Back in the day I worked with my pal Sam who, at any point in the work day, could be heard muttering under her breath “whatever happened to attention to detail?” As the years went by I started to completely understand what she was going on about – those small details that some people are to “busy” to note or they are to “overwhelmed” to bother with. You know the type – those harried co-workers who like to spend at least fourty minutes a day bitching about how busy they are and how they are soooo over worked and how they can’t get to their work (some even lodging these complaints as they put on their coats to go outside for their mandatory smoke break. Gads!) Yes, you know I have to say it: How about spending the fourty minute bitch time actually doing the work you are bitching about instead? Hummm, novel idea.
The best one, and one of my listed peeves, are those people who are given a job or project at work and they use the excuse that they have to do this job “at the side of their desk”. Really? I have always wanted to ask these people why they can’t do the project in the middle of their desk since it’s clearly work they were given and clearly their boss/manager requires them to do it. I am pretty sure the boss/manager doesn’t give a crap what part of your desk you do the work on as long as it gets done. Wait……. I think I went off. Anyway, this whole thing came up today in particular because there were a couple of pleasant email in my inbox this morning that made me swear I could hear Sam two desks away going on about those details people so often don’t have time for: Lets just say that before someone beaks off about a co-worker making mistakes and not doing their job properly one might want to spend a teeny, tiny bit of time checking that they are in fact right (and in this case looking at the spreadsheet that is dated December – not November) and let me just ask if anyone has ever received an email from someone who can clealy see your name embodied in your email address or in your signature line and they still spell your name wrong or type out a name that is completely different than the one you use every day? Attention to detail or just not giving a crap? Jury’s out.
