| I?ll be blunt: the past two months of my life have sucked at work.I have been in a no-win situation, and I DO NOT abide no-win situations.What should have been a very simple project turned out to be a nightmare in which every possible thing in our process and in life in general that COULD go wrong DID go wrong; we?re talking everything from miscommunications to a total lack of communications to my latop refusing to connect to the network on the last day I had to work on this PFH.What?s truly stunning about the whole thing is that the guy/team who requested the work is a nice, seemingly reasonable kind of guy.The project is for an offering that I basically piloted and know like the back of my hand.It shouldn?t have taken more than two weeks to complete... but I didn?t figure that out until I finally took over and talked with the guy directly last week.So what was all this confusion and miscommunication and DISASTER about when the request turned out to be as straight-forward as any we have ever worked?THAT is what I am going to have to figure out how to present to my boss in a completely professional and non-emotional way that doesn?t require ANY finger-pointing or walking through the work requests one-by-one to illustrate the multitude of individual issues each and every one contained.This is my challenge for the next week, and guess what?I?m pretty sure my job is on the line.That is the part that hurts the most.I love my team.I love my work.I love what I do, and those for whom I do it.I don?t like feeling that I look bad in their eyes.I can?t stand feeling like I have let them down.THAT is the worst of it all.I was determined to make this guy happy no matter what, so I was up working for three days straight last week.Every time I thought I was done, I?d check through the content and find that there was a consistency issue and I?d have to go back and change a whole series of pages to make one little correction.These pages had to be P-E-R-F-E-C-T; we can?t afford for this requestor to find even one error in his final test pages, so I?ve been brutal in my own testing.Friday, I was finally done and completely satisfied that I had done all I could do without the requestor?s input.?(YAY!!!)?All ready to call it a weekend, I got a message that another - equally important - requestor needed a simple title change to one page, and it needed to be done immediately.No problem, right?I open the page and realize it?s actually one of THOSE projects ... the ones that has so much wrong with it, nobody can decide exactly what to do with it.None of the pages that had already been approved and published matched visually or met corporate standards, so I quickly realized the "title change" was barely a scratch on the surface of what needed to be done on these pages.We?re talking HOURS of work.Know what I did??I walked away!I looked at my son, who was so excited about the start of Easter weekend, and I just wasn?t willing to put him off anymore.I do way too much of that, and before I know it, they are grown and gone.Not this time.This time, we would spend a weekend together - just BEING together.I walked away from the work and didn?t look at it again until this afternoon (Sunday).Yeah, I know ...I fudged a bit on making it all the way through the weekend, but you have to understand ... this is a sickness.If I?m not working, I don?t know what to do with myself.Work and sleep is all I?ve done for so long - I scarcely recall what else is out there.Our adventures yesterday, however, were a good reminder of "what else" is out there.Dag needs a new car, so we went and test drove the three he is most interested in.That was pretty fun.Interesting the different games each dealership runs.I used to engage in the game by playing the bitch and being tough and intractable at negotiation time.I?ve since learned that a FAR better strategy is to gush about the car - let them know you LOVE it, and you WANT it, and you are ready to work on the deal right now.Cooperative and anxious - it?s a car salesman?s wet dream....Except as we talk price, my tactic is, "I love it, I want it, I need it, and if I can have it today, I will jump through hoops for you..." but with each part of the process, I demonstrate that I am actually quite patient and willing to wait to get the best possible deal.?I understand that they can only give me $4k for my trade-in ... but I also understand that I can sell it myself for $6k and get another $2k off the price of the car.Then there?s the down-payment.I have $1k today, but I will have $3k next month, so let?s set up the paperwork to close next month with $3k down, ok?"?Then I look up with a big expectant smile.?My salesman has the taste of that sale in his mouth now.He?s feeling it, and wanting it.Now he wants that sale, and knowing that I am savvy to how to get the best deal and WILLING TO WAIT for that money, he knows he has to get right to the bottom line if he wants a sale today.Cuts through a tremendous mountain of BS, and makes things move amazingly fast.More importantly, I let them in on the fact that I have played them right before we finalize the price.I do this because it takes a special personality to be a successful car salesman, and they genuinely respect a better tactic that got in under their radar.I usually get all the BS "aftercharges" stricken completely at that point just out of respect.Anyway, we were testing - not buying.Had a great time, then went to Sam?s Club.I was totally disappointed with the Round Rock club.Never been there before.I always used the one in Las Colinas or Tyler.The one in Round Rock is smaller, VERY poorly merchandised, and they didn?t have a lot of the "staples" I have always come to Sam?s to purchase.LOVE to get the family-size bulk-packs of bread machine mixes, brownie mix, etc. Prices weren?t as good as usual, either, and the flowers were actually limp and wilted.Way below par for Sam?s Club.Anyway, we got about $450-worth of stuff (house-o-teens), packed up the Jeep, and somehow found ourselves standing outside of the Jeep - engine running, my purse inside - with all the doors locked!We?d managed to lock ourselves out of our running vehicle that has those door locks that automatically unlock if the engine is running and you close the door (then they autolock when you 10 MPH or whatever).Sweet!Anyway, I did learn something cool.Did you know if you call Pop-a-Lock - the company who specializes in opening car and house doors for chuckleheads like us - you wait 45 minutes (engine running, remember - hot afternoon; frozen foods-o-plenty} and get to pay $47!?OR you can call a taxi company - we called Ace Taxi in Round Rock.They already had a guy right across the street, so the wait was maybe ten minutes, and he charged us $30 without doing ANY damage to the Jeep.Who knew you could call a taxi service for unlocking a car door??(You can?t call local PD anymore - they won?t jimmy electric locks.)We got home, exhausted, and I went in and watched "Beauty Shop" with Queen Latifah.That woman is so intensely gorgeous.Good end to a weird day.Maybe the fact that weird stuff always happens to me (like with the request; like with the Jeep at Sam?s) is part of why I don?t tend to spend a lot of full days outside the house.Just wears me out.It was fun, though.I need to start doing this more often.REAL adventure beats the crap out of manufactured workplace drama ANY day!?:)Happy Easter, everyone! |
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