It's good to be the king

I’ll probably regret using this title for this topic, but let’s hope not. My assistant is on vacation this week, and her absence is really cutting into my blog time. Actually, it’s preventing me from getting any of my regular work done, and I’m only worrying about ¾ of the work she does. Granted, she’s had more practice at doing her job than I have, but her efficiency still amazes me.

Our computer system is down today for an upgrade, which is the only reason I’m not doing her work right now. One of my predecessors would ignore the supervisee’s work while they were out. A day or too isn’t a big deal, but for a week? Hells bells, can you imagine if no one covered for a postal carrier for a week? It’d probably take three weeks just to get caught up. Although, it might discourage use of vacation in the future.

My predecessor wasn’t too savvy on some things. I’ve been told that in the handful of years before retirement, she would often go to the lounge and take 4-5 hour naps on the couch. I’m sure that did wonders for staff morale.

A couple of weeks ago, I nearly stuck my foot irretrievably down my throat. My supervisee has been working on this really painful project. Tedious and mind numbing are the first descriptors that come to mind. We had been given instructions from the ‘expert’ in another department. I had questioned the procedures at first, but regrettably I’m not enough of an expert myself to have realized there was a shortcut.

After two full weeks I finally figured out that the procedure could be cut down to about 1/3 of what my assistant was doing. This is where a thoughtful manager has to weigh the impact of such information. Do I tell her that she’s wasted 60 hours of her life, and teach her the shortcut for the remaining day or two worth of work, or let her live in ignorant bliss while the mind numbing continues 4-5 days?

I keep a bag of chocolate in my filing cabinet just for these occasions. I had to tell her. It was a painful task, but I figured it’d be better for her to hear it from me now than to figure it out on her own a year from now.

After it was all finished, I wanted to reiterate how much I appreciate the time she spent on this ugly project, so I told her she should feel appreciated. She looked at me and with a very displeased look said:

“M [husband] said that same thing to me last week.” Then she turned to walk away.

Bells a plenty went off, and the little Fire Chief in my head started screaming “Take it back, take it back, whatever you said take it back!” It's not really my fault, you see. I'm trained to work with people who actually don't have any social skills.

“Wait a minute, I don’t know how what I just said was received, but I was trying to convey that I really appreciate you getting this done, and I still feel awful that the original instructions dragged this out longer than what was necessary.”

After a brief pause I heard “That was not how your comment came across.”

“Does this mean I need to get another bag of chocolate?”

As my supervisee walked away, she smiled and held up two fingers, clearly expressing that one bag would not be sufficient.