I had such a dramatic morning a few days ago. I got a call from my boss asking me to come to his office. It was a thirty minute drive to his office and I was a bit nervous. He sounded irritated on the phone. On top of that there were a few issues cropping up through the week that had my name on them.
When I arrived, he was on a conference call and I had to wait an hour for him. My nerves went from crazy to calm to crazy in that hour. During the wait I got a call from a coworker. He appoligized for getting me involved in an email earlier in the week. This made me more nervous. My world was collapsing. If he called to appologize, someone must be getting upset. That someone was probably on a conference call in the next room.
Then my boss called me in.
"Why did I call you over here this morning?", he started. That's the worst question ever. How much does he know? Am I about to open up more crap? I just gave a blank stare and hoped he would answer his own question.
Today wasn't my lucky day because, as he sat down at his desk, he asked me again. "Why do you think I had you come over here?"
I answered with the smallest issue that he had already raised during his phone call this morning. He smiled and told me we would get to that in a few minutes but that it wasn't the reason for our meeting.
At that point I knew exactly why I was facing him. I said, "I suppose you want to know about my email to corporate."
BINGO!
My email to corporate was an inquiry to someone I knew. I was just trying to help a coworker get some info. Trying to help the same coworker that called and apologized a few minutes ago. Unfortunately, my question got forwarded to half a dozen people at corporate. Those six people forwarded it up the chain until someone decided to call my boss about it. He was blind sided by the question coming to him.
Letting your boss get an unexpected phone call that has your name attached to it is never good. Just an FYI.
After we sorted out that mess we moved onto issue number two. At this point my nerves were gone and I calmly expressed my view on the problem. It went well.
At the end of the day we had another conversation that made me feel much more comfortable about my relationship with him.
What started off as a morning full of nerves and praying turned out to be a successful day.
Let's hope I can avoid any more drama for a while. My nerves can't handle it.
When I arrived, he was on a conference call and I had to wait an hour for him. My nerves went from crazy to calm to crazy in that hour. During the wait I got a call from a coworker. He appoligized for getting me involved in an email earlier in the week. This made me more nervous. My world was collapsing. If he called to appologize, someone must be getting upset. That someone was probably on a conference call in the next room.
Then my boss called me in.
"Why did I call you over here this morning?", he started. That's the worst question ever. How much does he know? Am I about to open up more crap? I just gave a blank stare and hoped he would answer his own question.
Today wasn't my lucky day because, as he sat down at his desk, he asked me again. "Why do you think I had you come over here?"
I answered with the smallest issue that he had already raised during his phone call this morning. He smiled and told me we would get to that in a few minutes but that it wasn't the reason for our meeting.
At that point I knew exactly why I was facing him. I said, "I suppose you want to know about my email to corporate."
BINGO!
My email to corporate was an inquiry to someone I knew. I was just trying to help a coworker get some info. Trying to help the same coworker that called and apologized a few minutes ago. Unfortunately, my question got forwarded to half a dozen people at corporate. Those six people forwarded it up the chain until someone decided to call my boss about it. He was blind sided by the question coming to him.
Letting your boss get an unexpected phone call that has your name attached to it is never good. Just an FYI.
After we sorted out that mess we moved onto issue number two. At this point my nerves were gone and I calmly expressed my view on the problem. It went well.
At the end of the day we had another conversation that made me feel much more comfortable about my relationship with him.
What started off as a morning full of nerves and praying turned out to be a successful day.
Let's hope I can avoid any more drama for a while. My nerves can't handle it.
No comments:
Post a Comment