There were other misguided calls. Some people wanted to buy something. Others called to complain about one of his products or to learn how to cope with what appeared to be a bug in his software. How stupid, Charlie thought. They should be calling the Sales Department or Customer Service.

Finally, Charlie decided that it was just too much. He instructed his secretary to screen all callers before routing calls to him. He gave her a list of people he'd be willing to talk with. It was a short list.

She understood exactly what Charlie wanted and why. Being very efficient, she knew what to do. She would ask a caller's name, then his affiliation, then the reason for the call. If she didn't understand the reason, and she often didn't because she was not an engineer and felt that engineers just talk that way to impress outsiders, she would challenge further and ask for an explanation, which she usually couldn't understand anyway. It was the rare caller who had the patience to get past this lady at the gate.

It worked. Except for his wife, his lady friend and his boss, almost nobody got through to Charlie. Lots of callers were annoyed by the secretary's intrusive grilling and many were offended.

At the local eatery sometime later, Charlie ran into Fred, an old customer. After the usual exchange of greetings and Viagra jokes, Fred finally told Charlie what was on his mind. "I'm sorry," he said. "I'm really sorry you couldn't accept that large order I placed last month."

"What order? Why didn't you tell me about it?" Charlie pressed. "I tried," said Fred, but I couldn't get past your secretary. She didn't know my name. She didn't know my company. And she didn't understand what I was talking about. I would have called you at home, but I didn't want to bother you."

"But why didn't you call the people in our Sales Department?" Charlie demanded. "I tried," Fred replied. "But their secretary wouldn't let me get through."