measi's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Out of sight, out of mind Rule of thumb for anyone who works in the corporate world: regardless of whether they insist that a phone call is faster to get the information you want, make sure it's backed up by email or some other written documentation so you can back your ass up when they accuse you of dropping the ball. Case in point: My former Bigger Boss, Peter, sends me a somewhat nasty email this morning regarding an illustrator who hasn't been paid for her work yet. The invoice is seriously overdue, and I've been fighting to get this one paid for months. Despite that, Ex-Bigger Boss is insisting that I've dropped the ball on this one, ignoring the fact that it hasn't been paid. I haven't. Every time he's mentioned it hasn't been paid, I've checked on it, and asked for it to be completed. I get a response from accounts payable that it will be, and since I don't hear anything from either the vendor or Bigger Boss for a while, it becomes a case of Out of Sight, Out of Mind. Basically, no news is good news. If they don't follow through on it and let me know what's up on their end, I'm going to assume that it's been paid. Because frankly, I'm dealing with entirely too high a volume to check up on every single invoice. I literally can range from 40-150 per week. And as Erich can attest, I never seem to be on top of my work. So I get another email today from ol' Bigger Boss, stating how this still hasn't been paid, and he decides to start getting insulting by asking ANOTHER department if there's a way to write this off through them, as if I'm not doing anything to get it paid. I replied to everyone involved that I had sent a new copy to the head of the A/P department (listing her by name) with my last December mailing of 2002 contracts when the woman had stated that she had no record of the invoice (it's beside the point that I've submitted this thing three times!!). I said that I would email her for an update and return the response to everyone on the list. I forwarded my December email-- showing that I had been looking on this invoice up to the 2002 deadline-- back to the woman with a request to update and cc'ed Ex-Bigger Boss as proof that I've been dealing with this. Because dammit, I will cover my own ass to show that I am getting my work done. He can accuse me of dropping the ball all he wants-- I have it in email, with dates and times, with responses. From my busiest two weeks of the year, even. Within two minutes, my phone rings. I know instinctively it's Ex-Bigger Boss, because he tends to get very whiny when things don't go exactly his way. I don't answer the phone (it was close to my lunch anyway) and let it go to voice mail. Within litereally a minute, it rings again, as if he were trying to see if I were not answering the phone. I let that one go to voice mail, too. It's happened three times today. I've been screening all calls because frankly, I have too much work to do while I wait for the accounts payable woman's answer. I can't do a thing until she confirms whether a check was cut for the vendor. Absolutely nothing. And he's going to have to deal. They're not going to make me look bad for something I haven't done. I won't stand for it. 4:22 p.m. - 09 January 2003 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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