Letter to the Editor
Mar. 22nd, 2006 03:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thessalianDear Ham-Fisted Editor,
I do not mind people interrupting me when I am not up to much; when I am merely weeding through emails or doing that sort of associated crap. However, when I am genuinely busy, do not approach me and say, "Could you print out X?" I am not the only person in the office with access to the server you're using. I don't know why you can't print out from your laptop while you can happily access the server with it. Frankly, I don't care. Most of the other people with that access are sitting right next to you. Ask them. And incidentally, the good printer is right in front of your desk. If I tell you that I am, RightNowThisMinute, sending your stupid print job to that printer, and you cross the room, I expect that you are picking up your document, as it was so desperately urgent that you had to interrupt my typing up of a statistical report that was sent snail mail and handwritten because one of our statistical reviewers is a tit. I do not expect, fifteen minutes later, for one of my colleagues to try to hand me the paper you so desperately wanted printed out because you couldn't even stand by a printer tray for five seconds.
Also? Pay attention, please. If an email came to you that is obviously is supposed to have an attachment but doesn't, email me. Ask me for the attachment as soon as you know it's missing. Do not wait a week until you're in the office and say, "Oh, and could you print that out for me?" You are a lazy fuckwit and you make my job hard. Please stop. You're a professional, for fuck's sake.
Another thing: do not, and I mean DO NOT, approach me to ask for my help when you do not need it, particularly if you are going to accuse me of not having done something. Standing in front of my desk going, "There doesn't seem to be a printout of review B in this paper, you see, and I -- ah. Wait. No, no, no, wait. Ah, no, there it is. Right. Right. All right. Never mind..." and then walking away is not only disruptive, but it makes you look like a grade A nitwit. So does your insistence on having me print something out rather than actually looking for it in the file you're carrying. I know you can't be bothered. I don't care.
Oh, FYI? The filing system? Is not encrypted in some mysterious way that only I can understand. We use a nifty little system to keep things in order: it's called the alphabet. We use this widely-known system so that any bugger, not just me, can open up the appropriate filing cabinet drawer and pull out what they need. Which means that if I am sitting at my desk typing like a bloody maniac, now is not the time to ask me to pull a file for you. You are standing three feet from the filing cabinet. You are, in fact, blocking my way to the filing cabinets, which should suggest to you that it would be far easier to get it your own damn self. But if you are going to give me that stoned-cow look and wait for me to fetch and carry for you, I would appreciate it if you would move away from the filing cabinet so that I can actually get into the filing cabinets you are currently blocking and yet you desperately want to avoid!
And by the way, I don't appreciate you completely ignoring the set-up Michael put in place to try to keep you tidy. It's easy; one basket is for work that I give you, and one basket is for work that you give me. So please explain to me why you have dumped all the work you want me to do in with the work you have not done yet (so far as I know, anyway). I'm dying to know why the beautiful simplicity of the system seems to have eluded you. Again.
Look, we have to work together. If you stop treating the admin (not 'your secretary', note: I am the admin) like your personal slave and listen to her recommendations, or at least actually do your own job from time to time, you might find that things go a lot more smoothly. However, if you persist in treating me as your dogsbody and mess up my reasonably ordered life, you may one day find yourself wearing your bollocks as noseplugs.
A fair and timely warning, with regards, from
Your tortured admin.
I do not mind people interrupting me when I am not up to much; when I am merely weeding through emails or doing that sort of associated crap. However, when I am genuinely busy, do not approach me and say, "Could you print out X?" I am not the only person in the office with access to the server you're using. I don't know why you can't print out from your laptop while you can happily access the server with it. Frankly, I don't care. Most of the other people with that access are sitting right next to you. Ask them. And incidentally, the good printer is right in front of your desk. If I tell you that I am, RightNowThisMinute, sending your stupid print job to that printer, and you cross the room, I expect that you are picking up your document, as it was so desperately urgent that you had to interrupt my typing up of a statistical report that was sent snail mail and handwritten because one of our statistical reviewers is a tit. I do not expect, fifteen minutes later, for one of my colleagues to try to hand me the paper you so desperately wanted printed out because you couldn't even stand by a printer tray for five seconds.
Also? Pay attention, please. If an email came to you that is obviously is supposed to have an attachment but doesn't, email me. Ask me for the attachment as soon as you know it's missing. Do not wait a week until you're in the office and say, "Oh, and could you print that out for me?" You are a lazy fuckwit and you make my job hard. Please stop. You're a professional, for fuck's sake.
Another thing: do not, and I mean DO NOT, approach me to ask for my help when you do not need it, particularly if you are going to accuse me of not having done something. Standing in front of my desk going, "There doesn't seem to be a printout of review B in this paper, you see, and I -- ah. Wait. No, no, no, wait. Ah, no, there it is. Right. Right. All right. Never mind..." and then walking away is not only disruptive, but it makes you look like a grade A nitwit. So does your insistence on having me print something out rather than actually looking for it in the file you're carrying. I know you can't be bothered. I don't care.
Oh, FYI? The filing system? Is not encrypted in some mysterious way that only I can understand. We use a nifty little system to keep things in order: it's called the alphabet. We use this widely-known system so that any bugger, not just me, can open up the appropriate filing cabinet drawer and pull out what they need. Which means that if I am sitting at my desk typing like a bloody maniac, now is not the time to ask me to pull a file for you. You are standing three feet from the filing cabinet. You are, in fact, blocking my way to the filing cabinets, which should suggest to you that it would be far easier to get it your own damn self. But if you are going to give me that stoned-cow look and wait for me to fetch and carry for you, I would appreciate it if you would move away from the filing cabinet so that I can actually get into the filing cabinets you are currently blocking and yet you desperately want to avoid!
And by the way, I don't appreciate you completely ignoring the set-up Michael put in place to try to keep you tidy. It's easy; one basket is for work that I give you, and one basket is for work that you give me. So please explain to me why you have dumped all the work you want me to do in with the work you have not done yet (so far as I know, anyway). I'm dying to know why the beautiful simplicity of the system seems to have eluded you. Again.
Look, we have to work together. If you stop treating the admin (not 'your secretary', note: I am the admin) like your personal slave and listen to her recommendations, or at least actually do your own job from time to time, you might find that things go a lot more smoothly. However, if you persist in treating me as your dogsbody and mess up my reasonably ordered life, you may one day find yourself wearing your bollocks as noseplugs.
A fair and timely warning, with regards, from
Your tortured admin.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-22 09:45 pm (UTC)I know some of the things would be brushed off, but he does sound like he's doing stuff so badly in terms of letting you do your job that you should have something of a case.