The hardest thing about my job.

Cin and I were talking last night about the hardest parts of our jobs. For her it's not being overwhelmed by work - meeting deadlines and conducting investigations as fast as possible.

I couldn't really think of anything because my job is super easy. It's mostly paperwork. Then it hit me: the hardest part of my job is dealing with my boss's mistakes.

He's very good with people - very persuasive and personable and friendly. But he's a piss poor administrator. Disorganized, really bad memory, hasty and, most of all, he makes poor decisions.

So at my work there is a constant cleaning up of messes. I'm often the one who gets the job of cleaning up the pile of crap.

Example 1.

We're moving offices. My boss was in charge of organizing the phones. Instead of making a phone call to the cable company, going to VOIP and keeping our numbers. He decides to transfer our account over with Telus, who tells we get different phone numbers and says we can't use our $1500 phones they sold us a few months ago because they don't have digital lines where we're going. For 2 weeks he proceeds to email and talk to 3 different Telus people, including a guy from India, before giving up and dumping it on my lap the day before we move. His instructions to me: "Just make sure it's all working by Monday!" I spend a morning making phone calls and figuring it all out. I get everything working in the end.

Example 2.

He tells our future landlord we need 2 rooms because we have so much junk. The landlord tells us a week before that we only get one room. I suggest to the boss that since we don't have enough space, we continue to keep off site storage. The boss disagrees. A week later I see the single room and again tell the boss it's too small. We should keep our storage space. The boss dismisses the idea and says, "We'll just have to fit it in."

Here are pictures of the move. The extra stuff is in the hallway. My boss goes on vacation and leaves me in charge of cleaning up the mess. Literally. That is all.