What Is It All About? A Trip to Nuts.

I had this all ready to go, and then thought I would do something else in answer to a serious question asked by a friend.

But, on my way to work this morning, I realized that my answer to the serious question is more complex than at first blush. It deserves deeper thought, so I'm not ready with my response. Which means I'm back to this post that I wrote last night in response to something else.

So we're clear, if you haven’t found the theme in my blog, it’s because there is none. I write what I feel like writing when I feel like writing about it. I write about what’s happening in my world and what’s interesting to me.

Take yesterday, for instance and, in protective response here's my disclaimer before I get started:

I have worked for a lot of different companies in many different industries. I have worked for two different Fortune Five companies (Bank of America and General Electric), I have worked for a Fortune 100 company (General Dynamics). I have worked at start-ups, with entrepreneurs and for small business owners. I have worked in banking, finance, construction design, chemical manufacturing, dental service and food service. I have seen stuff like what I'm about to describe happen in more than one place. It is not unique. It is not isolated. It is, in fact, human nature at a weak point.

Now, with that out of the way:

At work we have what should be a fairly simple event taking place. It involves several departments all working together toward a common goal. The goal is getting rid of old business records, having them destroyed.

Simple, right?

Hardly.

Department A and B provided counts of the storage boxes in which their records are kept. Department C did too, but it was “late” according to Department A that is driving this exercise. Therefore, since it was “late” because the person who was responsible for providing the count was traveling on business and didn’t get back to the office until after the deadline, Department A has declared that Department C can’t be included in the event.

At this point, if you’re anything like me, you’re shaking your head, too. After all, I am a person who likes to get things done. When it comes to definite goals and the fact that things sometimes (almost always) slip, I accept it. It’s part of life and living. Whining, bitching, moaning, bullshitting, complaining and waffling are not going to get the job done. So I don’t do those things. What I will do is sigh, roll my eyes and then do what I can to make it happen.

If there’s an obstacle, time in this case since the ‘deadline’ for notifying Department A of how many boxes Departments B and C have to be shredded has passed, I work around it. I do not say, ‘Nope, sorry. Can’t be done.’

That response, or one like it, drives me nuts! With that attitude I get to Nuts faster than with just about anything else.

Well, guess what happened? Yep. Someone said those five despicable words.

Which are nonsense, because it can be done with just a little bit of effort.

In this case, all it would take is a sigh, a heavy-duty roll of the eyes, moving the hand, picking up the handset on the phone and making a simple, three minute phone call a la ‘Hello? Yes, that order we placed, we’ve found a few more boxes. Can we add them?’

Do you really think the company that’s in the business of shredding documents cares how many boxes you add to an order? No, because they’re charging for the service – they’re making money on it so, for them, it’s probably a case of the more the merrier.

Is it inconvenient? Perhaps.

Will it cost more? Probably.

Will that additional cost be significant? Probably not.

Is this recalcitrance (it’s not reluctance – there’s no hedging here) because this individual just can’t be arsed to get it done? That’s my guess.

Why? I have no idea.

This is a definite goal and the end-zone is clear and well defined. It isn’t rocket science, for God’s sake! They’re boxes of paper, so what’s the hold-up?

In the meantime, swirling around my head shaking, sighing and rolling eyeballs, everyone else is pointing fingers, laying blame and basically running in pointless circles. Because I am as I am, I stepped into the middle and tried to get it done.

I went online, found the company, chatted with a representative and posited, if this, then what? According to the online agent, a phone call is all it would take.

To avoid making this confusion worse, I then contacted the head of Department A and said, ‘here’s what I’ve done, here’s the answer, now I’m out of it and I’ll let you guys deal with it’.

I still don’t know if anything’s been done, but I am currently standing in Nuts, shaking my head and wondering, ‘why?’

Now, let’s take this scenario and smooth it out.

Instead of one person standing in the middle of the road with a hand up in the air stop sign style, and a blizzard of e-mails whizzing back and forth in the background, expanding to include others from other places and departments, let’s just say this happened:

‘Hi, Department A, I have sixteen boxes to add to that order. Is it too late?’

‘I don’t know, let me check.’

Phone call.

‘Hello, can we add sixteen boxes to our order? We can? Great! How much extra will that be? Oh, that much? That's not too bad, thanks.’

‘Hello, Department C. There’s no problem with that, so just make sure they’re ready to go.’

That is ten minutes, tops and no blizzard, no running in circles for hours, frustration, irritation, finger pointing or anything else. It just got done except for collecting the boxes into the collection point.

Why is that so hard?

Is it a control thing? Is it some inter-departmental rivalry that’s making everyone else’s life harder? I don’t get it, I really don’t. And it’s at times like this when I wish, really truly wish, it was my responsibility because then it would get done, without the drama and pointless exercise.

Oh well, this too shall pass and then there will be something else, right?

In the meantime, take a valium for me and have a chilled out day. While you do that, I’m going to get an icepack for the whiplash I developed as a result of all that head shaking and do some more serious thinking about my answer to the question that was asked.

Best~

Philippa

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