God, yes, SEARCH.
I am often tempted to say I don't have or I didn't know, but I always search at least three ways before I open my mouth, and sometimes I'm still shown to be wrong. And then I'm really embarrassed, and I apologise.
I am doing it wrong.
I do want to make a point of defending my initial timeliness--if you want to ding me for not following up, okay. But do not ding me for not sending--I want to be punished for the right crime.
I just spent the past hour working on things I've been explicitly told not to work on (as opposed to farting around on the internet, which is what I really wanted to do), but I can't see how to deliver responsibly without being aware of this information or moving forward these tasks.
The people actually involved thanked me for it, but I'm only getting away with it because boss and manager are on airplanes right now. I forget that I can just work around. I don't have to have my way. I just have to get shit done.
Me and another guy have decided that Information Security is the best gig, but problematic--you have to be really bright to get it, but once you do, you don't have to do much. However, if some of the "not much" you do is wrong, you don't get a second chance.
I am often tempted to say I don't have or I didn't know, but I always search at least three ways before I open my mouth, and sometimes I'm still shown to be wrong. And then I'm really embarrassed, and I apologise.
Yeah, this. I am obsessive about keeping email, because I rely on it to document that I did get something or send something, since so often I've thought I did something when I didn't. I'm not going to LOG everything, but by god I will keep my email.
Someone who scolds you for not sending something you sent, and it's in his inbox? That's just wrong. That's the bullshit My Nemesis pulls, not my boss. Because My Nemesis deletes all her email, so that there's no record (she thinks) of her actions to trip her up. She seems not to realize that other people don't do that...
Twice inside of a week. And they both outrank me, and they both cited good communication standards disseminated by the CIO.
I bet nowhere inside those standards does she relieve the recipient of responsibility. I mean, I
guess.
I have no idea if I have that email with the standards in it, or how I'd...oh...
So, fine. I'm rereading that communication email (February 2011, and I can still find it in 30s) and I'm officially taking on the responsibility of OTHER PEOPLE NOT READING WHAT I SEND THEM, and I'm going to close loops. Force close.
God, that smarts.
I miss my project from hell, I miss it so much....everyone was up on their shit, even when a bunch of it got randomly dumped on me. We had one person to point at and mock, and it was a team bonding exercise, and everyone else got shit done and well.
Just to make clear that I'm not stupid--I stopped by the CIO's office to let her know I'm available to explain that document to her, if she has any problem with it.
I might just print out that communication email put it up at my desk.
Yeah, that's some ridiculous bullshit.
It's stupid because it's a lose/lose. Your boss et. al are not going to be happy when you call them to see if they read the email you sent. They're going to be all, wtf, I know how to do my job. And you're going to have to say, well obviously not, or I wouldn't have to be doing this shit.
That would cause some (passive aggressive, I'm sure) insubordinate behavior on my part. I'd resend my original message with new message saying something like Below is the message I sent on Date at Time.
Ridic!
Also ridic is we suddenly have to have a mostly 100% finished document by noon tomorrow that is not supposed to be final until next Tuesday. If I'd known, I seriously would have worked all weekend. Ugh! I am working at home today and can work late and can go in early tomorrow but, still. Rushing leads to missing stuff and bad requirements.
I'd resend my original message with new message saying something like Below is the message I sent on Date at Time.
Exactly what I would do, too.
I have resorted to doing that just on general principles, once a week or so: "Here's the email I sent on Date, just checking to see if you have those answers?"
