Message #48566

[countrigal]

Ok, mine might not be the 'humdinger' of excuses, but it's the one that I've been hearing for 3 weeks now and I've just about had it with it.  I've been in charge of getting updates to a word document (from 14 different folks) and combining into 1 document, editing, formating, etc... so that one of the big wigs in the company could have it.  This was originally done back on September 13, when I submitted a draft to the big wig, who was very displeased with it, stated there were typos, misspelling, incomplete sentences, answers that didn't answer the questions, etc... and sent back to the original writers for corrections.  These updates were due to me by Oct 4, so that I could get a final product to her on Oct 5.  So I spend all this time sending e-mail reminders, calling, etc so that I can hear from everyone on any corrections to their portion of the document, and get most all of the responses by 4:00pm Oct 5.  (and yes, I was reporting problem children to the big wig so she could assist with lighting fires to get my responses).  So my new drop-dead due date for her is Oct 6 at 2:00pm, which is when she will be leaving on a business trip and will be gone the rest of the week.  She wants this to go with her.  So my 1 hold-out (Mr.G) gets calls, calls, e-mails, a hard-copy with corrections needed handed to his secretary, etc... and at 2:00pm I had to take the incomplete document to her and tell her that he refused to give me updates.  His excuse?  He didn't have time.  He had a lot of emergencies come up this week.  Oh, and the best... He couldn't edit his answers cause he has to review them with Mr. V, who provided other answers in that section, since Mr. V was the one who was going to be presenting this information.  Ummm... but you were the expert who had to provide the original answers and I'm just needing these 'sentences' completed... like add in a verb or something, so that it makes sense.  And I had told him for 3 weeks that he needed to answer one question that was left blank and he never reviewed it and just kept saying he had answered all of his questions and provided them to me back on September 9.  And Mr. V?  He went on 2 weeks leave, without assigning his review to anyone else to do in his absence, so his never even got reviewed except by me.  When I explained this to Ms. Big Wig, I also pointed out that since this was sent out on Sept 13, to all of them, that I didn't accept any of their excuses, including being out on leave, and that I did the best I could to provide her the most complete document possible.  I have a feeling Mr. V and Mr. G will be hearing from her.  The worst part?  These are upper level managers who would crucify any of us (including me, as they outrank me) if we provided them with any of these same excuses in not meeting our suspenses to them.

Oh yeah.... we're really taking suspenses seriously around here now.  No exceptions are to be accepted, especially for suspenses to the Director's office.  And yet our upper managers can't meet those same expectations.  Sheesh.  and they wonder why the rest of us are getting so stressed and jaded with their 'promises'.

CountriGal
Peer Moderator