Friday, July 15, 2011

Wednesday is now the day to prod people

Too much of my job here involves getting people to do things they don't want to do. Graduate students get back to me, and bosses return my emails. But there are other people in my work life who either can't or won't do the things I'd like them to do. I suspect that this is due to the fact that I live in Miami. Procrastinating is just the complete immersion into Miami Time (which is closely related to Cuban Time)
For example, I've been here over a year, and it took me until this week to get a working key to the graduate student office. That room requires electronic access, which means someone had to input my ID number into a computer somewhere, and someone else had to input my ID number into the door reader itself. It took me months to even figure out who was responsible for these tasks, and then uncountable numbers of emails and phone calls. This was such an effort that I actually listed "Get key card access to the graduate student office" as one of my professional goals during my first-year employment review.
I have regular reminders in my calendar so that I remember to bug all the people I need to bug. Today it occurred to me that it would be more efficient to designate one day as "The day to prod". So now, every Wednesday morning, I'm going to go down the list and gently agitate each person who's supposed to be doing something for me.

7 comments:

Gill - UK said...

Congratulations on getting your key -it took dogged persistence!
Your 'chasing up' solution sounds an efficient use of your time - do you think that designating the same half day each week could become predictable for those you are chasing?

alexis said...

Oh, my lord - I believe in general it is called Latin Time RM. How totally frustrating, but also your example of the key is sooooo hilariously true.

I must remember this when I am staring out the window at our Amsterdam "Summer" weather of 14 C and pouring rain. There are other things to balance it out!

Bernice said...

Are you going to tell the people you are "bugging" that it will happen every Wednesday until you have results?

unclem-nm said...

Here in NM where we also share in the Latin culture, we were thinking of changing our state motto to "Carpe Manana"

Jen said...

What's your new(est) e-mail address? Tried the hotmail address and it bounced back to me. Anyway, we've moved to San Antonio, and just wanted to catch up. Glad you have this blog or I would never be able to find you!! Hope you are doing well- e-mail me! Jen Rich

Renee Michelle Goertzen said...

Jen, I've sent a message to the last email I have for you. If you don't get anything, email me here: stylingwithreneemichelle@gmail.com

It's not an email address I use very often, but I'll keep an eye on it for a while.

Shaela said...

I think I miss Latin time...