When excitement turns to frustration
Feb. 25th, 2014 02:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
batskeetsSO. Let me tell you about how things have been with my new project manager.
They started out GREAT. Better than great. She's a smart cookie and has some great ideas. She's already helped me make improvements to my proposal format, which I am so so SO grateful for, because I knew I wanted it to be better, but I just didn't know how. She figured it out, and it's so much better.
And, she's added some steps to our client intake process, made project tracking spreadsheets, and a lot of other things that have been super-helpful. She had the answers to everything I didn't know about process, and it felt like things were actually starting to click together.
And then, her soon-to-be-former business partners decided to make their amicable separation into a not-so-amicable one, and now lawyers have been brought into the mix. And, said business partners are throwing upsetting calls and e-mails at her, and coming by her house to have heated discussions about it with her.
And then, her visiting friends took off with her car for an entire day, without telling her they were doing so.
And then, her internet decided to break right before a call with one of my clients, and is apparently still broken. (we managed to work around that for the purposes of the meeting, thanks to some frantically-forwarded e-mails, at least)
And then, within an hour of that, somebody hit her car, and she basically had a panic attack by the side of the road. And then, the doctors gave her meds to calm her down that were way too strong, and that knocked her out asleep for a good 24 hours.
And now, her sister's in the hospital and might lose her baby.
Since then, it's been a good week-and-a-half since I've heard about any actual work happening on her end. I've e-mailed and texted her multiple times, just to check in and see how she's doing, and to ask her where things are at. I've been chill about it, and offered help, and said to let me know if there's anywhere that my assistant or I can jump in to help out, while she gets things sorted. But, more than anything, I've just been asking for an update on where things are at. The most I've been able to get out of her is a couple of updates about what's happening with her personally--I heard the last bit about her sister's illness via text--and promises from her about jumping back into things ASAP. But, I've heard nary a peep from her about what's actually happening with her task list. So, I can only assume that NOTHING is happening with her task list.
I really, really don't want to be a dick about this, because she's basically had the worst run of luck ever over the past two weeks, and you know? I'd probably be an incredible mess under those circumstances, too. I've been a twitchy and miserable sack of madness over less than that, in the past.
But on the other hand, I NEED A FRIGGIN' UPDATE. I'm not even asking her to do anything in particular, I just want to know what has already been done and what hasn't, so I at least have some hope of picking up the slack. I picked up a lot of new clients, which is great, but I don't know who's heard what, or what resources we've asked for, or anything else. The whole point of my having a project manager is because I CAN'T DO ALL OF THIS MYSELF.
There's also a part of my brain that's wondering if maybe she's the type of person for whom there's always something coming up, and that it may not ever stop. I don't want to assume that, but I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't starting to wonder. It's really not a good feeling. :(
We may have a mutual acquaintance whom I can ask about it, so I might do that to at least try and get a better sense of things. I'm going to be so, so disappointed if things don't work out, because there were so many things about this lady that were exactly what my business needed. And she seems like a good fit as a person, too. I really, really want this to work, and I do have metric tons of patience.
But right now, I'm getting pretty damned frustrated, and I really don't need to be freaking out about my clients potentially thinking that we're ignoring them, when I have TT tryouts in less than a week.
They started out GREAT. Better than great. She's a smart cookie and has some great ideas. She's already helped me make improvements to my proposal format, which I am so so SO grateful for, because I knew I wanted it to be better, but I just didn't know how. She figured it out, and it's so much better.
And, she's added some steps to our client intake process, made project tracking spreadsheets, and a lot of other things that have been super-helpful. She had the answers to everything I didn't know about process, and it felt like things were actually starting to click together.
And then, her soon-to-be-former business partners decided to make their amicable separation into a not-so-amicable one, and now lawyers have been brought into the mix. And, said business partners are throwing upsetting calls and e-mails at her, and coming by her house to have heated discussions about it with her.
And then, her visiting friends took off with her car for an entire day, without telling her they were doing so.
And then, her internet decided to break right before a call with one of my clients, and is apparently still broken. (we managed to work around that for the purposes of the meeting, thanks to some frantically-forwarded e-mails, at least)
And then, within an hour of that, somebody hit her car, and she basically had a panic attack by the side of the road. And then, the doctors gave her meds to calm her down that were way too strong, and that knocked her out asleep for a good 24 hours.
And now, her sister's in the hospital and might lose her baby.
Since then, it's been a good week-and-a-half since I've heard about any actual work happening on her end. I've e-mailed and texted her multiple times, just to check in and see how she's doing, and to ask her where things are at. I've been chill about it, and offered help, and said to let me know if there's anywhere that my assistant or I can jump in to help out, while she gets things sorted. But, more than anything, I've just been asking for an update on where things are at. The most I've been able to get out of her is a couple of updates about what's happening with her personally--I heard the last bit about her sister's illness via text--and promises from her about jumping back into things ASAP. But, I've heard nary a peep from her about what's actually happening with her task list. So, I can only assume that NOTHING is happening with her task list.
I really, really don't want to be a dick about this, because she's basically had the worst run of luck ever over the past two weeks, and you know? I'd probably be an incredible mess under those circumstances, too. I've been a twitchy and miserable sack of madness over less than that, in the past.
But on the other hand, I NEED A FRIGGIN' UPDATE. I'm not even asking her to do anything in particular, I just want to know what has already been done and what hasn't, so I at least have some hope of picking up the slack. I picked up a lot of new clients, which is great, but I don't know who's heard what, or what resources we've asked for, or anything else. The whole point of my having a project manager is because I CAN'T DO ALL OF THIS MYSELF.
There's also a part of my brain that's wondering if maybe she's the type of person for whom there's always something coming up, and that it may not ever stop. I don't want to assume that, but I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't starting to wonder. It's really not a good feeling. :(
We may have a mutual acquaintance whom I can ask about it, so I might do that to at least try and get a better sense of things. I'm going to be so, so disappointed if things don't work out, because there were so many things about this lady that were exactly what my business needed. And she seems like a good fit as a person, too. I really, really want this to work, and I do have metric tons of patience.
But right now, I'm getting pretty damned frustrated, and I really don't need to be freaking out about my clients potentially thinking that we're ignoring them, when I have TT tryouts in less than a week.
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no subject
Date: 2014-02-26 01:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-26 01:52 am (UTC)But, yeah, I don't know. I like to take people at face value. And, the aforementioned mutual acquaintance said that she's awesome and totally the person I want to manage the design/web side of things. And that's after he himself interviewed for the position and I didn't give it to him b/c his background was mainly in photography. Still, yeah, I think it might be worth seeing if he has any insight.
no subject
Date: 2014-02-26 08:23 pm (UTC)That said - it's a new job, and she's a project manager. She should be able to give you a situation report at one point, especially after being asked for one. That's not a great sign. I hope it's just because she's flustered. :/
no subject
Date: 2014-02-26 06:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-26 06:40 pm (UTC)My boss and I actually had a discussion about this when I told him that I was being sued for the accident a few years ago. I freaked out and we talked about this very thing.
That being said, it DOES sound like too many things happened to come up at the exact same moment...which CAN happen, but, that's kind of odd. But, not to get any business updates, makes my own BS meter go off loudly.
Hopefully, everything comes together for her. And you.
no subject
Date: 2014-02-27 04:25 pm (UTC)