Today has been one of those days when my sense of humour has taken several hits. It can be very entertaining most days but Murphy has taken possession of our phone system (the voice mail is possessed and works sporadically), there is no way to run cable for an alarm extension without taking the ceiling out on the second floor, and several colleagues need the care and feeding of a 5-year-old. In fact, my four-year old granddaughter has more finesse than these two adults.
My first quarter has been challenging. Three funerals, sick spouse, sick grandson, vendors who make me wait forever for payment, packed and moved an office twice, and, of course, I got walking pneumonia from my spouse. When I review my journal, I am surprised considering my current physical state that I accomplished anything at all. Oh! and I wrote 4 courses (PM topics) for delivery in the next 5 weeks.
In today’s world, if you don’t respond to colleagues in under 10 seconds, you are avoiding someone. Despite the fact, that they haven’t returned emails sent in January, February, March and early April. I only asked for some time to get my pins under me again.
What caused this core dump is an email that I received accusing me of ignoring someone. To my credit, I did send an email saying that I was out of commission and would contact them when I had the time and energy. Both of which are in short supply today.
In a project environment, team members, who react to situations without reviewing all the facts, can cause the rest of us to tune you out. Whining will only make us less likely to listen to you or read your correspondence. In fact, you could get filtered to the ‘maybe I’ll get to it folder’.
The gold nugget is “never assume that anyone will adjust their expectations or behaviour based on email correspondence. Your urgency might not be mine and there are certainly elements of my life that you don’t know and aren’t entitled to know. ” In fact, if they are tactile learners, they might not even have read it. The subject line might have been enough to set them off. If I wasn’t coughing up a lung, I would make a phone call but talking is a challenge when you cough every six to eight words. So to my colleagues, trust me. I will get in touch with you as soon as I can hold an intelligent conversation without spewing germs all over the handset.
