was promoted ‘upstairs’ and became an Administrator at which he excelled but it wasn’t enough. Soon he was organising everything, solving problems and providing forward thinking solutions but nothing was exciting enough to challenge his inquisitive brain. Often, I’d have to call him at home at 9:30am to ask if he was ill or coming in to work only to have him arrive 15 minutes later, still smelling of the club, cigarette smoke and alcohol and wearing the same gear he’d gone out in the night before and waxing lyrical about some family drama or other that had prevented his punctual arrival at work. I remember him apologising profusely for deceiving me in order to attend job interviews and pretending to be sick. Rather sweet. Recognising his skills, he soon secured a prestigious almost six digit salary with a huge company.

Sadly, with the market downturn, he’s been downsized with a sizeable bunch of the IT crowd but doesn’t seem to be taking it too hard. It’s an opportunity . . . and at 23 he has a lifetime of opportunity ahead.

TheBenchwarmer is exceptional. He has a mass of forward thinking ideas that just need a little structure to pout them into practice. Lunch with him is always leisurely but he talks as frenetically as he smokes. He’s growing up and for the first time in a long time has time to work out what he wants to do in the future. Whatever it is, it will be powerful, intellectual and involve some new use of technology but with a pop culture edge. I’d wish him luck but he doesn’t need it. He’ll fall on his feet.

My dream? That he’ll establish some sort of cyber business and I’ll just be his quaint old over-paid PA with a little creative writing thrown in. I wouldn’t mind making strong coffee for The Benchwarmer, putting ice cubes in his ash tray, cooking his books, keeping him focussed and giving him relationship advice that he probably doesn’t need. . . then again, he’s got a mother to do that!

Thanks Damian for keeping me away from my desk. Always fun and good to see you so relaxed and happy.

10 comments:

  1. If that's a job reference, he's got the job! Not that I have one big enough for him to fill :)

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  2. Anonymous6:54 pm

    Beautiful, beautiful piece of writing! I was hooked!

    As regards Benchwarmer, I reckon it takes one to know one! I suspect he probably has very similar views on you.

    I'm intrigued to know the origin of his name 'Benchwarmer'?

    And btw, I think those are Adam's eyes?

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  3. Anonymous6:59 pm

    Every office needs someone like that - not too reliable, full of excuses, but bags of energy and ideas, keeps the whole place zinging and has plenty of juicy gossip!

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  4. Great post, Baino! Sounds like the kind of person that's good to have around -- inspiring, fun, irreverent and reverent all at the same time. Now I want to meet him! :)

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  5. Anonymous1:57 am

    well, he sounds interesting. I am quite different from him though.

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  6. Anonymous5:54 am

    Sounds like he's going places and maybe this is just the catalyst he needs!

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  7. Anony, I'd give him a reference any day if he's absorbed in what he's doing, he's a damn good worker.

    Steph, he had a period where he was 'warming the bench' in terms of girlfriends who then moved on to go out with someone else! Not so much now. And nope, those are his eyes, I pinched the pic from his MySpace (with permission of course).

    Nick in a financial planning practice, he was a breath of fresh air, it can get pretty droll working with accountanty types.

    He's a sweetie alright Melissa and I love that he keeps in touch. Another youngling with a brilliant mind ...

    Are you Ropi? You're a little younger but TheBenchwarmer was only 19 when he first came to work with us. I think he's just an outgoing type by nature.

    Quickie . . he's ultimately employable and actually quite glad to be out of the pressure cooker that gave him a good salary but awful hours. Just a matter of choosing what he wants to do now.

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  8. What a nicely written character study. Send 'im my way if he needs any blurb written. I like your idea of being his PA - as long as it's on a salary equalling KRudd's butler.

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  9. Thanks Kath he's actually a pretty good writer as well! And wouldn't that be nice!

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  10. Brilliant post, Baino - thoroughly entertaining, well written and a good chuckle. There is nothing quite like the breath of fresh air that someone like the Benchwarmer can breeze through an office. Kid'll go places, no doubt about that.

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