Thursday, October 16, 2008

And This is Why They Call It Work

"What's wrong? You look upset."

"You don't KNOW why I'm upset?"

"No."

"Well, THAT'S why I'm upset!"

"Sooo... now that I know why your upset, there's no need to be upset."

"NO! That makes it so much worse!"

***

Repeat this conversation about twenty times an hour and you might have a general idea of how time at the office has gone this week. Things are looking better in the future, but I might not be posting for awhile.

6 comments:

Courtney said...

Oh dear, that sounds terrible. Glad to hear good things are on the horizon. Hurry, horizon, hurry!

R* said...

bleghhhhh! you are a saint for putting up w/that. my brain would have exploded by, ohhhh about the third repetition.

hang in there!

M. Robert Turnage said...

Courtney, things are getting better, but this has been an interesting week. I believe this in a big one for the Lessons Learned column.

R*, Megan D. and Don G. are in next week to help out if that gives you any indication where we are. The PMO never considered anyone to be behind schedule so there were no contingency plans when resources rolled off. Let me repeat that - NO CONTINGENCY PLANS. So when someone's 6 month contract ended, that person's responsibilities were never transferred to another person and the work just stayed unfinished unless someone else took a proactive stance and finished it. Because a lot of people on my team are proactive, you have people on our team doing the work of up to six people who rolled off with unfinished work. So when the one person on our team who is really doing the work of six people rolls off the project, suddenly everyone gets into a panic because all of this work needs to be done and who is going to do it now? And because I am the tallest person on the team, I guess that makes me the go to person for all of these not-really-my-responsibility-but-I'll-see-what-I-can-do-but-my-hands-are-really-tied-because-you-refuse-to-admit-this-is-a-service-level-or-scope-change issues. I'm over-simplifying the situation, but not by much.

NoRegrets said...

Well, at least it's not your marriage!

M. Robert Turnage said...

NoR, thanks for pointing out the silver lining on this one.

R* said...

ummmmm.... wow. makes me glad i'm only 5'6".

i really feel for you. i'm just glad despite all the chaos they recognize how proactive and wicked smahhht you and your team are. that doesn't remove responsibilities at a project plan and contractual level, though.

again, hang in there - don't die to death!