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  • Yeah, you're welcome

    This was a cursed job. As with all my jobs, it's a tight time crunch. I'm given less time and/or manpower to do the job in the timeline allowed. This one was even worse because the boss did the quote without even seeing the plans, he just asked a few questions, assumed the answers he received were honest, and ran with that. He failed to take into account the additional little details of the installation, failed to look at the product and the additional time required to build parts that typically come pre-built, and failed to notice that the 4 station re-con was actually a 16 station re-con. So without even getting out of the gate, it's already a dire situation. The deadline I'm looking at is a delivery on Friday, build from Monday to Thursday, then a re-con on Friday and Saturday.

    Now we get to the sucky customer end of our story. On a bitch scale of 0-10, this woman started at a 5 on night one, the delivery stage. She didn't want anything to be placed anywhere because she had cleaners coming in. Okay, you've got 3 truckloads of furniture coming in, it has to go somewhere, what do you expect me to do??? She couldn't / wouldn't provide an answer, so I had to go with my best instincts. She bitched me out a couple more times that night, but offered no solution to her complaints. At the end of the night, she was relatively satisfied and I chalked it up to stress.

    Then the screw ups hit. Right off the bat, we're missing parts that are essential to the installation. So essential in fact, that we can't even begin. Rather than just wasting the first day, I get the guys to pre-build some parts, but that was a huge problem because now the pre-built parts are in our way. All the while the customer is riding my ass, wanting to know when the parts will come in, wanting to know what this does to the deadline, telling me that no matter what, the deadline cannot change. I'm doing my best to deal with her, but let her know that I am here to supervise the installation; fixing these screw ups and maintaining the deadline is up to the design team and my management team. This goes straight in one ear and straight out the other of her hollow head. I'm the face she sees, so it's up to me to get all this arranged. In hindsight, I should have told her to shove it up her ass, but I'm still trying to keep her happy, so rather than do actual work, I'm now on my phone dealing with this. I finally get an answer that the parts will be in by tomorrow. This isn't good enough, she wants my unconditional guarantee that they will be there and that the deadline will still be met. I draw the line here and let her know that I can only pass on the information as I have been provided with it, if she wants guarantees she can talk to my management. This gets her nose out of joint and she storms away. But overall things aren't too hellish here yet. The end of the day comes and we're packing up. She decides to take me for one more ride across the coals. She chides me for my decision to pre-build the parts, she thinks it was a complete waste of the day, without even pausing to give me a chance to retort, she once again demands my guarantee that the install will be complete by the deadline. I let her know that I can't guarantee anything until the parts are on hand, it is up to the designer to follow through on his promise to get the parts here tomorrow to have any chance of meeting the deadline.

    I take the plans home with me that night to get a closer look at things. With that I notice that even with the missing parts that are coming in, we're still going to be missing about a dozen parts that are essential to complete things. I shoot off an email letting all parties know this new dilemma. The designer gets back to me and this is no problem, it's all planned out. We will be getting these parts when we do the re-configuration. Okay genius, would you care to explain to me how I am going to complete an installation by Thursday with parts that won't be available to me until Friday? Oh, umm, he guesses that was an oversight on their part. Yeah, you think asshole. Okay, well deal with this bitch because it's not my job to have to deal with a bitch like her when you're the one that screwed up.

    To his credit, he did explain the situation to her. To her credit, she started out civil with this new problem. Nobody is moving into one section for at least a month, so it will be fine if that part of the build is delayed.

    We've now got the parts we need, so we're off to the races to do a 4 day build in 2 1/2 days. I was impressed with my crew and we made some good progress on the first day. The second day went much slower than I would have liked, but the essentials were done, we were down to just the finishing touches for deadline day. I was feeling pretty good about things when we were walking out, I knew we had a full day ahead of us, but didn't see any difficulty with it. I check out with my favourite lady expecting some praise for our hard work and progress. Instead I absolutely get ripped a new one. We should be much farther ahead by this point, she points out the number of things still left to be done. Yeah, all small things, we won't have a problem with that. Well I obviously don't know what I'm talking about, she doesn't see any way that we can get it all done but if I don't care that's fine, just leave. Yeah lady, fuck you too, we're out of here. Oh not so fast, she's got a half dozen things that have to be done today before we go. Stuff that was asked about earlier, stuff that can wait, but no, she leaves it to the literal last minute and it HAS to be done today.

    I was literally ready to kill her. I clenched my teeth and fought through, got the stupid tasks done, and walked out without another word. A few beers, some hugs from my girl, and some emails to the bosses telling them to deal with this bitch calmed me down enough to go through the plans once again. With the new install virtually complete, I shifted focus to my plan for making the reconfiguration work. This is where I hit the roof. The four station, followed by the six station installation is in fact a 16 station complete tear down and rebuild, followed by a 20 station installation. I'm into my email again letting everyone know this good news. Specifically, I let them know that there is no chance in hell that we are completing it all by Saturday. I let them know that I cannot and will not pass this news on to Miss Bitch, I'm already stressed out and this WILL push me over the edge, it is their responsibility to handle her.

    Thursday comes and miss bitch isn't in yet, so things get off to a good start. Then she shows up. Without so much as a hello, she's right into me telling me that a part of the installation is unacceptable. There is a section that isn't tight to the wall because it is too wide to fit. The designer failed to measure things properly and it's an inch too wide. She comes up with a "solution" of taking apart two sections and swapping panels. All in we're looking at a 4 hour job to pull this off, on deadline day. I politely give her the standard company line of "I'm sorry, but I have to build all product to plan, any changes have to go through the planning and quoting process at a later stage". I may well have told her what I really thought of her because she just exploded. YOU MEAN YOU WON'T DO IT!!! HOW CAN PEOPLE BE EXPECTED TO WORK THERE?!? I guess I have to go above your head. and storms off.

    What is this hugely unacceptable problem you ask? The station is sitting 2 inches off the wall in it's current configuration. Not only is this ridiculously ugly, the 40" entranceway, (that has a 36" requirement), is too narrow.

    Shortly thereafter, I get an email telling me to go ahead with this reconfiguration. Yeah, thanks for the support of me following company protocol and procedure.

    Even with this extra work, we're still done well ahead of schedule and I try to get the crew out of there. Oh, but what about the side glass? Um, you mean these pieces that I asked you about Friday, and Monday, and Tuesday, and Wednesday, and each time you told me you didn't know, you think they were shipped in error. Yeah those, now all of a sudden she knows exactly where they go. Great, off we go with those. We finish that off and she's found more nitpicking details that need to be addressed immediately. Still, all said, things were done and there was nothing left to complain about. Rather than be grateful, she seemed annoyed that I was right when I told here we would be able to complete.

    But with my nerves in their fragile state, I can't bear to ask her if she's been informed that we won't finish all the work on Saturday. Clearly nobody has let her know because she's not bitching about it.

    Friday comes and I beg my crew to give it everything that they have. They pull through for me and we make some damn good progress. In doing so, we had to stay until 1:00 am to pull that off, but we're ahead of the game and can actually get a jump on the remainder of the other installation. Saturday comes, we're working on about 4 hours sleep each, but we bust our asses. We get the remainder of the installation complete, we've given them perfectly usable workstations, all that is left are some minor frills and a few tweaks. But the main thing to keep in mind is that asses can sit there and work. But it's 5:00, I was booked to be off by 4:00, everyone else is booked to be off by 5:00, along with simply being exhausted.

    With sweat running down my face, mixed with the blood of a little drill mishap, I go to her and pass on the good news. I may as well have insulted her mother, along with doing nasty things to her.

    SC: How can people be expected to work there without their paper trays and keyboard trays??? And the glass isn't even up.
    Me: These are perfectly functional desks, and you don't have anyone moving into them for a month; didn't anyone inform you that we weren't expected to complete things by today; we are far ahead of where I told them to let you know we would get to.
    SC: No, nobody said anything to her.
    Me: Okay, well I'm sorry, we're all booked to be off by 5:00, I was booked to be off at 4:00 but I stayed to get us to this point.
    SC: So you're just leaving?!?
    Me: Yes.
    SC: Fine, I can't be bothered arguing with you... (walk away).
    Me: Yeah, you're welcome.
    D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F.
    Quoth = Crossbow "EvilHomer, Irv, Gravekeeper, and Seraph: the Four Horsemen of the Dumbpocalypse."

  • #2
    No offense, but I'm glad I don't have your job. I doubt I'd last 2 days dealing with these people and their barely existent grasp on reality. Mostly because I look at the numbers 4 & 6, then the real number of stations as 16 & 20, and I simply would have said nope, that's way to far off to be done in time.

    Kudos to you and your crew for getting it done, though.

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    • #3
      I hope you gave your boss a good thrashing and that management above him came down hard on him.

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      • #4
        Quoth panamared View Post
        I hope you gave your boss a good thrashing and that management above him came down hard on him.
        evilhomer's boss is a complete airhead, and will NOT take any responsibility for the mess he's created. And he doesn't deserve evilhomer's bailing him out of this mess, or having to deal with the bitch...

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        • #5
          I actually had the full support of my boss through this ordeal. He wasn't riding my ass at all, and completely agreed with me that the installation was more work than expected. But rather than taking responsibility for this mess, he just shifted blame to the designer for failing to be honest and upfront about the scope of work. (Failing to point the finger at himself for doing a quote without having concrete confirmation of all work required).

          Also, rather than dealing with this bitch (as I was asking/begging/demanding that he do), he argued it out with the designer, who argued right back that the scope of work isn't that big and we should be able to complete. They kept on sparring through this battle, meanwhile, I was getting slaughtered by this bitch, whom neither of them were willing to deal with.

          In her defence, she was out of the loop and nobody was communicating the problems to her. But of course, if she wasn't such a bitch in the first place, and was at least a little bit reasonable and accomodating, we would have been more willing and able to talk to her.
          D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F.
          Quoth = Crossbow "EvilHomer, Irv, Gravekeeper, and Seraph: the Four Horsemen of the Dumbpocalypse."

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