2 cents please

After 11 years of having a real job I have learned some of the rules about communication.

1. Never write anything in an email that you would not want the President of the company or anyone else to read.
2. Email can always be misinterpreted. People often read work email with a rude or sarcastic tone. Even if you are trying your hardest to be nice, they can think the complete opposite. That’s why I often put “Thanks!” at the bottom of my email.
3. Never send an email when it was written in anger or frustration. Most of the time it will be forwarded to someone and you will end up in an office explaining your intentions.
4. Don’t invite your boss to call in sick and hang out with you. Yes, I actually was dumb enough to do this years ago.
5. There’s more, but you get the idea.

So here is the part I need help with. I think I am overly polite when I go to talk to someone. Today I stopped by a buyer’s desk and asked her for a phone number for someone she buys product from. She started to look it up, but then her phone rang. She could have easily put the person on hold and given me the contact, but she didn’t. She talked for them for two minutes until I got fed up and walked away. It really pissed me off.

I think it pissed me off because I try to be courteous to everyone at work. If I am on the phone or in the middle of a conversation I will always acknowledge if someone comes to my door and give them an estimate of how long it will be. If I am speaking with someone and my phone rings I do one of two things. Either explain that this is an important call and that I need just a minute, or write the number down of the person calling me and call them after I am done.

So two questions. How long should I wait if they are already talking to someone on the phone or in person, they know I am there, but they don’t acknowledge me? How long should I wait if I am already meeting with someone and they take a phone call? Or should I just be less courteous and do the same thing to everyone else?

One more thing to pass by you. The President of the company comes to my office about once every six months for something. Last Friday he stopped by as I was rebooting my computer. I started talking to him and glanced over at my computer to my horror to see a movie of Napoleon Dynamite dancing on my screen. The IS Manager thought it would be funny to screw with my computer, but never anticipating someone might be in my office when my computer started. I think the President just thought I was messing around on company time. I don’t want to get the IS Manager in trouble, but I also don’t want the President to think I am a waste of an employee. What do you think?

When will you be taking the jet out again?

So the weekend in Santa Barbara turned out to be a weekend at the Four Seasons Biltmore in Santa Barbara. Talk about great service. I was asked my name by the valet guy and for the rest of the weekend I was "Mr. Montgomery" to everyone I came into contact with. So, we checked in and were told we would be staying in a deluxe room. That sounded nice. After checking in we headed off to our room. Vanessa opened the door... but the safety latch caught and we could only open it 2 inches. So that was the first problem. The second problem was someone was in our shower. WTF?

We closed the door and walked about 10 feet to a house phone in the hallway. I explained the problem and they were stuttering. Sounds like this doesn't happen often. After making our way back to the lobby they apologized many times, bought us drinks (non-alcohol for Vanessa) and had us wait in the bar while they sorted it out. No problem. Drinking wine, looking at the beach, relaxing. So the problem was they didn't have another Deluxe Room with a king bed. The solution... an upgrade to a Deluxe Cottage Suite. Actually that was around 7 upgrades. So the room was in a private cottage, 1,100 square feet, 2 plasma screens, a full size living room, fireplace, two bathrooms with a rain shower, 2 person bathtub, steam shower, heated floors, etc, etc, etc. After we got home I checked... $2,040 a night. Wow. My company also provided $100 cash and $200 of hotel credit. Not bad.

So while waiting to get our car from the valet to go to dinner, there was a father and daughter standing in front of us. She had her boyfriend with her who was dressed like a slob and I can only imagine the father isn't a fan of. So while waiting for their car I thought I heard him say something to his daughter, but I but it didn't seem realistic, so I figured I heard it wrong. Then, when the fathers Maybach ($380,000 car) rolled up, I realized I did hear him right. He was wondering when she was going to have a chance to take the jet out again. I can't believe people actually live this way.

Over the 2 days we spent the $100 on dinner, lunch, and a trip to the local zoo. The room credit went towards a $74 room service breakfast the first day (crazy, I know) and a $23 tab at the bar the second afternoon. We had $103 left. More on that later.

The company had a nice dinner with an open bar, 5 course dinner with venison, pinot noir grapes, and a bunch of other really good food that I can't remember. They even had Flamenco dancers to entertain us. Vanessa and I sat with one of the top guys from Daphnes Greek Cafe. Great night.

So the next morning we had $103 of room credit and nothing to spend it on. So we decided to have a $105 room service breakfast. How many times in your life do you get to stay in a $2,040 hotel room and eat a $100 breakfast? What do you get for $105 you ask? an omelet, fresh fruit, pancakes, and hot chocolate. Yep, that's it. The whole weekend cost us $2 plus gas. Not bad.

So to moral of the story is...

First, thank you for the kind comments. Makes me want to write more. Congratulations Nick!

So after a fun weekend and one hell of a Labor Day BBQ I returned to work... with a bit of a hangover. But I didn't care. Those margaritas were GOOD! I guess my boss didn't have a hangover because she started the morning by grilling me about some financial numbers I was reporting. I won't bore you with all of the details, but by 11:30 I was not happy and feeling quite unappreciated. In addition, my boss assigned me two more projects to accomplish by Friday. I already have roughly 15 due by the end of the month. This is in addition to my normal duties. I went to lunch in a foul mood.

I decided I was carrying too much stress and couldn't continue to keep up at the pace she was setting for me. I sent her an email explaining I was resigning from the committee I am the Chairperson for that she recommended me for. I explained that my priority is my department and if I am not running my department to produce the absolute best results, then I do not feel that I should be working on Committees which are not improving my department.

That was Tuesday and I still haven't received a response. The rest of my day went poorly including hitting some metal thing on the freeway and taking a chip of paint off the bumper of my car. Not cool.

Wednesday I walked into another shit storm. I was called into my bosses' office and was told an employee in Accounting complained about me and said I talked down to her and was rude. WHAT?!?!?!? I didn't even talk. I just sat there pissed off and shaking my head in disbelief. The truth is I was very patient with this employee and she was rude and insubordinate to the point I spoke with her supervisor. My boss knew it wasn't true without even asking me for my side, but I spent the next hour listening about how this employee didn't do what I turned into her and that it was my fault. PISSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And... she gave me 2 more things to complete before the end of the day.

I completed the things she asked me to do. During one of these tasks I found that the same Accounting employee hadn't been doing her job for the last 1 1/2 weeks and a customer was getting charged $3,500 for product they never received because of that. That cheered me up a little.

I left work and was driving to join some friends for dinner when my boss called me on my cell phone. She said that she wanted to send Vanessa and I away this weekend to Santa Barbara. It is a reward trip normally reserved for Sales, however she was allowed to send someone from her department and she selected me. She said she knows I work hard and she appreciates the work I do. These trips are amazing. The best hotels, spending cash, excursions, etc. I'll get the details tomorrow. The only downer is everyone else is leaving tomorrow morning. Vanessa and I can't go until Friday after work (my decision, not work's). It cheered me up a little. We'll see how tomorrow goes. My boss has already told me to see her first thing in the morning.... another project.