January, year 2
No matter how well you plan your vacation, the first morning afterward is always difficult. Even if you plan to go to bed early, set out your clothes, and mentally prepare yourself, something will make you wish for one more day off. Of course, adding another will just prolong the inevitable return to work. Days like that remind you how far away from retiring you are and how important keeping your job is until then.
When knocking quietly on the bathroom door yielded no results, I felt justified in banging louder and calling my sister’s name. Having only one bathroom, it was inevitable there would be times two people would need it at the same time. Morning schedules, I thought, were clear so this type of problem would never happen. My vacation was not so long that she should have forgotten the agreement, and I hoped the oversight was not intentional.
Hearing some mumbled apology from the other side of the door let me know, at least, she acknowledged my sense of urgency. The door opened a crack, and a toweled head appeared.
“Can’t you eat your breakfast first?”
“I did already. It takes only a few moments to pour cereal, milk, and then eat it.” I scratched my neck. “Hurry up. I need more time to shave off this scruff.”
“Fine,” she huffed, closing the door. I could hear her banging stuff, and then she emerged, carrying her clothes while still wrapped in towels. “It’s all yours.”
“Hair dryer, please,” I said, holding out my hand.
She gave me a look like my using one was criminal.
“Come on, I’m going to miss my trolley.”
Firmly planting it in my hand with a snarl was probably much nicer than saying what she was thinking.
“Thanks, I’ll be done real quick.”
My morning routine was indeed speedy since most of it was set up the night before. In less than half an hour, I was up, out the door, and standing on the corner, waiting for public transportation.
One good thing about going in the day after a holiday is many other people are still on vacation. It was a New Year, and hardly anyone was going to work, leaving me the choice of sitting almost anywhere. I picked a single seat near the back by the door and stared out the window. Since very few people were riding, the trip went much quicker than usual, and I arrived at work feeling happy.
When I turned on the lights in my little hallway, I saw that my in bin was full. Actually it was overflowing since most people had simply tossed their work on the top. I got comfortable, turned on my computer, and picked up the sign-in sheet. Eight new jobs were signed in while I was away, many being due within the next two days. From their perspective, they gave me a week to do the work. From my perspective, I had hours.
I picked up the entire stack and counted. Ten jobs—one was revisions, and nine were new. Someone had thrown a job in the pile without signing it in on the board. After matching up the sheet and the work, I found an odd one. The job order was not completed correctly either, making me a little nervous. Today’s date was put for the due date, and the submission date was missing. From the looks of it, someone was running late and was passing their problem off on me. There is no way I was going to be able to do all the work properly signed-in if I had to do this one improperly tossed in the mix.
My boss came through as I was resorting the work.
“Do you have a minute?” I asked.
He adjusted his hat and leaned on the wall. “Welcome back,” he said, pointing his paper at me.
“Thanks,” I said, smiling. Holding up the extra job, I started, “Did you see this?”
He leaned forward and took the pages.
“It wasn’t even signed in or filled out right.”
Handing everything back, he stepped closer. “You’ll have to work that out with whoever did it.”
“Fine,” I said, realizing he had no desire to get involved. “I’ll just let that person know that plopping down a late project in hopes of me not noticing is unacceptable.”
“Well, you might need to be a little more diplomatic than that, okay?”
Why is it when someone tells you that you have to do something yourself, they also tell you how it should be done? Cut me out of the loop and fix the situation for me. I am a firm believer in following the chain of command. If I have a problem and report to my boss, they should take care of it for me or with me, but not abandon me. There’s no point in telling your supervisor if every time you do, you have to handle it yourself. Actually there’s no point in a manager who doesn’t manage.
“Sure, sure,” I said smoothly. “I’ll take care of it, no problem.”
He rubbed the back of his neck and stepped out quickly.
My plan for fixing the issue was to stop the first person working on the client marked on the partially filled–in form to pass through my space and ask them to complete it then write it on the sign-in sheet. If they wanted the job done so badly today, then they should have no problem quickly doing those two simple things. While I waited for that to happen, I finished the set of revisions and started on a new job.
Sometime later, the exec on the client did pass by but didn’t bother to say a word to me. By the time I looked up, the person was almost through the mail room.
Standing up and leaning over my desk, I called, “Excuse me. When you get a moment, could you stop by?”
The exec turned and gave me a dirty look.
“There’s a job for your client that someone wanted done today, so it’s important everything gets signed in correctly to make that happen.”
Some people naturally walk heavily, and others stomp when annoyed. I find it interesting that those who have to directly interface with our clients are often the most brutish in the office. Maybe someday I’ll get to see them in action at a meeting or something and change my mind about their value, but until then, I find some people to be completely worthless.
Slamming down a binder the exec was carrying, she leaned on it and glared at me. “What is it I need to do?”
I got the job and sign-in sheet and held them out to her. “Looks like someone needs to fill in the rest of the information on the form, and you can sign it in on the board.”
She took both and huffed.
“I will try to fit the work in for today, but several other jobs came in before this one.”
“How can you tell”—she grunted—“if that information wasn’t filled in?”
“Oh, that’s easy,” I said, trying to be super perky. “I don’t consider a job ready to be worked on until all the simple work of filling in the job order and signing it in are complete.” I smiled widely to be even more annoying. “I don’t mind staying late to get it all done, but I wanted you to know directly that there was still a chance that I would not get to this job until later this week.”
“It’s already behind,” she insisted. “You didn’t work on it before you left for vacation, so it sat there for more than a week. How do you think that reflects on your performance?”
“Are you telling me that you believe it was in my bin and that I simply ignored it?” I could tell this was one of those moments in my life that was going to test my patience. “Please be assured that everything was cleared before I went to Mr. Manor’s funeral with Ms. Cedar.”
Just dropping those names was enough to get her to blink first.
“Like I said, I don’t mind putting in the extra effort to help get this done, but I can’t offer any kind of guarantee that it will get done today.”
Straightening up, she walked out with the job and board. Moments later, she returned with my boss skulking behind her.
“Please tell him what you told me,” she said angrily.
“Did you get a chance to fill in the job form and sign it in on the sign-in sheet?” I asked, pleasant as could be.
She looked at my boss. “This was sitting in his bin for more than a week, and he is now giving me a hard time about it.”
“Could it be possible”—I began tapping my finger to my lips for dramatic effect—“that someone told you they put the job in and simply forgot? We can ask the members of your team and see if that’s the case. If you let me see the form, maybe I can identify the handwriting.” I held out my hand and smiled.
“That won’t be necessary,” the exec said, filling in the rest of the form and signing it in on the board. Throwing the job in the bin roughly, she loudly put the board back on my desk. “Can we talk in your office?” she asked, moving toward my boss.
He looked at me and then back to the exec. “Sure thing.”
They both left, and I knew the matter wasn’t settled yet. If my boss had simply talked to her, this would have all been worked out on a higher level and left me out of it. I knew what was going to happen next and began working on a plan to end it all in my favor.
My phone rang about two hours later, and I answered it, knowing who was calling and why.
“Should I come over there now?” I asked. “Okay, I’ll be right there,” I said, standing. Walking through the mail room, I knocked on HR’s door and entered when called.
Sitting at her desk, HR beckoned me to sit down at her round table. “How can I help you?” she asked, moving to join me.
“You had mentioned when I started about creating a new promotional piece for the company.”
She smiled and took the current one from her desk. “That’s right.”
Flipping through it, I saw some people who had left since I started.
“Surprised that you remembered that.”
“I know that can be a daunting task, so I wanted to let you know that I am willing to work with you to get it done.”
You would have thought I told her I was going to give her a million dollars.
“Do you think that would be okay?”
She sat back and looked at me. “It’s good to see someone around here with a positive attitude and some real initiative. This project has been sitting on my desk far too long.”
“It’s a new year, so I thought it would be something to help excite everyone.” We sat there for almost an hour, reviewing the current one and laying out some ideas for a new one. By the time I was ready to get out of there, half of my day was gone.
“I’ll have to run our ideas past Ms. Cedar and get a budget for printing, but I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your help.”
I stood and walked to the door and opened it. “I’ll see you soon,” I said, waving and closing the door.
My boss was making some copies and saw me leaving HR. “You ruffled some important feathers today.”
“Did I?” I asked, standing next to him. “What’s going to come of it?”
“Nothing today, of course. Watch your back is all I can say,” he said, grabbing his papers.
“You’re watching my back too, right?”
He sighed. “You go after execs, and you’re on your own.”
“Go after?” I really wanted to understand the situation from his point of view.
“You and I can be replaced, and the clients we manage would never know. A team member that gets out of line goes, and the client wants a good reason. Execs are safe, and we all pay the price. Does that make any sense?” He looked at me like I should accept this version of reality.
“Shut up and take it?” I asked, kidding.
He nudged me. “You got it. Seriously, you make it rough for an exec, and I get an earful. When one wants you gone, there’s not much I can do.”
“Did she suggest that I be fired?”
His silence spoke volumes.
“I don’t believe it.”
“Believe it or not, that’s how it works around here.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
He looked at me and smirked. “Finish her job before you leave today.”
“Won’t that just perpetuate the problem?” I could tell my vocabulary was slowing him down. “Keep the cycle going?”
“Exec wants something, exec gets it. That’s the only circle of life you need to understand.” He walked away, ending the conversation.
I went back to my desk, grabbed her job, and plopped it down next to me. It wasn’t something difficult to do, but it took me to the end of my day. Double-checking my work, I printed it out and looked it over one more time. From my seat, it was perfect, given the material and instructions. Updating the job order and sign-in sheet, I stood and stretched, ready to go deliver the work.
When I got to the exec’s desk, it was empty. “I didn’t want to just leave this on her desk,” I said to the two on her team. “Is she coming back soon?”
“No,” one answered, still working.
“She only came in a few hours today. The rest of the week she’s on vacation.”
I stood there dumbfounded. “Did she mention that I was going to drop off a desktop project?”
“No,” they answered, both shrugging.
“Can you tell me whose handwriting this is?” I asked, showing the part that was originally filled in on the form.
“That’s hers,” they both agreed after looking. “Is there a problem?”
“No problem,” I said, gently placing the stack of paper on a clear space on her desk. “Would you both be kind enough to make sure she sees that as soon as she returns?”
They both agreed, and I walked away feeling totally defeated. I started the day feeling out of sorts, and here I was ending it in similar fashion. Shutting down my computer, I left, thinking about how those who gave me plenty of time to complete their work would now be a day behind in getting it. For the first time, I simply did not care.