It was sort of inevitable.
Nov. 23rd, 2011 05:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bktheirregularGet to work in the morning, power up, get cracking on the pile of stuff that needs to be done, that kept getting shoved aside because people kept interrupting me all frelling week with surprise "need this right now" tasks.
Specifically, financial reports for the past three years that needed to be translated. I'd gotten about 90 percent of the way through the first year's report by end of business yesterday, and I figured I'd finish that, send it off, triage my to-do list, and get to work on whatever was most urgent.
Until the call came in from the partner who'd given me that task.
"How are you progressing on those financial reports?"
"Almost through the first one. I'll be sending it to you shortly."
"WHAT? Only the first one? We need all of them! TODAY! What have you been doing?"
"Well, people keep breaking in on me with stuff they tell me needs to get done immediately, but if I'd known what my deadlines looked like..."
I ... er ... kind of blew a gasket after that phone call ended. Grabbed three or four things to throw before realizing that I might cause real damage with a paperweight or a stapler, finally hurled my hat around the office and kicked my trash can a couple of times.
(Most people around here seem to blow off steam by yelling at others. That doesn't seem to be my way. There's a whole philosophical thing about why my anger is vented on inanimate objects or inward on myself. Too long for this.)
After a few minutes, I was calmer, better able to do an assessment of the task at hand. As it turned out, I could shortly report that the task would be complete by the end of the day, because once the 2008 report was finished, it was stupid-easy to look for variations in the 2009 and 2010 reports. Of which there weren't many. Thankfully, the reports were in Excel spreadsheets, so I didn't have to go messing with the numbers.
I ended up teaching the partner a new English expression, too, while muttering that I couldn't exactly add a note to office correspondence responding to a demand for a translation with a suggestion that the offender go "pound sand".
It got a laugh when a Google search turned up "go play in traffic" as an expression with similar meaning.
Oh, and the panic job?
Done.
Specifically, financial reports for the past three years that needed to be translated. I'd gotten about 90 percent of the way through the first year's report by end of business yesterday, and I figured I'd finish that, send it off, triage my to-do list, and get to work on whatever was most urgent.
Until the call came in from the partner who'd given me that task.
"How are you progressing on those financial reports?"
"Almost through the first one. I'll be sending it to you shortly."
"WHAT? Only the first one? We need all of them! TODAY! What have you been doing?"
"Well, people keep breaking in on me with stuff they tell me needs to get done immediately, but if I'd known what my deadlines looked like..."
I ... er ... kind of blew a gasket after that phone call ended. Grabbed three or four things to throw before realizing that I might cause real damage with a paperweight or a stapler, finally hurled my hat around the office and kicked my trash can a couple of times.
(Most people around here seem to blow off steam by yelling at others. That doesn't seem to be my way. There's a whole philosophical thing about why my anger is vented on inanimate objects or inward on myself. Too long for this.)
After a few minutes, I was calmer, better able to do an assessment of the task at hand. As it turned out, I could shortly report that the task would be complete by the end of the day, because once the 2008 report was finished, it was stupid-easy to look for variations in the 2009 and 2010 reports. Of which there weren't many. Thankfully, the reports were in Excel spreadsheets, so I didn't have to go messing with the numbers.
I ended up teaching the partner a new English expression, too, while muttering that I couldn't exactly add a note to office correspondence responding to a demand for a translation with a suggestion that the offender go "pound sand".
It got a laugh when a Google search turned up "go play in traffic" as an expression with similar meaning.
Oh, and the panic job?
Done.
