Demand to see Ms. Wu.

"She told me she didn't want to be disturbed," Jackie says, "but I'm not going to stop you if you think it's an emergency."

With that, you go to Ms. Wu's door and knock. Her voice replies after a moment. "Yes?"

You open the door a little and peek inside. Ms. Wu, an attractive woman in her mid-thirties, is behind her desk, typing furiously. She does not look up at you. "I can't spare you any time right now," she says. "Just e-mail me the report."

"That's the problem," you tell her. "I can't finish the report unless I can get to my computer, and my computer's down right now. The IT desk won't look at it without explicit instructions from you."

"Borrow someone else's computer," she suggests, still typing without looking at you.

"I could, but the report is on my computer."

"You don't have a backup on the network or on a flash drive?"

"My backup's a day out of date. It would take eight hours of work to fill in everything that's missing."

She continues typing for a few moments, then reaches out and punches a button on her phone. It autodials a number, and you hear the IT manager's voice answer. "I need you to send someone up here right away to fix a computer," Ms. Wu tells him. "Immediately if not sooner."

She pushes another button and hangs up, then addresses you, still without looking at you. "Whatever you have to finish, you've got forty-five minutes."

"I'll take care of it," you tell her, and you shut her door before racing back to your cubicle.