Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Burnout (Or a trip to the drycleaners)

So, yes, I am officially and totally burned out. Two weeks' vacation cannot come soon enough. I cannot stress this adequately.

I made the executive decision to Fuck It and work from home today. Here's why.

When I started w/ this jobby job, I was informed that I would be the "super user" of our new CRM database system, which was just in the process of being spec'd out. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I'm not what one would call analytically minded. Still, turns out my key contact is a wicked nice guy from MN, complete w/ the Fargo lilt and talking to him often doesn't suck.

So, okay, fast forward to now. We're trying to roll out enhancements to our system which, in his words, "give a whole new definition to scope creep." And indeed it does.

CBL has been completely hands off on this project, to the point where, when I bring it up, she rolls her eyes and I can practically hear her thinking "just deal with it, will you?" She doesn't seem to understand that every little whim she wants to indulge or change she wants to make means a chunk of my time laying it out and an even huger chunk of MN's time getting it done. It's a matter of respect. And then, of course, when she doesn't understand or like one of the changes, she goes into her "flurry mode." So, I really do need her sign off beforehand.

Yesterday, I made it quite clear that I needed to talk to her and if we were going to get these changes out, we needed to sign off TODAY. Response? "After my conference calls, I need to head into the FedEx dropoff and the drycleaners. We can talk after."

At 3, I got an email. "On the bus now. Do you need anything? A coffee? Snack?" Reply: "Don't need anything but the chance to discuss CRMSystem with you." Could I be any more clear?

When the shit hits the fan and she's getting yelled at by Prez (and then she turns around and yells at me) because the updates aren't made, know what I'm going to say?

"You know what? I'd love to talk, but I've gotta get to my drycleaners."