I can’t believe that worked.

For two years, my department head told me to get cozy with classified staff. He told me. For two years, he’d drop flowers and candy by the secretaries on Administrative Professional’s Day and on Valentine’s Day while I contented myself with friendliness and name recognition.

Then I transferred schools this year and around Christmas-time thought, what’s there to lose?

So I bought gift cards from a local coffee shop, designed a personal face for each, uploaded them to Longs for photo printing, pasted them to the front of the cards with aerosolized adhesive, cut the edges, and gave them to three secretaries and the custodian in charge of my room.

Since then, my paperwork flies through the office. Any referral that needs immediate eyes, I don’t even have to ask. My room gets vacuumed, like, every day, and one morning I got to my room and found a high-back roller chair to replace one I’d prefer not to recall.

My appreciation for these people and their jobs isn’t strictly self-serving, but, seriously, two years, what a waste.