I went to discuss something with the boss’s assistant (call her a secretary, I dare you) but she wasn’t at her desk. So I stick my head in the boss’s office and go “Do you know where Jen is?” I expected a shrug. Instead, he surprisedly responds “She’s not there?! She was there a minute ago!”
But then he gets up, walks around the desk, and comes to Jen’s desk to (I guess) investigate her disappearance, like we were looking for a lost stapler or something. Perhaps he thought maybe she was hiding in the cabinet or something, I dunno. So then he continues to gaze at this empty cubicle, hands on his hips, and mutters “I don’t know where she is.”
So then it got all awkward, as now I’m not sure how to disengage. Then Jen comes up, holding a fresh soda, and cracks it open. The boss turns around, exclaims “CS is looking for you!” and goes back to the office.
It’s always funny when that happens. OK, maybe not funny.
Not quite in line with the OP, but there was a time in my life when it seemed like I could not get a straight answer to anything. I’d ask the most mundane question, and get a 10-minute rambling response about everything under the stars. Everything, of course, except the answer to my question.
My guess is that he was bored/frustrated with what he was doing, so he welcomed the distraction.
I used to conduct telephone polls of businesses. Most people just hung up on me, but I remember one guy in particular who told his administrative assistant that he needed to take this important call and spoke with me for at least twenty-five minutes.
My own translation of "I don’t know he/she was here a minute ago "is, "They sloped off some time ago to go shopping/whatever, I’m covering for them but I’m not going to lie too elaborately in case I get caught out ".
Personally if anyone was told that I was in a meeting, they knew that I was having a pint in the mearest pub.
And if anyone working for you has their wife or A.N. Other to ring in sick for them, then you just know that their faking it and are scared that you’ll call them on it on the phone.
Unless of course they’re in a coma, or have had their arms and legs broken in a serious car crash and can’t use a phone.
I actually like this process sometimes - especially when the 10 minute, rambling response is followed with the same question, repeated word-for-word, and a three word concise answer.