January 12, 2012

How to make yourself look like a blithering idiot to the IT department....and your bosses.

Let me explain....

Technically, I work for three and one half lawyers (the half one is a lawyer - but he's at the very bottom of the totem pole and rarely asks for anything).  As I work for three and one half people, I have access to all their calendars to keep them on track....theoretically....especially since one particular lawyer sometimes doesn't share the information in his head with me OR his calendar; but that's a story for another day.

My company has recently upgraded all of our systems and as a result, our calendaring system is quite different from the way it had been for YEARS.....as in the last ten....give or take a decade or so.

It has been taking some getting used to while looking at them.

Today, I was asked by Lawyer #1 to schedule a meeting.  So I looked at his calendar and saw that the whole day he was asking about was completely free.  So I booked the meeting.  Good.  All is right with the world.

Now, generally, I book all meetings through MY calendar so that I can get alarms about the meetings so I can  gently remind the one or two lawyers that might "forget" where they are supposed to go.  For whatever reason, I booked this particular appointment through his calendar.

A few minutes later, I went into my calendar and noticed that there was already a meeting scheduled for that particular time on MY calendar FOR him at the same time as the meeting I'd just scheduled.  So I clicked over to his calendar to see where I'd missed it.  That meeting wasn't on the calendar - only the one I'd just booked was.

In the back of my head, I vaguely remembered this particular lawyer complaining that his computer and his Blackberry weren't synching and that appointments weren't showing up on one or the other.  The reason I say vaguely is because, for once, he didn't get me involved and dealt with it himself.

So my first thought was that something was up with his computer again (as a result of clicking on those virus-laden links maybe?!).  So I did what any rational, sane human being would do - I called the Help Desk.

In a panic.....because ESPECIALLY with this lawyer, I need to be on top of that calendar.

I informed them that something was very, very, VERY wrong and that some of this lawyer's appointments weren't showing up on my screen.  This needed to be fixed ASAP!

She asked exactly what I was looking for and told me she'd get one of the techs to look into it and call me back.  Meanwhile, I began frantically re-scheduling the less important meeting.

Eventually she called me back.

Only to inform me that the reason I couldn't see the appointment was because I'd scheduled it for the following Friday......and that I was looking at THIS Friday's calendar.

And THAT is how I have now become the laughingstock of the IT department....and made one of my bosses think I'd completely lost my mind for randomly re-scheduling meetings for no good reason.

I'm thinking I need a vacation already.

12 comments:

  1. LOL! You were just practicing with the newly upgraded systems, right? You knew what you were doing the entire time. LOL! Did you laugh at yourself or curse yourself? LOL!

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  2. Hey, in my books you were being pro-active a fixing a problem. Besides IT will move onto someone else by tomorrow!

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  3. Don't be too hard on yourself, it's the kind of mistakes everybody makes now and then. Glad you have a sense of humor... :-)

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  4. It'll be okay. Someone else will screw up worse and take your place in the IT Hall Of Shame. LOL!

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  5. Every year, on this day, I shall rub this in your face, you brazen appointment-changer you!

    For I too have fallen foul of such a person as yourself. I franticly prepared myself and all my printouts, info-sheets and strategy plan only to turn up at the meeting one whole week early.

    Everyone had been rescheduled except me!

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  6. If it makes you feel better - as someone who works in IT, that is not even close to the most embarrassing thing I've seen. ;)

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  7. I didn't comment on this? I read it as soon as you posted it, I wonder what was sooo pressing that I couldn't leave my beloved Gigi a comment? *sigh*

    I seriously doubt that you were the talk of IT's lunch hour. I'm sure much bigger, much more head-spinning things have been done. They were probably thankful that you showed yourself to be human because they were starting to get a complex.

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  8. IT needs a good laugh now and then. But truly, you did right by following up on the problem.

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  9. I have been there, my friend, time and time again. As have we all. Hey, at least you were trying to be on top of things.

    I was at the dry cleaner recently and the attendant asked for my number. I said to her, "I have no idea what my number is." Because seriously, who knows their dry cleaning number?

    She said, "You don't know your number?"

    And that's when I got indignant and was all, "No I DON'T!"

    All of a sudden my daughter hissed, "Mom, she means your PHONE number."

    Oops.

    So, it happens.

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  10. I can't keep up with my own appointmnts, if i had to do it for other people they would be forever late or missing completely.

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  11. Hey woman! Just wanted to stop by and thank you for your very kind comment on my blog. It made me smile!

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