All About the Grind

I wish I could be talking about coffee, which is a yummy kind of grind.

There is a chap in my office who is rather pleasant, even if he sleeps through most of the day. He gets away with it because he is friends with Adolf. I choose my words carefully around him, as I'm certain some of the things I say get back to Adolf.

Just last week, we were talking about some of the work I do and I mentioned the parts that annoy me (like the fact that they scream when I don't answer the voice mail and yet I've never had a voice mail back-up for the four years I've been tasked with it). I'm pretty sure this found its way to Adolf, because I came back from my long weekend to an e-mail asking for voice mail instructions so Adolf can designate a back-up when I'm not here. The only thing I can say is: finally!

For the record, I have asked about that before, and the fact that there was no back-up has come up before. It's most noticeable when I take whole weeks off.

In addition to finally getting a voice mail back-up, I also answer an e-mail alias for merchants and someone was designated as back-up for that. Now, answering the e-mail requires a bit of diplomacy (just like the phone) and it is sometimes more complex than just hitting the reply button. If we don't "reply to all" the other people on the alias don't know it's been done. Some of these e-mails come in from other departments, so if we only hit "reply" or "reply to all" the original requester does not get the response. My back-up person has not comprehended this.

An e-mail went to the two of us this morning, clearly stating that the e-mail is one of my primary tasks and who the back-up person is for it. A few e-mails came in during the day. I replied to them, and got an e-mail from the back-up stating they were done an hour ago. Of course, not everyone was copied and the fact that I was primary was simply ignored.

I don't mind if this other person takes the task. I don't mind if I keep it. But we need to be on the same page here. I'm the one who looks like an idiot if I go behind someone who should not have done the work in the first place. Adolf promised to clear that up.

Take a simple thing, and someone will turn it into something difficult!