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9:52 a.m. - 2005-03-06 I Am "Crabby" Woman, Hear Me Roar!I have a backlog of paperwork I am furiously trying to get entered into our new computer system. The most urgent of which is a 3 inch pile of vendor invoices that need to be approved so we can cut checks to the vendors. There is one particular vendor whose orders are difficult to go through. By the time I am done approving one of their invoices, I am almost blind from checking the 5 mile long part numbers against the packing lists and prices. Some of our payments are getting late due to the back log of work, and that particular vendor was on my back about paying his invoices. I am working 11 hour days just to try to catch up. My boss, Joe, although very nice, is very very demanding. Every morning he straps a saddle onto his employees and takes turn riding them into the ground. When he shows up at my desk with an inquisitive look on his face, I have learned to say UH OH! Let me describe my physical surroundings. Between my desk and the back wall is about 5 feet of space. Along the back wall is a credenza with a fax machine, a postage meter, In-boxes and the interoffice mailboxes. To my left as I sit forward is a typwriter stand and a file cabinet. On the file cabinet is a 1 foot high stack of papers. We have a nice young man who works for us. His name is Eric and he a hip, and with-it kind of guy who knows everything about computers and modern technology. He had to borrow my typwriter to type shipping lables and reached over and picked it up and balanced it on the stack of papers because he wanted to stay out of my way. As he was typing, he would make a mistake now and then and have to hit the erase button where the typwriter backs up and hammers rapidly over the entire last word on top of correction tape that erases the word. He made alot of mistakes. I was nervous about my pile of papers and the typwriter falling over. "SHIT! ttttttttttttt, SHIT! tttttttttt, SHIT, tttttttttttt" was the sound of the frequent typos going on in the background. Now this was uncomfortable enough but then Joe decided to show up and needed to interrupt me because he had to know every detail of what was going on. "Why do we have invoices from January that are not paid?" he questioned. "Because, and I'll say it again, there are many invoices from January in this pile that I am trying to work through but you keep coming and interrupting me and keep telling me there is more important things to do and to do them another time." I said. "What specifically needs to be done to get Rev*re up to date." he questioned again. "I need the time to get this backlog of invoices approved and into the payables." I said Just then the fax machine started up and it is a noisy fax machine. It makes a noise like a giant fan blowing when a fax is coming in. "Why is there still such a big backlog of invoices?" he wanted to know. The phone rang. "Ameri*hem Systmes, can I help you?" I answered. I re-directed the call. "OK, I'll try again, why are we in the position of owing Rev*re so much money." he questioned again. "Because we submit an order every day for 50 or 60 items and they fill the order over 5 or 6 shipments and there are 5 invoices to each order and it is a mess of a thing to approve." My voice started to get a bit shrill. During this conversation the phone continued to ring and Eric continued to bang on the typwriter wobbling ontop of the stack of papers, going, "SHIT! TTTTTTTTTTT, SHIT! TTTTTTTTTT. We were all crammed into this 5 foot space between my desk and the credenza. Joe continued his questioning then the fax machine decided that making the whirring fan noise was not enough of a distraction and it jammed itself. "BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP" the fax machine alerted. I continued my explanation to Joe while grabbing the exploding phone lines, while Eric continued to type and go "SHIT! ttttttt, SHIT! tttttt SHIT! tttttttt." while trying to unjam the fax paper to get the fax machine to stop making it's high pitched "BEEP, BEEP, BEEEP, BEEEP". All the while this was going on, Joe kept asking the same question over and over again. "So why do we have so many invoices from January that haven't been paid?" he asked one more time. I picked up the 3 inch stack of invoices and slammed them down on the desk. "BECAUSE THEY ARE ALL IN THIS BACKLOG THAT I STILL HAVE TO PUT IN AND I DON'T HAVE TIME TO PUT THEM IN BECAUSE YOU KEEP COMING AT ME WITH THINGS YOU SAY ARE MORE IMPORTANT!" "OK" he said, "do the best you can to get Rev*re approved and entered so we can cut them a check." "Duh", I thought as I finally unjammed the fax and got it whirring again. Eric finally finished his lables and put the typewriter back, the phone stopped ringing and peace was again upon my little piece of the office. I set upon picking all of the offended vendors invoices out of the stack so I could start making my way through them to get them and Joe off my back. Joe left me alone for a good while. About an hour later, he appeared at my desk with pile of brochures he wanted sent to all of our reps. "Since you've been a crab, I decided to leave you alone for a while, but I need to you stop doing what you're doing and send these out for me." he said with a smirk on his face. I looked up at him over the top of my glasses and said "I'm a crab?" He said "That's ok, I'm married with 3 daughters, I'm used to crabby women." Knowing this was all in good nature and that he was funning with me, I burst out laughing. I took the pile of brochures and made a dramatic motion as I plopped them into what I call my "Joe Pile"....a pile of stuff that Joe gives me to do when he knows damned well that I am busy with something else he gave me to do. "So that's going into your "Joe Pile?" he asked. "I need those to go out right away." "Which do you need most...the Rev*re invoices approved or the brochures mailed...pick one." He just walked away muttering something about crabby women and staying out of their way. Now I know the above scene makes it look like I work for a collosal A-Hole, but he is really very very nice, never speaks in a nasty tone, always tells me how awsome I am and what a great job I am doing. It is just his managment style to ride people until what needs to get done gets done. It is actually a very effective way of management and as long as it is done with good humor....well let's say that we are all comfortable enough with Joe to dish back what he dishes out to us. I still LOVE my job. Did I mention the day flys by? P. I. Yarnsmith
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