People Who Piss Me Off

Officially you can file this one under People Who Piss Me Off, but i'm sure this is a universal occurrence that makes us all quite ragey.

I'm at work and get an email from a counterpart in another city. Same company, same business, but this guy is located in Ottawa. I don't work for him, nor does he work for me. We both do the same type of work, which is probably why he emailed me.

He says he's working on a project, and urgently requires some items in order for him to complete said project. Yaay for me! I get to help someone else do their job! Hooray!

Now, I should note that the items he's after are items that I may have possibly used in a previous project that I worked on several months ago. So, it's fair that he's asking for some assistance in order to save him some time. After all, we're all on the same team, and try to help each other out when we can.

Fine.

However, in these instances, what is not fine is when you commit the offences this guy did. Within his email he writes two things that Piss Me Off. First, he gives me a deadline. A very, very tight deadline. He asks me to send him the materials "today". The materials he is asking for would take approximately 4 hours to gather, and another 3 hours for them to be physically sent (through the magic of fibre optics). And oh, the timestamp on his email? 4:02pm. And he wants this all by the end of day.

Then comes the second offence.

He mentions, casually of course, that he's working on this project for two particular people. Who are these people? Well, one is at a Director level. Now in most organizations, when you are asked to work on a project for a Director, and you yourself are not a Director, you don't question it. You simply remover your pants, bend over and try to relax your sphincter.

And the other person he's working on this project for? The other person, my dear friends, is none other than the top honcho in our whole organization, whom in our case happens to be the the Vice President!

So, a subliminal message is clearly being sent that not only am I expected to do this mofo's work for him, but to do this mofo's work for him according to the deadline that he has so courteously provided for me. How nice of him!

It's a cliche, but i'll use it here:

A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.