Tuesday, February 9, 2010

How to be a Leader with tight deadlines

I get an e-mail forwarded to me, asking me to make a decision on how to deal with issue X as soon as possible since "we do not have much time and need to decide our direction now".

As I scan the e-mail exchange that has been going on before the forward I can see the following exchange:

Peon A mailing Peon B discussing issue X and urging him at the end to "we need to decide soon", Peon B replying back to Peon A, agreeing that there is an issue and emphasize in the end how "we have to act quickly".

Then I see a gap for a little more than a week until the mail was forwarded to me by Peon A with Peon B on cc, apparently they had talked with each other and decided that I should deal with the problem even though it's not really my area. I reply back to them both "I leave it up to you how to deal with it, but remember that time is tight so we cannot delay".
And yeah, it wasn't really urgent...

8 comments:

Chris said...

+2 for peon talk!!
I never hear that word anymore since I started working for myself.

I oughta hire someone just to call them a peon and them fire them and then re-hire them only to re-fire them on Christmas eve.
That would REALLY stroke my inner-asshole. ;)

Homes For Rent said...

Nice tips and formoulae for being a good leader with tight deadline...
Thanks for the post....

J said...

Har-de-har re: "Homes for Rent". I love those spammy comments! I like to think there is some guy with a two day beard, glazed over eyes and a massive mug of coffee on his desk, typing them out on autopilot...

Martin said...

Hey Jen!
Isn´t it sexistic to imply that HfR is a man? You girls always try to put us guys down!

(I belive HfR is a manpanzee actually.)

Mr. Salaryman said...

Chris - Yeah, get yourself a peon! Someone everyone has to talk to to get to you and then scold it whatever it does, you'll feel better!

Jen and Martin - Usually I delete spam comments, but this one actually seemed to put in some effort since it doesn't look like a robot. But I do agree with Martin, why not "some gal with a two day beard, glazed over eyes and a massive mug of coffee on his desk, typing them out on autopilot..."?

Learn English said...

Very impressive..I love your tales.. And this one is best of all I think...
Keep posting :)

Learn English said...

LMAO at Mr. Salary man

"some gal with a two day beard, glazed over eyes and a massive mug of coffee on his desk, typing them out on autopilot..."?

Jen now you should think about it...
I know many of girls who spam

J said...

Sirs. I will think long and hard.

*stares at reflection in the mirror; leans closer, whips out tweezers to pluck beard regrowth*

Related Posts with Thumbnails