Work situation: Urgent task not urgent for all. Your advice?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Don’t you just love these types of threads?

So here’s the deal: I’m the director of internal communications for a fair-sized national life insurance company. Part of my job includes setting up and shooting company videos. Now, I’m not a professional videographer, by any stretch, but we’ve got a little studio on our corporate campus, and the video process isn’t too involved. My job is primarily to write the script, make sure it conveys the information we want to convey, and run the teleprompter. I work with an outside company for editing and post-production stuff.

I report to the Senior Vice President for Human Resources, along with four vice-presidents. In the corporate heirarchy, they’re my peers (since we report to the same boss), although in real-life terms they’d all outrank me in terms of seniority, pay, and perceived status (job title).

Each of these vice-presidents has an area of the company they support. They have no real authority over these areas, but they’re the designated Human Resources person for the areas, meaning they carry a considerable amount of clout in them.

One of these vice-presidents (we’ll call her Ingrid) came to me about three weeks ago saying two senior vice-presidents in our acquisitions department, Harry and Hermione, wanted to shoot a video about recent news in their department. “No problem!” I chirp happily, and immediately email Harry and Hermione to let them know I’m at their disposal, offering to write or edit a script and handle the videoing process.

A few days go by with no response from H & H, so I email them again. This time they respond, apologizing for not getting back to me, and tell me they’re working on a script and hope to have it ready in a couple of days. I answer, saying basically “Sounds good – let me know when you’re ready.”

More days elapse. I have my own stuff to do, so I’m not particularly concerned with the H & H video. Then Ingrid comes to me last week, asking me what’s going on with the video. I update her on where things stand, and she says, “Book a time in the studio and give them a deadline – they’ll never get it done otherwise.”

Okay. Seems a bit pushy to me, but whatever. I book an afternoon in the studio and email H & H; I tell them I wanted to be sure we had time to shoot the video, because other videos were coming down the pike. (Which isn’t entirely true; the studio isn’t exactly a hotbed of activity, but I felt I needed a reason to tell them why I was arbitrarily choosing a shooting date.)

So H & H respond last Thursday, letting me know that time won’t work, and they suggest an earlier date (this Friday, October 10, to be exact). No worries … I change the studio reservation, and we’re set to go.

Yesterday (Monday), I still hadn’t gotten a draft script or talking points from H & H, so I emailed them again to remind them about our planned video shoot this Friday, and offered my help once again to write a script if they wanted. Now they’re saying that Friday is going to be too soon, they can’t have everything ready, and they want to postpone. It’s no skin off my back – it doesn’t matter to me if they shoot the video or not.

Ingrid, though, is mildly upset. She wants the video done, and is bothered by the delays. For whatever reason, this seems much more important to her than it is to H & H. Ingrid’s not directly accusing me of dropping the ball on this, but she seems to feel I could exert more pressure on H & H to get it done.

From my perspective, I’m not responsible for MAKING people shoot a video – I’m a resource here. If H & H postpone, or decide not to film this thing, it’s not my call to force them to do it.

On the flip side, Ingrid carries a lot of weight with my boss; she’s basically the second-in-command in our department, although that’s not official. If she provides feedback to my boss that I’m not doing my job properly, it could impact my review and possibly my opportunities for promotion and /or bonuses.

I keep my boss updated on stuff I’m working on (we have a weekly meeting, which is pretty standard here), but I’m a trifle concerned about how this could be construed. I don’t know why the video is such an issue with Ingrid, but she really seems to want this thing done, and done quickly.

Apart from documenting my efforts to get the video shot (which I’m doing), what other thoughts or ideas can Dopers suggest?

2

Can you emphasize Ingrid’s urgency when you next email H&H? H&H have no trouble blowing you off but they might be more hesitant to do the same to the big boss. Also, a phone call to one or both might help move things along.

3

I didn’t explain that well … H & H don’t have any reporting relationship with Ingrid. They know who she is, and she’s an important person, but she doesn’t oversee them at all. In fact, they technically outrank her (they’re both Senior Vice Presidents, while Ingrid is “only” a Vice President).

They’re part of the group Ingrid supports, but they’re not within her heirarchy … if that makes sense.

4

There was a bit too much back and forth for me to follow in there, but next time Ingrid bugs you about it can you just say “H&H don’t seem that interested in getting this done, maybe you can email them and give them a little push for me” as well as telling her all the times you’ve emailed/spoken to them.
Or, email H&H again, CC Ingrid and whoever outranks all of you to let everyone know where you stand on the project. Something along the lines of “The studio is booked for [date], please get me a script soon so I can edit it and get everything ready blah blah blah”. That gives you the ability to show Ingrid (and someone else) that you’re trying to stay on top of them but it’s them not doing anything, not you.

Personally, I’d go with option 1, just tell Ingrid (maybe in an email) that they’re ignoring you and if she needs this to keep moving forward she’s going to have to lean on them a little.

You report to H&H right? I suppose one other thing you could do is “complain” to them that Ingrid is really breathing down your neck about getting this done and ‘could one of you email her and just let her know when it’ll be done or tell her it’s not going to happen so she stops bugging me about it?’"

That’s what I do when I know the boss at my work is ignoring someone and that person keeps bugging me about it. “Just tell him you’re not going to do it, I’m getting sick of telling him you’re not here, if I tell him to call back in an hour, he’s just going to call back in an hour, not forget about it and stop calling”.

5

If these guys are senior executives, they aren’t going to do anything more than show up, stand on the X, and recite their lines.

Do they have assistants? You need to find them and start working with them. They are the ones that can get you on the schedule and get you the stuff you need. For the script, I’d just wrote a draft, send it to the assistant and CC Ingrid. Feel free to give hard deadlines. Busy people actually appreciate deadlines as they help with prioritizing.

“Not my job” never got anyone anywhere. Unless your dad is the CEO, it’s in your interests to have a reputation as someone who makes things happen.

6

Thanks! I’m still not being sufficiently clear.

  • Ingrid and I report to the same boss, the SVP of Human Resources.
  • Harry and Hermione report to somebody completely different - the Chief Financial Officer.
  • H & H seem content to let this video project snooze along with no real timeline; Ingrid is the one who wants it done yesterday.
  • Ingrid has no power over H & H.

For what it’s worth, I went to Ingrid before I left today and told her about the new delay. She’s frustrated, but at least she seems to understand I’m doing what I can to get H & H in the studio. She said she would try to apply some pressure with the CFO (to whom H & H report, remember) to see if he could get them moving.

7

It’s not entirely clear to me why Ingrid cares or why she thinks she can tell you what to do. That’s not all that important since she outranks you by a bit and it’s not worth telling her to just go pound sand.

I think your next step should be to talk (not e-mail, talk) to Ingrid and explain the situation. Tell her that you feel that you are stuck between a rock (Ingrid) and a hard place (H & H). Say that you agree that the video should be shot sooner rather than later, but you don’t think you have the authority to make them do something. Ask her if she has any suggestions or could help solve the problem. This ought to get her the message without defying her.

8

5th paragraph, Ingrid came to you saying H & H wanted to shoot a video. Maybe there’s something in it for her but H & H really couldn’t care less and that’s what the hold up has been. ? Just a suggestion.

9

treis and Becky2844: That’s the rub for me … I have no idea what Ingrid’s stake in this video could be, or why it’s seems to be such a big deal to her. H & H want to do the video, but they don’t seem to have a tremendous sense of urgency about it.

even sven: None of the folks involved have assistants per se. They have managers and such who report to them, but no one handles their calendars for them.

I talked with Ingrid late yesterday afternoon, and filled her in. I want her to understand the holdup isn’t on my end. I’m happy to do the video, but videos are only a part of my overall job duties, and it’s not like I’m twiddling my thumbs with nothing to do at work if this video doesn’t happen.

10

This.

[QUOTE=Sauron]
None of the folks involved have assistants per se. They have managers and such who report to them, but no one handles their calendars for them.
[/QUOTE]
Then you will have to do it yourself, or at the least write a draft script and get set up and generally take it for granted that you are in charge.

One way I have found to successfully get a group started where everyone is reluctant to go first is to give them something to react to. People who won’t say “this is what we should do” will sometimes be willing to say “no, that’s wrong” and then say what they think is right. I actually did something like that earlier this week - there is a system I am working on that nobody is willing to design for fear that they will be wrong. So I designed and published the input format and that triggered the SMEs into saying “no no no we don’t need that and that” and so I started getting e-mails on what we do need for input and now all I have to do is rewrite the process to collect the input and I actually have a prototype ready. My boss liked it because it threw the ball back to the other teams and makes him look good.

It doesn’t always work, and it helps to be ready to be seen as the clueless newbie, but I am good at ignoring condescension and picking out the useful information and putting it into specs.

It sounds like you have the responsibility but not the authority - always a fun position to be in. At least if you assume the authority you will be able to tell Ingrid what you have done to get it done without the necessity to blame H&H for not doing anything.

Regards,
Shodan

11

I don’t think Sauron has responsibility for this at all. Two SVPs should be able to prioritize their workload appropriately, if they felt this video was more important than their other work, they would do it. It is not the place of a Director level employee to crack the whip on two SVPs at the behest of a VP.

Ingrid is finally doing the right thing by escalating the two SVPs to the CFO.

Sauron, you have been doing exactly the right thing, suggesting a time to film and letting the SVPs decide on their own what schedule to put it on. You don’t want to be the pushy guy who thinks that SVPs have nothing better to do than stand in front of his camera. Let Ingrid be the pushy one.

12

Exactly so. The other option open to you, assuming you are on good terms with your boss and he wouldn’t throw you under the bus, is to e-mail him/her and explain the situation. They are the one with the authority to actually knock heads together and get it done.

That’s the way it works at my company, anyway - if there is an issue with one of your subordinates, naturally you deal with it, but if the issue lies with someone in another department, the procedure is to raise it with the boss, who will then speak to the boss of the other department, who can then pass it down the chain as appropriate. It’s a little clunky but it works well and avoids treading on toes you have no right to tread on.

13

That’s what I was going to suggest. Hope it works.

Another possible avenue, given this:

Suggest to Ingrid that she ask the SVP of HR to bring it up with the CFO.

ETA: There’s also the question of what happens if H&H decide at the last minute NOW is when this has to get done! and you’ve gone and booked your time for some other commitment?

14

Why can’t you just pressure H&H by being honest, you’re getting a LOT of pressure from above to get this thing done, and while you maybe don’t see the urgency, you’re getting the feeling the delay is starting to reflect badly on you for some unknown reason. “Let’s set a firm deadline of ???, so I can see this through, and please my boss!”

15

Okay, Harry has suggested to Hermione via email (with a copy to me) that we all meet on Friday to discuss what they have on paper at the moment and next steps. Maybe once I see what they have in mind I can offer suggestions and get my grubby hands involved in the scriptwriting process.

Frankly, I think that’s part of what’s holding things up … H & H are very, very good at what they do, but they’re not writers. I think they’re a bit hung up on trying to write a script themselves. Which almost never works, but that’s not my call.

We’ll see what happens Friday (assuming we still have a meeting, which isn’t confirmed yet).

16

The problem seems like Ingrid is pushing for the Old Man’s ™ job. I don’t know about the politics in the office to know if that is a smart move by Ingrid but from the sounds of the OP, it may not be a bad idea to be on Ingrid’s good side if she does become BBM (errrr… BBL).

17

I know your issue has kind of been resolved, but over the years, every time a situation like this has come up, I’ve found the best response to be along the lines of “That’s great! I’d love to help! Just have H or H contact me when they are ready!” Puts the pressure off you and on the people who may or may not actually want to do it.

18

Well, that’s kind of what put me in the bind in the first place; I contacted H&H right away, followed up with them, and then, when nothing was happening, Ingrid started getting antsy and wanting to know what was up.

Saint Cad, I’m reasonably confident in saying Ingrid wants the SVP of Human Resources job if it ever comes available. She and the current SVP are roughly the same age, though, so that may not ever happen.

19

If you can get Ingrid to that meeting, even if teleconferenced, that might help. If not, be sure that all emails from every person in this scenario get copied to everyone else and H&H and Ingrid all are going on the same information.

My suggestion would be to get out of the middle of that. As you say, you’re the resource. They’re the ones wanting to get things done. They need to get on the same page about it. Ingrid can explain to H&H why she wants it done sooner rather than later, or not. But if you take it on yourself to get it moving, you’re going to get pushback and possible resentment. You’re in the middle of their transaction. If you can get them to work together on the timeline, then your job is just to supply the resource.

20

That’s my viewpoint. Ingrid seems to want me to be a driver for the video, when my role is just as a resource. Ultimately, if H&H decide not to do this for whatever reason, it’s not my job to convince them otherwise.