I just finished yelling at one of my coworkers. Three months ago we had a big meeting to decide how to divvy up work in the office. A designer (“Bob”) and his producer had too many projects and the rest of us had too few. (They had been working to drum up new business while the rest of us had been busy on one particular big project. The big project ended so several of us had more time available to help out.)
At the meeting it was decided that I would take over three of Bob’s projects. He was given first choice of what he wanted to keep working on. All three of the ones that were transferred to me looked like they would be interesting and fun – I was happy to take them over. (Bob’s producer remained attached to two of them … he gave up some other responsibilities elsewhere.)
A month goes by and I’m happily working along. One of the three projects … call it Project X … is on hold awaiting contract approval. I’ve done some prepatory work – reading the docs, making some notes, thinking about how to tackle it. It’s not a lot of work, but I’ve gotten invested in it. That’s when Bob’s producer comes to me and says that he and Bob have talked about it and they’d like for Bob to take the project back. The two of them had worked to establish the original relationship with the developer and they think it would be better if they just continued to move forward with things the way they were.
Okay, at this point I’m a *little * miffed. It kind of sucks to lose a project that I was just starting to get excited about. But I can see their point … they got the ball rolling and they want to see it through to the end. I can appreciate that. And it’s not like I’d put a ton of work into it. So I tell the producer “Sure, no problem, Bob can have it!”
That was two months ago. In the meantime Project X has been getting up to speed. I’ve been working on other stuff.
This morning Bob comes into my office. He starts talking about how overworked he is and how he’s got too many projects to handle. Would I maybe be interested in taking over Project X … ?
Oh, fuck no, bitch! We all agreed three months ago that you were overworked and that I would take over for you! But you got greedy and grabbed it back without even asking me how I felt about it. Now you’re slammed and suddenly you want to dump it on me?
And he gets all huffy about it! “Okay, be like that then! We’re supposed to be a team but if you don’t want to help me out I guess I’ll just have to suck it down!” Dude, I’m already covering two of your projects! And I was glad to do this one the fucking FIRST TIME I was asked. Don’t give me any shit about not being a team player.
Jackass.