Quirks

We have a staff member in the institute who is funny. This member has a few quirks. One of them is that she does not carry a pen at any time. Everyday she will borrow someone's pen to sign on the muster. If there is no one around, she will patiently sit down until someone turns up. When I became head of the department, I asked her in a friendly tone “Why don't you carry a pen when you need one everyday?” She smiled sheepishly and said, “I do. But it is kept here” and pointed where some women keep private things or important things like money. I thought it was an old custom, popular with some old time women, but not a modern, professional person like her. Please don't ask me to state exactly where. I did not ask her why she would not take it out when she needed it. I also did not ask her why she carried one there if she never took it out. This happened six years ago. She still does the same thing. She has another funny habit. She does not bend forward to do something essential like opening a lock on a door. We started locking the staff toilet in the department because a lot of people visiting the department started using it while the staff members had to wait in a queue. She started calling the office servant to unlock it when she wanted to use it. Once the servant was away on an errand. So she called the typist to do the job, and shouted at her when she hesitated. The typist was right in hesitating because unlocking a toilet door was not a part of her job description. That was a few years ago. I thought it was a temporary problem of some sort, like pain in the lower back. But just the other day I found her outside departmental office getting a passerby to unlock the door. So her this habit was also persistent. Her third habit I had heard of from many people. She does not tie any of the ligatures when she performs surgery. She places the ligature, and asks her resident doctor assisting her to tie it. Actually that is a dangerous practice. If the ligature remains loose, the patient can bleed, which can become life-threatening. It must be done by the operating surgeon with responsibility. She should know this as a consultant. She probably does. After thinking on this issue for a long time, I realized this had to do with her lumbar spine or her weight. Her spine otherwise seems OK, and she does not describe she taking any treatment for it, like she does about her other problems. Sp it must be the weight. She either cannot or will not reduce her weight. A major portion of that weight being around the middle, she probably cannot bend forwards. She will not quit, probably because she can always find people who will bend for her free of charge. I might be wrong on this one. I don't want to ask her, because I feel embarrassed even if she won't be. If you have a better theory, please let me know. I might write another post on her other quirks sometime.