Well, this week seemed to drag on indefinitely. I don't know if it's the winter lulls, lack of a day off since Christmas/New Years (perhaps I'm mourning the 3-4 day work weeks which were commonplace in late Dec/early jan), or if I'm just restless.
Each afternoon around 2pm this week I started watching the clock. I had plenty that I could do, but my brain just couldn't. The last 3 hours of each day were nearly unbearable.
So today I took a spontaneous half day off. No meetings, no urgent deadlines, let it be. So I met my Dad for lunch, ran errands, etc. It's amazing how productive I was this afternoon - outside of the office, that is. Hopefully this little break will force me into a more deadline driven Monday in which I'm juggling more and thus stimulated/slightly stressed and boom - the day's over before I know it. We can only hope. I need a jump start - and I'd rather it be voluntary than by my overlooking something and having a project blow up in my face. A little fear is good, failure (albeit a lesson) is not my cup of tea, muchless my elixir of choice.
Several weeks ago I faced a possible flop. I made the colossal, sloppy error of replying to a client when I thought I was emailing my colleague at work. Just to set the record straight that I'm not a total dumbass - let me set the scene: I was out of town, in a hotel business center paying through the nose for email access by the minute (fortunately paid for by my company) with a herd of cattle outside the business center door. Add to that that I'd sat still for 8+ hrs in a conference room being talked to - I was depleted. Simply a recipe for an f-up.
Panicking and mentally depleted, I did have the sense to not try to recall the email (it never works and only makes you look more stupid & the recipient more curious), emailed the client immediately explaining the situation in more client friendly terms, and then called her voice mail (as she was already gone for the day) to apologize/clarify.
Then, I imagined what would be the worse thing that could happen. Of course it escalated to public humiliation for losing a new account that I'd brought in and hadn't even delivered on before screwing it up. I'm sure (in my mind's eye) it was broadcast to the entire company, posted on the intranet site as breaking news, and an company wide email went out about email etiquette, and I was cited as an example of an "email don't." Not unlike the Fashion Don'ts in the back of Glamour magazine, except that my face wouldn't be hidden. Then I'd be fired and, unlike the nutters who have been terminated before me, I couldn't bounce back and get a decent job. I was now flipping burgers at Eat Rite with a bunch of hooligans. My life was over.
After I played out that nightmare, I left it in the client's hands and watched some tv, tried my hand at sudoku, and putzed around in my hotel room. I knew, all in all, that it shouldn't be an offensive email, but so many times such one dimensional communications can be misconstrued. Luckily, the next morning my client called - she wasn't offended in the least.
Well, didn't realize I was going to flashback to one of my stupid human tricks in this post, but looks like I did. Hmm, this one even had a moral.
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2 comments:
i can't stand not knowing what it said! once i emailed one of my clients our company's financials and "perks." I'm one of two owners and the email was meant for my business partner. It gave outstanding payables/receiveables, credit card debt, bank and car loans in a nice neat spread sheet.) I think the only thing left to her imagination was "which one of these rows shows how much exactly I'm paying for my vendor's car and Y membership?"
I can tell you next meeting about it. One of my best friends has had 3 past employers email her salary information of other colleagues. Good reminder that you can never be too careful.
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