Got a new job about 6 months ago, great place.
Only trouble, one boss is a bit of a perfectionist and forgets that I also do some work for my other boss, and likes to add sudden deadlines just before other deadlines, then sits on work I got done early (to compensate for the growing deadline debacles) and regularly adds half-day projects to my schedule with no notice....
anyhow, I got a "I need to bring a few items to your attention" e-mail at the office today.. Sunday... the day i went in to finish work for a monday deadline that last minute work that was sat upon prevented my from spending 6 hours on on Friday. The e-mail was cc'd to the other boss (the quiet HR boss)
It included
An insinuation that i decided not to mail an overnight package at 4:55 on Friday PM (the post office is within sight of the office)... which is odd, since kmy exchanges with the postman are actually the highlights of my day (imagine cliff clavin, but actually cool)...that and the reality that package was sealed at 5:10.
Complaints about a late information package for a colleague, who will sit on it until the deadline anyhow, and will cause me to do 4 hours of work for a project that I could do in 5 if left entirely alone (and at a greater savings)
and some other BS.
basically my boss went home sick, i spent Friday from 7 until 1 doing a sudden death project that came uop a day before, adn from 1 until 5:15 doing work i could have done wednesday if my boss hadn't sat on it until friday at noon.
Nevermind the work i had scheduled for friday.
My pont. I let them have it with both barrels.
here is an excerpt.
I concede that errors are possible, and I am curious at to what they are. I rushed through the logs, but make no excuses for errors. That said, I am available by cell phone, which Company X pays for half of, 16 hours per day, 7days a week. I also have a remarkable memory for details. Call and ask next time. Seriously. If it is important enough to complain about, and is causing you a significant delay, then call me and I can even come to the office and straighten it out, or just answer your questions. Good chance I can un-cause the daly even faster. You rarely call with such questions and too often send e-mail after the fact.
I cannot tell I have made a miscue until you tell me, and if you want me to act, give me a chance to. Seriously, you tell me I screwed something up, I take it personally, and I want to fix it ASAP. It's who I am. CALL, or stop insiting I have a phone.
The other stuff:
I really enjoy working for you two, about 90% of the time. But that last 10% is a pissah'.
The way I see it: I am in your offices, on a Sunday, to write reports for your clients, to your standards. I like your offices, I like your clients, but your standards need a bit of a polish as regards expectations, and their not being met, and whose responsibility it is.
Since this sort of thing has come up once or twice, I feel I had best be very clear.
You are asking a little much of me lately, WAY too much if you intend to be a grumpy perfectionist about it simultaneously.
Both reports ~MIGHT~ have been done by 5, but XXXX asked me to return a call to ZZZZZ for you, which took 20 minutes sometime around 4, (during that conversation, three jobs came in, thus the hastily scrawled telephone message on your desk). And also that other rush rush job came in and walking the lender through that process was not exactly quick.
So, I ALMOST apologise for running out of time on Friday, but you were not here to do those things, and I stepped up for both of you and your clients.
In other words, this 5 o'clock thing is entirely, ENTIRELY, not my problem.
I do not have a time machine, I DO have two bosses, and your understanding of the situation is now, hopefully, closer to mine.
----
There are 8 to 10 hours in a workday, and by 5:40 Friday, when I left, I was at 10 hours with no lunch, The THIRD 10+ hour day THIS WEEK.
I'm not whining, I'm saying that the limits are pressed, my plate has been full, you know that, and there's not much room to ask more of me in any given day. I only have two hands. When short turn around Phase I projects come in on Wednesday in Town Q, and I HAVE TO inspect them ON FRIDAY, regardless of my other plans, well, THE OTHER WORK I had PLANNED (writing up Mr. YYYs Report) has to be rescheduled. --TO SUNDAY--
I have my limits, and if you are trying to find them, consider them found.
My limits lay at the intersection of unreasonable demands and uncompromising expectations.
You can not get both. I can meet one, or the other.
I am not an owner here: It is perfectly fine for you to rechedule something for yourself to a weekend day, because you own the place
but you did that to me this week. and I was fine with it,
and I generally will be.
until you add the griping and the insinuation that I could have done more and better.
LATELY, I cannot tell if you intend to continue to make me stand in that intersection, playing in traffic, I'm going to go home for now, and will be here tomorrow, at 9, to cheerfully complete Mr. YYYY's report, which I will personally hand deliver to ZZZ if need be.
If you wish to talk with me about this, I suggest we ALSO talk about just how well and USUALLY WITHOUT COMPAINT I handle the grenades that get thrown in my lap around here every other day.
I do hope to keep working for you both, and I do apologize if the logs were incomplete or incorrect in some way, or if my tone here was too much, but please take your frustrations out on someone else next time, preferably someone more responsible for them.
Think I'll get canned?
anyone want to start taking bets?
