Adam was the training manager of a travel company. He had an extensive knowledge of the travel industry and could rattle off numerous statistics going back over many years. As you might guess, Adam was an intense character. His attempts at light-hearted banter were simply embarrassing. His sense of humour, if indeed one existed, was so obscure that other people failed to see it.

With his impressive store of knowledge, Adam was a ‘must’ on every induction programme for new staff. Though not a natural performer, he always rose to the occasion. He used numerous PowerPoints showing graphs and trends in business contrasted with leisure travel, etc. He also used a quiz he had compiled with a series of questions, each of which had a counter-intuitive answer. No one could ever survive it and Adam would swell with pride as he demonstrated his superior expertise.

Unfortunately Adam was so dedicated to his job that he was loath to go home. A less charitable theory was that he hated his wife and/or didn’t want to arrive home before the kids were safely tucked up in bed! Anyway, whatever the explanation, Adam used to linger on after the official finishing time of 5.30 pm.

If he had been content to confine his lingering to his own office, poring over statistics, all would have been well. The trouble was, Adam had developed a habit of wandering down the corridor about ten minutes before finishing time and dropping into someone else’s office for a chat. And could he chat! Words flowed out of him in a steady, unbroken stream, as unstoppable as water running downhill. There was no escape. If he happened to arrive in your office, short of saying your grandmother was on her deathbed and that her dying wish was to see you for the last time, you were stuck. (People soon ran out of grandmothers!)

Gradually people – with kids they liked to read stories to at bedtime and partners they wanted to make love to – came to deeply resent the inconvenience of Adam’s delaying tactics. So a plot was hatched. Everyone who had an office within Adam’s range joined in drawing up a roster. The person whose name was at the top of the roster had to be a sacrificial offering and, no later than 5.10 pm, devise some pretext for going to see Adam in his office. There the unfortunate person would have to engage Adam in conversation so that everyone else could leave for home promptly at 5.30.

The plan to distract Adam was a triumph and, so far as anyone knows, he never caught on.