What's this in my folder? Another out-of-town special project. I have done enough of these. It looks like it runs for three and a half weeks right up until Christmas. That's the prime social season. I can't miss that. If I go out of town for that long, Janice will forget who I am. Also, I won't be able to go on the Johnson audit with Al. I have been maneuvering all year to get assigned to that job. Bill Smith is going to be the new senior. He's a comer and we get along well. He as much as promised me a spot on the staff, but the job starts in mid-December. I can't possibly be assigned to the audit now if I'm going to be out-of-town during that time. Then there is that Christmas shopping that I haven't done. I haven't even begun to think about what I am going to get everyone. I wonder what Janice will get me or whether she will get me anything at all. If it is anything like the last special assignment, we will probably be working long hours and weekends just to get the job done by the deadline. Where will I get any time? Besides, how would I ever get all those presents home on the plane? I have done enough of these odd assignments. Let one of the new hires do these special jobs now that I have a year's seniority. I have done more than my share and most have been out of town. Actually, some of them have been fairly interesting, even challenging, and traveling isn't that bad on occasion. They have kept me busy while others have been sitting in the office, but this is not the time for another one. I've a good mind to tell them to forget it, except that it would probably go as a black mark on my record. "Hello, Ms. Jones, I have just received your notice about the special out-of-town assignment beginning Monday. Is there anything that you can do about getting someone else? I would really like to do it, but our family is having a big reunion for the first time in several years and I would miss the entire affair if I were to go on this job. My mother would be really disappointed if that were to be the case. She has been planning this for a long time." What do you think of the manner in which the character in this case has tried to handle his perplexing problem? In what other ways could it be handled