Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Meeting re: Communication

I am being driven slowly mad...

Q: Ok, what sorts of things do we need on the new Form, designed to improve communication between departments?

ME: I wrote up a list of the information I need in order to process each job.

Q: Well, there’s no place for the client’s name.


ME: What? Oh no, it’s just a list of what I need on the form, not the form itself.

Q: Riiiight. So in this example form, is there a place to make changes?

ME: No. There is no form. That’s a list I made up of information I currently don’t always get, that I would need on the form, when a form is eventually made…which I believe is what we are discussing now.

Q: So would we staple this to the file?

ME: (uncertain) well, we could staple the form to the file, sure.

Q: Form? What’s this then?

ME: That’s just a list of things I would like on the form.

Q: And why do you even have this?

ME: You asked me to write it up last time we discussed this. Before Christmas.

Q: So this is a list of…?

ME: All the stuff I need to Specify the job.

Q: Like what?

ME: Like hardware codes, colours, finishes…um, it’s actually listed there.

Q: Do you think the form should be on yellow paper?

ME: I’m not really too worried about it, as long as I can read it.

Q: Right then. What should we have on it?

ME: Well, that list…


And that was only ten minutes out of a 2 ½ hour meeting.

4 comments:

exile said...

omfg, did we used to work together?

you're living la vida dilbert

SkookumJoe said...

mate, I have worked in every industry from restaurants to construction to radio, big factories and one man shows....and I have NEVER encountered such an utterly dysfunctional operation.

They brought in a consultant to "fix things" on a six month contract...he now has an office.

Anonymous said...

The dumb get dumber. I'm going to stick my finger in a light socket, and wait for my advancement to CEO.

SkookumJoe said...

just to update: the guy hired as a consultant got fired. They had him doing other stuff, then fired him for not doing what they hired him for.

It was bound to happen...he was too normal to work there.