Look, you’re a nice enough guy, and I know that you mean well, but you have totally fucking dropped the ball. Relay for Life is just a month away, and you haven’t said one word to anyone about it! Thank christ I asked you about it today, because it turns out that you’ve been sitting on the materials for god knows how long. For the past 10 months you’ve been at the customer site full-time, so how the fuck did you think you were going to coordinate this year’s Relay when you’re never here and you haven’t even mentioned it to anyone yet?? And when I volunteered to take over, you said, “I have some info about upcoming team captain meetings that I’ll pass on to you at some point.” Well I found the web site for our Relay, and the last team captain meeting is TONIGHT, fucknuts. They’ve been holding monthly captain meetings for three months now! At least you sent in the reservation to hold a campsite for our team, but for fuck’s sake, man – if you can’t do the job, don’t just hang on to the materials until it’s almost too late to pull a team together! :mad:
Re-reading it almost 6 hours later, this sounds like one of the lamest rants ever. :smack:
Sorry.
I was just so mad at the time!
Actually, I think its a damn good rant. My wife has to deal with this kind of behavior with other parents and my kids’ school activities. She’s a firm believer in the theory that volunteering without commitment is a true indication of Assholiness.
There’s been a number of times when the “head parent” of some activity or student support group was very vocal about taking the job but then somehow never got around to getting anything organized until the last minute. The wife has on a number of times had to do “fireman” duty by cooking till two in the morning or calling others and begging for help because the “head” parent didn’t get it organized and “had the flu” at the last minute.
What pisses her off even more is that these lead positions get perks like free activities passes to school events. These passes can typically save a family $100 or more a year. So, while Mrs BD scrambles to make sure that the kids activities are functioning right and then paying to attend, the nonperforming asshole that volunteered gets a free ride.
Last year when the wife volunteered as the parent rep for my daughters grade in an all-grades student club she was outmanuevered by another mom. The mom did absolutely nothing for two months and my daughter’s class got the reputation for not contributing to the club. Then in the third month the woman came down with an illness and asked my wife to take over for her (didn’t offer to give her the activity pass though). Wife said, “Sure thing, just transfer the email contact to me so that I can be prepared.” No such luck. Wife would get the email announcements that were two weeks old delivered to her on the night before the event. Too late to get help, so allnight preparations occured. The wife finally got one of the other grade’s head parent’s to forward the email notices to her so that she had enough prep time.
Here’s the kicker. It’s the end of the school year and the club is preparing for next year and guess what? The woman wants “her job” again for next year.
Yep, I’ve faced up to that at church. Our choir director was looking for someone to handle the kids choir. I said I could help, but didn’t feel like I had enough experience/ability to be in charge. Another lady, B, stepped up and offered to be in charge.
Three rehearsals in, B has disappeared. Her classes are too hard! She had already volunteered for other church activities! She was sick! The director later pulled me aside and told me she’d only recently found out that B had the habit of volunteering for things and then disappearing on half of it. So, I ended up doing the children’s choir all by myself with some back up from the director.
It paid off, though. The kids sang on Mother’s Day. I got beaucoup compliments for doing a fantastic job with the kids, and B wasn’t even noticed.
Of course, now I’m chairing the music committee, and who’s volunteering for half the stuff? B. So, I write her name down and make sure I get someone else to cover for her when she inevitably folds.
BubbaDog, your wife is an absolute saint. Amazing!