Thank you, corporate foot-draggers, for messing up day two of my vacation

The BBQ Pit
1

Understand one thing: if I don’t have a truck that’s in good working condition, I don’t work. Therefore, my company has a fleet division at corporate HQ, which works in conjunction with fleet rental companies to keep us supplied with vehicles.

My vehicle is the oldest in our branch’s fleet. Old enough in years and mileage to be replaced. I was promised a truck months ago. I was even told it had come in and was sitting at the dealership. But there was some glitch with the insurance, and that was holding things up. Seems odd to me that such things wouldn’t go through like shit through a goose, given that this is their job and all, but stuff like this happens.

So now, on day two of my vacation, I decide to drive up to the office to straighten out a little paperwork before heading out of town. But my left front tire is flat. And I used the spare last week when I drove over something and my right front tire went flat.

I have no truck. I am going away. I will have no vehicle to finish out my month when I return, costing me income and my branch revenue. There is a brand-spanking-new truck that has been sitting unused because the people whose job it is to straighten out things like fleet insurance have not found a way to yank their thumbs out of their asses and do their jobs.

Worse, the uncaring regional-level drones, who insist on everything being done to the letter regardless of how inconvenient or inefficient it may be for me, have merely shrugged their corporate shoulders and said, “Oh, well,” rather than lighting a fire under someone’s ass. To which I inquire, would you be so laissez faire if it were your new corporate-paid-for Grand Am sitting in the dealership without insurance? Or would you raise holy hell about it to the fleet asswipes in Memphis so you’d have a nice new car to drive around in?

This is costing everyone money, you numb-nuts paper-pushing number crunchers. Real money. It. Affects. My. Income.

You have a week to get this fixed, or I am seriously considering a formal complaint to corporate headquarters about everyone up and down the line. I doubt the president of the company will be pleased that revenue was lost due to paperwork not being followed up on.

2

Having been both a victim and a participant in this sort of thing (both sides), you are a victim of ‘low prioritization’.

Allow me to clarify. They will process your work when there is nothing else to do. Since there is always something else to do, you are SOL. You see, when someone with power wants something done, you drop what you are doing and work on the person with power work. You probably have no ‘power’ over them so you get dropped. What you need to do is find someone with power and get him/her to contact that department and say “What the Hell is going on!! This guy has been waiting for months!” You will have it the next day.

Sucks that it has to be that way.

Try being in this situation. You will get fired if you bypass the IT department and set up an outside connection, which would take 5 minutes for you to do. However, they actually give $1000 rewards for turning in someone who does this, who is immediately fired so you WILL get caught. However, IT will not set up your line! For days, weeks, months and you NEED IT FOR YOUR JOB! You actually cannot do your job well because of this and they don’t care. Your boss and bosses boss has no real power so they can’t get them to move. I finally was able to solve it because I sat next to a high level executive at lunch (accident) and he asked me how I was doing and I told him. Had the line within an hour.

3

That’s the point. The regional drones are supposed to go to bat for the branches they represent. The actually DO have clout, when they choose to use it.

The really stupid thing is, their region, and hence they themselves, will be under the gun if over $1000 in revenue is forfeited because of this. But they never behave pro-actively. Nothing gets done in this company unless and until it’s an emergency.

Not only this, but I’ve tried numerous times since this morning to contact my manager to find out the status, and make arrangements. He’s not in. I’m going out of town starting tomorrow. I’m coming back Sunday. I’m supposed to work Monday. If I have no vehicle, I might as well take the rest of the month off, because I won’t be able to do any work.

Idiots.

4

Maybe you could find out how to call Memphis and pretend to be a Powerful Important Person. An angry one. You know lots of big words and several short effective ones.

Well, might work or might not. Enjoy your trip anyway (Illegitimi non carborundum and all) and say hi to the Rochesterians from us.