At work (which I'm not at today, but that's another story), everything I enter gets recorded and counted. At the end of the day, I post everything I've entered and somewhere the information gets recorded and reports are generated. Where it goes, I have no idea, but I'm pretty sure that it goes somewhere.

On a good day, I enter over 600 names. That's about one every 45 seconds. Which is pretty good, I guess, considering I have a habit of coming in late, taking long lunches and reading both ESPN.com and the NY Times online. I have no idea if their keeping track of who does what and how much we do and if they're looking for a specific number. Most data entry type places do. It is the only way they can tell if somebody's actually doing the work and if they're doing a good job. The whole data entry sweat-shop thing.

I have no idea what numbers they're looking for at work, or if they even care, but I'm kind of sure my numbers are pretty low. Or at least, a lot less than others. It's not that they can type faster than me- I kick fucking butt when I'm in a data entering groove- but I also have a habit of being all fidgety and getting up from my desk a lot (see comments about reading all of ESPN.com). I think I'm okay, though, because I have worked there before and they wanted me back. And my boss doesn't seem to care about much or notice.

But still, I wonder.

There are days, however, where my numbers are really low. Like in the 400's. And while it can be related to, say, longer lunches than usual, it's usually because what I have to enter is hard to enter. A lot of times the handwriting is really hard to read and I can't enter anything because I can't make anything out. Or they have a really anal-retentive nurse who uses ever code possible and so I have to switch in and out of different screens.

When it's really low, I get worried they might actually notice that my numbers aren't as great as the others and so I feel like I have to defend myself. It's not me, I want to say, I'm not really slacking off that much. It's the information. The information isn't good.

I'm Jack Lemmon in Glengary Glenn Ross complaining to Kevin Spacey about the leads.

It's not me, it's the leads…….