Leslie and Tarek and Tarek's arms are getting things primed. As they roller the walls, Tarek talks about how he wants to inspire in them "musical ambition," and Charmaine accidentally pokes herself in the eye with her painting mask. It's all very friendly but there's still work going on. Charmaine warns Lenny that red is a hard color to paint -- true -- and that they're going to end up painting multiple coats.
What Charmaine's Saying: "Make sure you keep in mind that it's not one coat and we go -- the painting time for red is longer than we think." What Lenny Hears: "[unimportant] You picked the wrong color [unimportant] this is going to take all night [unimportant] Lenny [unimportant] bad PM." What Lenny Says: "Let me handle this, all right? If you stop talking we'll be fine." What Charmaine Hears: "Let me handle this, all right? If you stop talking we'll be fine."
Tarek interviews that Charmaine's voice is "like nails on a chalkboard," that it drives him "freaking crazy," that she is filled with "mindless blather" that comes out of her mouth and drives him insane. Tarek does not mean that it's going to lose them the task -- just that they asked him in an interview to talk about Charmaine's voice, and he admitted that it is irritating, and then moved on to a bunch of other topics. He's got floppy, floppy hair, and he's standing on a street in the evening and looking crazy hot as he says these things, but that doesn't mean they really apply to the task. Charmaine asks if they can hire professional painters, and they tell her there's not enough money, and Charmaine says -- I guess asking if they can re-examine the budget and see if it's possible -- that the painters can do it three times as quickly as the team can. Tarek gets irritated, Lee gets sad. Flip the script here and pretend that you're listening to a coworker on the phone with tech support in another country: that edge to their voice? The feeling of urgency, like for every second this person on the other end fucks around trying to understand them, or mispronouncing words, they're losing potentially thousands of dollars, that's way out of balance with how much time the call is actually taking? And then they get off the phone and say something racist about outsourcing. Or pretend it's you, behind a Town Car going about 32 miles per hour, and refusing to get out of your lane -- are you really going to be THAT much later if they don't move their asses? Either way, you're an asshole if you get upset about it, but time's subjective that way. It's why people turn down the radio when they're looking for an address.
What Lenny Screams: "We don't have time!" What Lenny Means: "I'm well aware of the literal time constraints, but I'm talking about how the energy it takes to process what you're saying makes me feel like I'm going to go crazy." What Lenny Screams: "Stop talking!" What Lenny Means: "Stop talking!" What Lenny Screams: "We're going to run out of fucking time!" What Lenny Means: "Everything after this point is your fault."