Idiot of the Week.
And now, the moment you've all been waiting for. We here at RamblingDreamer, Inc. bring you...
The Idiot of the Week
But first, this commercial break.
"Hey, mom, have you ever had that...not-so-fresh feeling...?"
Kidding. (And I've never had that feeling, in case you're wanting to know. Sicko.)
Let me give you a little bit of background so this post will make sense.
I work for a newspaper. The name is unimportant. Let's just say that it's a pretty big one in my city/state. I work in the classified section. Specifically the legals. I handle the bid requests, the public auctions, etc.
Now that you know that, we can move on...
A lady from one particular department of the city (yes, the city itself) wanted to place an ad for Tuesday. This is Friday, which means the ad for Tuesday should have been in here two days ago (per our deadlines that are listed in the paper). I told her so. She whined a little bit - "Are you *sure* you can't get it in?" - and when I said no she gave up and let me off the phone.
[Note: She mentioned seeing the deadlines in the paper, so as this was going on I wondered why she was surprised that her ad was too late - especially when I confirmed that it wasn't some bizarre typo.]
30 minutes later, she calls back.
"Yes, I'm calling from [name of city/department]. Can I get an ad in for Tuesday?"
Okay. I know that I'm sleep deprived today (see earlier post). And I know that, at least in her mind, she's the most special person on earth and I should bend over backwards *while* kissing her ass (which takes a great deal of talent, believe me) to do what she wants. But why, oh why, does she think that I'm going to a) forget that we spoke earlier and b) change my answer just for her?
I don't know, either.
Anyway... Again, I say no. Again, she whines briefly. Then she sighs heavily - because of course it's all *my* fault they're getting things in too late - and lets me off the phone.
And here's where I get naive. I get naive because I think that this is over.
Nope.
A few hours later I get a fax. Guess who it's from! Yep! You guessed it! It's her *again*. This time she seems to think that if she requests it in writing that somehow the deadline will magically disappear and I'll take her stupid ad.
Heh. Guess again.
So I call her back, and inform her voice mail that no, we *still* can't get the ad in for Tuesday. Does she want me to put it in for another day? I don't know, because she has yet to return the message.
But aha! She has underestimated the cover-my-own-ass ability of who she's dealing with! I got ahold of the manager who's in charge of my small one-person department and explained what happened. That way, if this woman decides to "forget" that I left a message and calls to complain that her ad isn't in, the manager will be forewarned. She said that if I don't hear from the woman by Monday I need to let her (the manager) know.
Backup in high places is a wonderful thing.
Technically I could have gotten her ad in. It was short, and with the speed I type (over 100 wpm - the tooting you now hear is the sound of my own horn being, well, tooted) I could've had it done in five minutes flat. But she caught me on an I'm-not-being-helpful-and-you-can't-make-me-do-it day. (Plus, I'm annoyed that she thinks I'm stupid enough to forget that she's contacted me *THREE TIMES* because she thinks the deadlines shouldn't apply to her. What can I say? I'm passive-aggressive like that.).
All of this, topped off by the fact that dealing with people who think they're superior annoys me, contributed to a very anti-helpful stance on my end. Nevermind the fact that my manager (a different one than the one over legals - I do the jobs of about three people, so I report to more than one person) said I needed to be more strict with the deadlines (after we changed them a while back, I was letting it slide much too often, and people were taking advantage).
So that's the story. I fully expect to hear from this woman on Tuesday, and to be screamed at because her ad isn't in the paper. Oh well. I've covered my bases. It'll be a hard lesson to learn, I'm sure, when she realizes that she is not the center of my (or any other, for that matter) universe, and that sometimes she should listen to people who try to do their job - especially when she knew ahead of time how things are.
Tune in...some time later - whenever another beaut like this comes up and I feel like writing about it - for the next installment of
Dum-da-da-dum!
Idiot of the Week!
Oh, give me a break. We here at RamblingDreamer, Inc. are working on a very small budget. You want fanfare, go to Disney World.
The Idiot of the Week
But first, this commercial break.
"Hey, mom, have you ever had that...not-so-fresh feeling...?"
Kidding. (And I've never had that feeling, in case you're wanting to know. Sicko.)
Let me give you a little bit of background so this post will make sense.
I work for a newspaper. The name is unimportant. Let's just say that it's a pretty big one in my city/state. I work in the classified section. Specifically the legals. I handle the bid requests, the public auctions, etc.
Now that you know that, we can move on...
A lady from one particular department of the city (yes, the city itself) wanted to place an ad for Tuesday. This is Friday, which means the ad for Tuesday should have been in here two days ago (per our deadlines that are listed in the paper). I told her so. She whined a little bit - "Are you *sure* you can't get it in?" - and when I said no she gave up and let me off the phone.
[Note: She mentioned seeing the deadlines in the paper, so as this was going on I wondered why she was surprised that her ad was too late - especially when I confirmed that it wasn't some bizarre typo.]
30 minutes later, she calls back.
"Yes, I'm calling from [name of city/department]. Can I get an ad in for Tuesday?"
Okay. I know that I'm sleep deprived today (see earlier post). And I know that, at least in her mind, she's the most special person on earth and I should bend over backwards *while* kissing her ass (which takes a great deal of talent, believe me) to do what she wants. But why, oh why, does she think that I'm going to a) forget that we spoke earlier and b) change my answer just for her?
I don't know, either.
Anyway... Again, I say no. Again, she whines briefly. Then she sighs heavily - because of course it's all *my* fault they're getting things in too late - and lets me off the phone.
And here's where I get naive. I get naive because I think that this is over.
Nope.
A few hours later I get a fax. Guess who it's from! Yep! You guessed it! It's her *again*. This time she seems to think that if she requests it in writing that somehow the deadline will magically disappear and I'll take her stupid ad.
Heh. Guess again.
So I call her back, and inform her voice mail that no, we *still* can't get the ad in for Tuesday. Does she want me to put it in for another day? I don't know, because she has yet to return the message.
But aha! She has underestimated the cover-my-own-ass ability of who she's dealing with! I got ahold of the manager who's in charge of my small one-person department and explained what happened. That way, if this woman decides to "forget" that I left a message and calls to complain that her ad isn't in, the manager will be forewarned. She said that if I don't hear from the woman by Monday I need to let her (the manager) know.
Backup in high places is a wonderful thing.
Technically I could have gotten her ad in. It was short, and with the speed I type (over 100 wpm - the tooting you now hear is the sound of my own horn being, well, tooted) I could've had it done in five minutes flat. But she caught me on an I'm-not-being-helpful-and-you-can't-make-me-do-it day. (Plus, I'm annoyed that she thinks I'm stupid enough to forget that she's contacted me *THREE TIMES* because she thinks the deadlines shouldn't apply to her. What can I say? I'm passive-aggressive like that.).
All of this, topped off by the fact that dealing with people who think they're superior annoys me, contributed to a very anti-helpful stance on my end. Nevermind the fact that my manager (a different one than the one over legals - I do the jobs of about three people, so I report to more than one person) said I needed to be more strict with the deadlines (after we changed them a while back, I was letting it slide much too often, and people were taking advantage).
So that's the story. I fully expect to hear from this woman on Tuesday, and to be screamed at because her ad isn't in the paper. Oh well. I've covered my bases. It'll be a hard lesson to learn, I'm sure, when she realizes that she is not the center of my (or any other, for that matter) universe, and that sometimes she should listen to people who try to do their job - especially when she knew ahead of time how things are.
Tune in...some time later - whenever another beaut like this comes up and I feel like writing about it - for the next installment of
Dum-da-da-dum!
Idiot of the Week!
Oh, give me a break. We here at RamblingDreamer, Inc. are working on a very small budget. You want fanfare, go to Disney World.
posted by Unknown at 3:02 PM
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