I died on a no-meeting Wednesday.

It was supposed to be a regular day at Bland Brand Marketing. The company had adopted one of those business fads that swept the business world every year and sent an email to everyone that we should not schedule any meetings on Wednesdays. All the meetings were unceremoniously shoved into other days of the week, not unlike how you clean up your desk by stacking up everything on either side of it.

Some people made Wednesday their work-from-home day. Some, trying to find time on your calendar, saw that large expanse of free space on Wednesday. They just had one thing they needed to talk to you about. You clearly weren’t busy then, and there was no other time that worked.

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On the eve of that fateful Wednesday, I opened my calendar and saw a single meeting scheduled for tomorrow. The title of the meeting was “IMPORTANT: Must attend.” I checked who scheduled it and saw that it was Julie, the human resources business partner.

I wondered what I’d done this time to warrant one of Julie’s special you-have-misbehaved meetings. I’d had a number of these over the years, usually used as an excuse for why I wasn’t getting a raise or a promotion. It hadn’t always been Julie. I had been with Bland Brand Marketing for over twenty years and had seen a succession of people administrators with various names and titles that changed with the times, though they all delivered the same message. I will need to go into the office tomorrow.

I really should have stayed at home.