“Got a minute?” Ken asked as I was walking back to my office.
“Not really,” I said. I had just been paged for a phone call.
“Take a look at this, will you?” he said, pointing to the set of prints he'd been studying all day.
“I've got a phone call waiting,” I told him.
“I'm really not sure about these windows,” he replied.
“And I've got a quote due ...” I made for my office, trying to close the door. Too late! Ken was on my tail, prints in hand.
I sat behind my desk and took my call while he moved the prints I was working on off my desk to give his prints more room. He patiently waited as I spoke on the phone.
“This might be a while,” I told him, covering the phone's mouthpiece. To my dismay, this just made him entrench himself further. He grabbed one of my pencils, helped himself to a fresh note pad from my drawer, and started making notes.
Ken is the Tortoise of our sales staff. He is meticulous to the point of absurdity. He once drove back to a jobsite because he couldn't remember if he measured the second-floor doors twice; his perfect notes clearly told him he measured them at least once, but for Ken, once isn't good enough.
He also has incredible concentration. He's been known to block out incoming phone calls, customers at the sales counter, and visits from his wife while working on an estimate. You could turn the lights off on him and he wouldn't notice it until he went to find his coffee cup.
