First the rant, then the poll.
I like to get right to work at my job. My coworker likes to chit-chat. To be fair, she gets in at least half and hour before I do (when I go to the office), so maybe it’s ‘time’ to talk. I want to log onto the computer, turn on the radio, grab a cuppa joe, and start crunching the data.
It’s the end of the month, and I get edgy when there’s not a pile of work to do; so I really wanted to get to the papers on my desk and make a couple of phone calls. Also, there was a wreck on the freeway so I was half an hour late – more than that, since I tend to get in 15 or 20 minutes early. Usually I can do the typical Male Thing™ and grunt at appropriate times, but today my coworker decided to hover over the filing cabinet that separates us. I eventually cleared the paperwork, and the boss came in around ten. She reminded my coworker that we have to be diligent in getting overdue data from our contributors, and to be sure to copy the salesperson in charge of the account on the correspondence. Oh, boy…
My coworker works on Quarterly data. She’s also a creature of Procedure. If a contributor doesn’t send data, she sends out a reminder in a couple/few weeks. Then nothing for three months. After six or nine months, the VP wonders why we don’t have current data. ‘It rolls downhill.’ Coworker thinks, ‘Well they’ve only missed one or two cycles.’ VP thinks in terms of months. Me, I don’t care if my monthly contributors miss are supposed to send a current file the following week. I want their data NOW. (I’m impatient that way.) AND I want current data when they close their books. Coworker doesn’t think that way. If they miss a cycle, she’ll ask them again in three months.
She told me that one salesperson deletes the emails I copy her on, when I contact the contributor. She ‘doesn’t have time’ to deal with them. Since my boss was making the point that we’re supposed to get the salesperson involved, I mentioned this. Apparently what I thought of as a data point was a faux pas to mention. Boss wanted the salesperson copied, and now she wants the VP copied. Coworker thinks it’s unnecessary, since they ‘only miss one cycle’ (which is three months!). Boss says to copy; and that should be good enough, right? I’m still trying to work (trying to compose an email for a new contact) and coworker is hovering and complaining how there’s too much work and how will she find the time to get it all done, and so on; and anyway, This Is Not How It’s Done. I tell her that we do what we’re told to do. If it’s different from the way it’s been done before, then it’s different from the way it’s been done before and THIS is how it’s done NOW. Terribly unfair, apparently.
I finally told her, ‘You’ve been talking about it for [checking clock] 45 minutes now.’ Then I went to the fridge and got my lunch and went back to my computer to finish that email.
Then there was the one-sided discussion on how men and women communicate differently. Women talk and think and feel all at the same time. Men can’t think or feel when they talk. We gather information and think about it later, and then talk. OK, I copped that we don’t feel. We do think, though! She was still talking, but I completely tuned her out. (Rude, I know; but I was already miffed that I wasn’t being left alone to do my job.)
This afternoon my boss said that my coworker is sweet, but she can’t do anything without a Procedure. (She also noted that she doesn’t like calling people to resolve issues; something I’ve noticed myself.)
sigh OK, rant mode off.
The poll is: Do you want to get right to work? Or do you want to have some social time and ease into it?
