My boss has been giving me more responsibility at work. This includes projects and things that I wasn't responsible for my first couple months. Generally these are self-run activities - compiling reports, spreadsheets, creating presentations, etc. Overall I've really enjoyed working on this stuff - it's a nice break from the doc and credential review I spend most of my time doing.
One project I didn't like so much was organizing a joint department meeting. I work with the business school and we do a lot of joint programs with other departments. Most of this is pretty easily run because other departments use our in-house application system, so we just share the applications and make decisions based on the documents submitted for one application.
Enter School X and their joint degree. This involves different parts of the application, so we don't share the decision system. This makes my life a living nightmare. It means that we have like 3 applications with different numbers that have to be consolidated in the end. It causes trouble with admission letter printing, visa documentation, and registration for classes. It's the hydra monster of my life. Get the application in and then twenty new problems pop up because NOTHING is being done correctly. Yay!
Well, after a few months of this, the admission season ended and we lost a bunch of applicants because it took us 1000 years to process an application correctly. Oops! We tried!
I made it a top priority to get this system consolidated because every time these apps came through it knocked out a 3 hour chunk of my day making phone calls, sending emails, scanning documents, etc.
But summer was nigh and my boss told me it would be a good time to organize the meeting. Just like I had done with other departments, I created a Doodle poll.
A Doodle poll is very simple. It lists dates and times and you check mark which times you are available! Like... hypothetically, say I sent you a Doodle poll with this Friday on it. It would have four boxes for 9, 10, 11, and 12. You can PICK what time you're free! Then other people do it! Then you KNOW when to have a meeting! It takes roughly 2 minutes out of your day and helps organize everything.
Well, I created a Doodle for the joint meeting. I thought there were only four of us that needed to be there, but lo and behold, it turned into this big fustercluck of 8 people, who all have to be present to figure out what the eff is going on with these applications.
So, I send the Doodle. Within minutes I get 10 messages of people commenting and complaining because the times don't work. So I adjust the times. Then adjust again. Then more complaining. Then another adjustment.
Finally, it's already mid-July when I'm trying to schedule this meeting. I send out the email and wait.
And Wait.
And Wait.
And Wait.
Every Wednesday for three weeks I re-sent the Doodle out and reminded everyone passive aggressively that they need to take the EFFING poll.
"Hey Guys! It's Tedd! This is just a friendly reminder that we need to find a time to meet. Please take the poll so we can match up availability!"
"Hey Team! Another friendly reminder that we need to get a jump on these joint applications! Please put your availability on the Doodle poll!"
By the third one, I wanted to write:
"Listen, you bunch of lazy turd hats. I need you to go in, click your index finger a few times and tell me when you're available. This isn't rocket science, and it's no wonder this is messed up because y'all can't figure out how to take a FRICKIN" poll. XOXO Tedd"
But instead it read something like this: "Hey All! If you can, please fill out the Doodle poll so we can get a jump on these applications!"
I told my boss what was going on and she did send an email that read something like, "We need to get this done. Fill out the poll."
About the same time that went out, I got an email from this lady in School X. She said, "Tedd, we are all available on Wednesday at 10 for a meeting.
My boss's email and this ladies email were caught in cyberspace, so that they were both delivered at the same time.
I started to write an email telling everyone what time the meeting was, just as I get another email from the lady responding to Maya's email.
Maya, I have told Tedd MULTIPLE times that we are available on Wednesday at 10.
This is when Tedd's hand goes up in the air with a,"Bitch, please" expression on his face. It also, ironically, was the time when I started getting emails from Doodle.
Chuck has taken the Doodle poll.
Chuck has altered his Doodle results.
Chuck has changed his Doodle results.
Chuck works for School X. And despite the fact that I had (evidently?) been told multiple times about their availability, Chuck was going like gangbusters, clicking and unclicking boxes in the poll.
So I log into the poll and, I decide to be my caddy gay self.
I write an email to the woman who had called me out in front of my boss and said,
Hey! You had told me 10 on Wednesday, but it looks like Chuck isn't available at all on Wednesday. Is he not participating?
About 10 seconds later I get a phone call.
"Tedd, this is School X, we think this would be best to do over the phone."
"Sure thing!" (Overly nice, Tedd exclaims!)
"It looks like there was an error and none of us are available on Wednesday at 10."
An error? An error from the heavens that somehow changed your availability in 10 minutes? Are you sure you meant, "I screwed up, Tedd. Sorry, we can't do Wednesday.'
"The only time we can all get together," she continued, "Is Friday at 1."
"Sure thing!"
"Phew, okay. I'm glad this was settled." She is about to hang up but hesitates. "You know," she goes on, "I just wish there was a way to sync our schedules so we all knew if we could go to the meeting or not."
Click. The phone is dead.
You wish....you...what?...you?...
"Annie," I said, "You have got to hear about the Doodle Debacle."
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