"There are no problems, things are going exactly according to plan!"

Being one of the few people in the company with decent command of the English language, I quite often get drafted into various issues where people want me to help communicate with different people in one of our overseas sites for one reason or another. Usually this is not an issue at all and things that can be really easy for me can be quite difficult for some of my colleagues, so I'm usually happy to help.

We have one ongoing project where I am involved a bit on the fringe but working together with Mr. Optimist to check on some things and help him a bit with the communication. The project is of a quite technical engineering type of which I do not really have enough competency in technical stuff to fully grasp what is going on in detail, but just have to trust that I get fed the correct information from Mr. Optimist to communicate internally.

Now, we originally aimed to ship a prototype about two months ago, but it has kept being delayed for various reasons. Every time I ask, I'm assured that things will soon revert back to the original plan and that the loss of time can be caught up with later on.

About a month ago, this was still feasible, but during this, I've started overhearing some calls to suppliers who can't deliver what we need and other problems popping up. But I am constantly "assured" that it's minor issues that will be solved and that there is no reason for concern...

I am now, however, starting to feel a bit like Baghdad Bob, trying to keep a brave face and maintain apperances while keeping the camera away from the smoke and devastation in the background... But just like Bob, until I officially get fed other information, I will maintain that things are fine until the bitter end!