The Lack of Communication

I was telling Mare-Bear last week about how one of my bosses and I had a brilliant workday not too long ago where we were completely in sync with each other and the whole day just flowed with no problems whatsoever. It was a busy day, but it was a dream day because we were both on all cylinders and had no miscommunication throughout the whole day.

Well, something put the kibosh on that action because since that one great workday it’s been downhill from there. I don’t know what’s going on, but all of a sudden he has not been communicating effectively with me at all, and it’s causing a lot of problems. I almost posted about it last week after a particularly trying day, but opted not to. But once again the little things have been adding up and my borderline migraine can’t take it anymore.

Today’s case in point. He is traveling today and left me a voicemail asking me to change the name on a particular presentation and fax it off to a potential client he hopes to meet with. So I changed the name and began faxing it off. I couldn’t get the second part of the presentation to go through, so I eventually called the potential client to find out if we could fix the error. Well, don’t get me started on Maude the Secretary because she was atrocious and straight out of the 1950s (meaning she doesn’t know ANYthing about technology). I explained that I was the one attempting to send the fax and was having problems with it going through. Seriously, people, this is her paraphrased response (please read it with some annoying smoker’s hack Lucille Ball voice in mind):

“Well, I just think this is ridiculous. It’s a waste of time, paper and electricity for you to send all these pages. I had hoped you’d just send a synopsis, not all this paper. It’s simply unacceptable. It would be better if you just mail us a copy if you insist on sending all of this to us.”

So I agreed to fedex her a copy of the book and left my boss a voicemail telling him the latest on the potential client book.

An hour later he forwards me an voicemail he got from Maude the Secretary in which she even more rudely states that it’s unacceptable that we tried to fax “so many pages” to her (note: it was 42 pages). In his voicemail to me about Maude he mutters something about “I don’t know what you are doing over there, but I didn’t want you to send the whole presentation, I just wanted you to send the first 10 pages or so. What are you doing over there?”

DOING WHAT YOU ASKED. Please note that in his initial request, which I outlined above, he merely said “to change the name on a particular presentation and fax it off to a potential client” NOT “change the name and fax the first ten pages”, otherwise that’s what I would have done.

I tell you what, April 18th cannot come any sooner.

07 comments on “The Lack of Communication

  • jen , Direct link to comment

    Classic miscommunication. That’s what I dealt with on a daily basis (several times a day for almost a year) with my last boss. What a nightmare…and very stressful. It’s why I left without having another job to go to. Unemployment was preferable…

  • Denis , Direct link to comment

    Just remember, one day we’ll be living in Kentucky and I’ll be selling ice cream from the side of a truck. Just remember, we are one day closer to that day all the time.

  • jen , Direct link to comment

    😆

    What on earth? I haven’t heard about this conversation. I thought it was North Carolina…

  • Denis , Direct link to comment

    It’s many years away. Don’t worry. And it might be North Carolina. It’s all the same.

  • Mom , Direct link to comment

    I thought it was New Orleans. What do you mean “it’s” all the same? Kentucky the same as North Carolina? Kentucky the same as Virginia? I don’t think so. Just because we fall south of the Mason Dixon Line does not mean we are all the same. General Robert E. Lee called Virginia his “country,” separate and individual from other states. And another thing, is New Jersey the same as, say, Maine? Love ya.

  • Denis , Direct link to comment

    New Orleans is for visiting. Jane thought I wanted to live there.

    As far as New Jersey goes, it’s the same as Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Maine. Basically, what I mean is the burbs are the burbs no matter where you are. Major cities are different from each other. D.C. is not like NY, which is not like New Orleans, which is not like Miami. See what I’m getting at?

    And you see where it got General Lee talking about his “country” separate and individual from other states.

    You can find a Starbucks, Gap, Subway, et al. in Virginia just like in every other “separate and individual” state these days.

    I love ya right back.

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