People who won't "play ball"

[happyclappy]

I would really appreciate some advice from my fellow DDers.

I have an extremely demanding job with a large volume of work and tight deadlines to match.

A substantial part of my job is concerned with investigating and progressing complaints.  There is a Committee and Chairman that assist in this work.

The Chairman of that Committee just won't "play ball".  He constantly makes promises to deal with the paperwork, but doesn't attend to it.  I play "phone tag" with him very regularly and am reluctant to call his office and speak to his PA.  She has enough to deal with and suffers from his lack of attention.  In the past we have made lots of dates to discuss our case load, I've sent emails, copies of correspondence, suggested replies to be sent to letters, and generally done everything that I can to make this situation work.  But nothing works.

My boss knows about this situation but either won't or can't address it.  

I don't take this matter personally, but how do I try to resolve this issue so that the work is kept going?  The effect of the lack of progress is that work is not done and people whom it affects (i.e those who are complaining and those who have complaints made about them) can't have closure and move on.

Many thanks.

Lucy

[Katie G]

You know, Lucy, your post really touched a nerve with me.  And I may say some things here that are not going to be terribly popular.....

In a perfect world, your boss would set up a meeting to have a civilized, forthright conversation with the Chairman in which he or she would simply and clearly lay out the effects of the Chairman's delays, to which the Chairman would apologize for the delays and would then make an honest and sincere effort to correct the problem, since he has now been enlightened and educated about his role in the overall organization.....

Yeah, right.  

The fact is, in the real world, many of us work with people either don't care, or get distracted by unnecessary pet projects, or spend their time goofing off, blame shifting and avoiding accountability.   Sometimes these folks get into alarmingly influential or important positions (and therefore untouchable).   I think when that happens, the pet projects and goofing off and resulting delays become part of the "culture" of the place.  

I feel your pain.  We have more than our fair share of these types in my workplace and it can be utterly maddening!  It takes forever to get things done, and most people -- including, on occasion, yours truly -- give a resigned shrug of the shoulders and will tell you that it's just the "Company" way.   And the sad fact of the matter is that many of us are at levels in the company where we can only get away with rocking the boat so much if we want to see our next paycheck.

One small thing I've tried to do is make sure that projects over which are department has any control have enough lead time built in to compensate for the delays that are inevitable.  I've sat down with my boss on occasion and have told him flat out that certain tasks require X amount of time because we both know that Y and Z (bossie's superiors) are going to drag their feet doing their part, no matter how much we remind and nag.  

Other than that, I document, document, document.  I save all memos, emails, faxes, and notes from phone calls.  On more than one occasion, I've had to pull out a stack of documentation to cover my *ahem!* when the you-know-what hits the fan.