Yep, so far I only have three things that make my job not so fun. That’s not bad, right?
The third on the list is the very same reason why I love my job: my boss is laid back. But sometimes Mr. BIL is a bit too laid back. Unlikely any other boss I’ve ever had in my entire life, Mr. BIL literally juggles a couple dozen clients a day. And then the next day he juggles another dozen new ones. This is a constantly changing day and means that sometime he’ll get started on a project for one client, then get sidetracked with another client, and another and another until a week has gone by and the client calls back wondering why he didn’t hear from Mr. BIL four days ago.
That’s what has happened today. He has gotten several irate phone calls from various ignored clients. And it’s not that he deliberately ignores them – it just HAPPENS, and his clients don’t seem to realize that he’s juggling so many of them at the same time that it’s hard to keep track.
Enter me. My job is to keep them all tracking. I do this with emails to Mr. BIL (such as the one I wrote about yesterday morning). I do this by randomly hollering into his office, “Hey – don’t forget you have to do such-and-such today or else you’ll get a mean phone call from Mr. Huffypants (not his real name)!” I do this by stacking up tons of folders on my cubicle ledge in order of importance from oldest on top to newest on the bottom. And yet somehow *I* get a modest but humorous lecture on timeliness and the need to get things out to clients quickly. *insert the “oh REALLY?” icon here*
Today I have nine client folders on my desk. And in addition to those I have five other clients that have tasks that need doing. And he’s panicking because one particularly demanding client is being hyper-nitpicky about stuff today and taking up all his time. Which means I’m bearing the weight of his resulting frustration (which, although comparatively mild, still isn’t fun).