The day before, a crew dismantled a bunch of workstation desks. In a completely idiotic move, or as I know it, standard MiM decision making for Mickey Mouse Moving, I'm on the re-install crew with nobody who was part of the dismantle. Okay, nothing I haven't dealt with before, all I need is a good floorplan and/or a co-operative client.
I'm handed a sheet of paper with a series of squares and rectangles and numbers throughout it. Okay, this is utter shite, but I can relatively figure out what they are going for, time to get some co-operation from the client.
Me: Hi Lisa, can we clarify the orientation we are going for here
SC: Don't you have the plans?!?
Me: Well I have this "sketch", but it doesn't show me where the returns go or which way you want your extended corners, or the straight desks
SC: (flailing hands around do "draw" things out) The desk is going to go like this, then we have this 60 going across and coming out.
Me: Oh, so you want this straight surface going perpendicular to the desk?
SC: NO!!!! You can see where it goes right on the plan!
Me: Oh, so you want it going across? Sorry, the sketch shows a square, not a 60x24 rectangle, it makes things a little confusing. You also said there is another surface going across.
SC: Yes!
Me: ...... okay, what will we be using for that?
SC: It's the part that was there before.
Me: Okay, I'm sorry I wasn't part of the dismantle crew and this part isn't even on this sketch. What surface was it.
SC: Oh, it must be this one here.
She was talking down to me this entire time, like I was an idiot for not being able to figure everything out from the brilliant set of plans that she so carefully spent nearly 30 seconds scribbling out. Keep in mind, that she is not one of these office managers or mail clerks thrown into this position. She is a supposedly educated, supposedly qualified, supposedly competent, most definately highly paid facilities professional whose job it is to go around and co-ordinate these things. She has access to all the software she needs to make a proper floorplan, but she opted to go with this piece of crap.
So we get everything laid out as she instructed us to and things aren't lining up. The ends of the desks are larger than they should be. She looks at her plans and determines that the ends should be smaller. Obviously I don't have all the furniture. Okay, my truck is empty, we have 5 corners and 5 returns, this is everything. She pulls out a printed photo of the former layout. Not only is it a side view that only gives a view of the side ends of the desks, with the majority blocked by cabinets in the way. But somehow, I was supposed to see through the solid steel cabinets to figure out what was on the other side of them, ON A PRINTED PHOTO
She is at a complete loss here. She is sure that we must be missing furniture. She goes on to rant how she told everybody that they should have labelled everything. Yeah, you know who says "I told you so"? Losers, that's who. Managers, competent managers do what needs to be done to get the job done right, either with orders or by doing it themselves. They don't scribble something out and look for the nearest body to throw under the bus.
So I've had enough of her at this point. I decide to remove myself from her and consult with someone intelligent and competent to work this out - ME. Without the distraction of this conceited, condescending bitch in my ear, I quickly realize that her hand waved drawing was wrong and the solution is easy. All we have to do is reverse the extended corners and put the returns on the other side. To her protests, I proceed to do this, and she finally shuts up when the first one goes in place and she sees that I'm right. She's mildly grateful here, but it doesn't change her attitude.
I'm handed a sheet of paper with a series of squares and rectangles and numbers throughout it. Okay, this is utter shite, but I can relatively figure out what they are going for, time to get some co-operation from the client.
Me: Hi Lisa, can we clarify the orientation we are going for here
SC: Don't you have the plans?!?
Me: Well I have this "sketch", but it doesn't show me where the returns go or which way you want your extended corners, or the straight desks
SC: (flailing hands around do "draw" things out) The desk is going to go like this, then we have this 60 going across and coming out.
Me: Oh, so you want this straight surface going perpendicular to the desk?
SC: NO!!!! You can see where it goes right on the plan!
Me: Oh, so you want it going across? Sorry, the sketch shows a square, not a 60x24 rectangle, it makes things a little confusing. You also said there is another surface going across.
SC: Yes!
Me: ...... okay, what will we be using for that?
SC: It's the part that was there before.
Me: Okay, I'm sorry I wasn't part of the dismantle crew and this part isn't even on this sketch. What surface was it.
SC: Oh, it must be this one here.
She was talking down to me this entire time, like I was an idiot for not being able to figure everything out from the brilliant set of plans that she so carefully spent nearly 30 seconds scribbling out. Keep in mind, that she is not one of these office managers or mail clerks thrown into this position. She is a supposedly educated, supposedly qualified, supposedly competent, most definately highly paid facilities professional whose job it is to go around and co-ordinate these things. She has access to all the software she needs to make a proper floorplan, but she opted to go with this piece of crap.
So we get everything laid out as she instructed us to and things aren't lining up. The ends of the desks are larger than they should be. She looks at her plans and determines that the ends should be smaller. Obviously I don't have all the furniture. Okay, my truck is empty, we have 5 corners and 5 returns, this is everything. She pulls out a printed photo of the former layout. Not only is it a side view that only gives a view of the side ends of the desks, with the majority blocked by cabinets in the way. But somehow, I was supposed to see through the solid steel cabinets to figure out what was on the other side of them, ON A PRINTED PHOTO
She is at a complete loss here. She is sure that we must be missing furniture. She goes on to rant how she told everybody that they should have labelled everything. Yeah, you know who says "I told you so"? Losers, that's who. Managers, competent managers do what needs to be done to get the job done right, either with orders or by doing it themselves. They don't scribble something out and look for the nearest body to throw under the bus.
So I've had enough of her at this point. I decide to remove myself from her and consult with someone intelligent and competent to work this out - ME. Without the distraction of this conceited, condescending bitch in my ear, I quickly realize that her hand waved drawing was wrong and the solution is easy. All we have to do is reverse the extended corners and put the returns on the other side. To her protests, I proceed to do this, and she finally shuts up when the first one goes in place and she sees that I'm right. She's mildly grateful here, but it doesn't change her attitude.
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