Tuesday night
21:00 - Manager is heading back home; she wants the slides by 0600 the next day. No problemo. She's had a few tough days and needs the rest tonight. Nothing she can do anyway before we give her the most updated version.
23:59 - well, no one said consulting was easy. Nonetheless, the second/third night pass midnight is always alarming (first time in a year... not bad, I guess). On the bright side, progress is good and all the presentations are coming together quite well
Wednesday morning
1:30 - only two consultants left... RK left after completing her slides as AW and myself are going through the slides just once more to make sure they are error free and good to go for a Thursday meeting
2:30 - I'm the only one left. I'm also waiting for a slide from an analyst. Let's hope that comes in time.
2:42 - Yes. My slides are complete now. Combining the outputs from all parties into one...
2:58 - Checking one last time
3:06 - Checking one one more more last last time time
3:11 - Apparently, the "Send" button on Outlook means send happiness through veins and send brain to sleep; My manager would be pleased.
Just as I thought the night was over and I'm good to go... within 10 seconds of my email leaving the Outbox, the Inbox flashes... the partner on the case sends a new version of the slides: we are to use her version as the master version and all edits should be done on her version!
I mean, good God, I've never felt so defeated as I completed a task!
Except for one small problem: there's no attachment! Holy Bain, what should I do!? Ah, the dilemma I face:
- Scenario 1: Do I pretend that I didn't receive the email? Or ask for the attachment after I get home? The work can be done the next morning, I suppose.
- Scenario 2: Do I recognize that it is 3:11am and that any instructions at this hour should be simply deferred and then acknowledged the following morning (and doing it)?
- Scenario 3: Do I alert her to the fact that there is no attachment? I foresee several iterations of this:
- Scenario A: partner does not receive my alert in time. Consequences similar to 1 or 2.
- Scenario B: actual file sent to me. I follow scenario 2.
- Scenario C: actual file sent to me. I consolidate all versions of the file and send the final result to my manager before 0600
04:11 - exactly one hour after the double whammy (well, to be exact, it's a single whammy), I sent out the final consolidated version.
It wasn't funny at 3:11am then. But it is now. =) And it makes for a great blog entry. What would you do...?
2 comments:
Well, seeing that you received the email 10 seconds after you sent one out, the safest bet is unfortunately scenario 3. I don't know. Time stamps are evidence, and crazy bosses (like me) could put one and two together and figure out whether you're deliberately trying to avoid work. :P
Omg, you are such a value-added employee. You should come work for my firm instead! My boss honestly don't expect me to respond to his emails past 10pm and we hire consultants to do our work! hahha...
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