Work is being stupid.

I'm suffering the consequences of my coordinator's inability to get things done on time. Like, we publish on a schedule. No deviations. So there are due dates, and you work backwards from publication date to determine all the smaller due dates along the way, like edited-by date, proofread-by date, etc.

After I edit an article, my coordinator reviews it, because you really need 2 different people to go over a manuscript. After he reviews it, I get an email telling me to send it to the author so they can review it. They get 2 days to review and return it (I don't set this 2-day turnaround, and I have no power to change it). Then it gets proofread, and the final deadline date is called Due To Director -- that's the You Must Have This To The Director Or Else deadline.

My coordinator has been giving me the reviewed articles to send to the author 2 days before the Due To Director date. That means there is ZERO wiggle room if an author is late. I don't know what it means for proofreading; I assume that step isn't skipped, but maybe it happens concurrently with giving it to the Director.

And all week I've had authors who (reasonably) ask for just 1 extra day to return their manuscript, and I have to tell them no, because my coordinator can't get his shit together to give me the articles with enough lead time.

(The problem isn't that I'm late in editing them; I edit them, give them to my coordinator...and then he sits on them for close to a week before he reviews them and gives them back to me. His fucking delay causes our schedule to be ridiculous, which pisses off authors and stresses me the fuck out.)

(In 6 years, I've never caught flack for any late articles, because everything in our computer system is date stamped, so anyone trying to figure out the problem can see that I return my edited articles and then my coordinator ignores them for over a week. So I'm not worried about getting yelled at; I'm just stressed because at this point in the production schedule, I'm still in the loop because I'm the point of contact with the authors, so it's *me* who has to tell authors "Oh god oh god we really need this back right away holy shit we have a very tight deadline please return it right away for the love of god." [That may be a paraphrase.])

Bah.

I'm around, just trying to stay on top of a bunch of work stuff.

Sorry, Steph. Sounds frustrating.

The Trump news is just making me ill. I guess I thought for a moment with all the recent revelations, that the GOP might start to crack in its support for Trump, but it looks like it's just Mitt Romney (who I think is a decent person whose politics have been warped by privilege). Trump will be impeached, of course, but there's no chance he'll be removed from office which means he'll use the justice department and foreign influence to his advantage with no consequence. Combine that with the typhoon of money he'll have behind him and voter suppression efforts, and I'm sure he'll win the election (probably not the vote though). At that point, there will be no checks on him at all.

Steph, any way that you can cc the author on your email to the coordinator, with a warning that the copy that they are receiving is not final, but you wanted to give them a chance for a preliminary review?

Where is everybody?

Uh, getting trapped in Iceland with Lee after all outgoing flights today were cancelled, and not knowing yet when we'll be rebooked? We have a hotel. Once we get there and check in, we will have drinks.

Oh dear! At least it's Friday and not Sunday?

I'm dragging myself through the rest of this workweek. I hate that I often have free Friday afternoons, which should be the time I can finally get writing done, but I am out of brain by Friday afternoon! I should really schedule more easy check-ins on Fridays.

True, but I'd planned to recover from jet lag, do laundry, and restock on groceries this weekend so I could go to work on Monday as a reasonably alert human being.

But I am happy not to be flying in these gale force winds.

Steph, any way that you can cc the author on your email to the coordinator, with a warning that the copy that they are receiving is not final, but you wanted to give them a chance for a preliminary review?

I'm not allowed to do that. I have to wait until the coordinator has reviewed it.

I'm just continuing along in my assumption that if the higher-ups have a problem with it, they can check the dates that articles were turned in/moved along/etc and can see that the bottleneck is with my coordinator. (And if that problem is because he has too much work, I empathize, but even if I could solve that problem, it isn't mine to solve. Literally above my pay grade.)

True, but I'd planned to recover from jet lag, do laundry, and restock on groceries this weekend so I could go to work on Monday as a reasonably alert human being.

Bah, who needs it? (j/k j/k)

Steph, I would advise you to keep the numbers and data handy. Although the higher ups are capable of checking the dates, they probably won't, and will just see the feedback that you are not giving the authors enough time. If it comes up randomly (e.g. in a staff call/meeting), it will make you look great if you can immediately respond "Yes, I've noticed that as well. There is occasionally a lag in the process from the time when the article is ready for its second review and returned for submission to the author. I have some data if you'd like to discuss now, or we can discuss offline."

And if they say now, you say "here's the schedule, here's where the lag is, there's an average of X days of lag . . ." And have the list for every article, so if they say "what happened with the Jones piece?" you have exact dates.

You're not trying to get anyone in trouble, but if they are going to blame someone, it shouldn't be you.