From theTrenches

I work in a "happy" industry. Lately, it doesn't make me very happy.

Oh, sure, on some days work is nice. I speak kindly to people who well deserve a little kindness; I treat gently the people I can't help at all; I approve favors and get things DONE... I am productive and useful and I AM WOMAN -- hear me roar! Other days, however, I am forced to deal with lapses or delays I cannot easily correct; get hammered for things my company may or may not be responsible for; stalked by people I cannot assist; verbally battered by folks who cannot take "no" for an answer. On some (especially long) days, I fight all manner of internal and external circumstances to do one good deed, only to find someone else has already done it or the account no longer wants it.

This is our peak season, my high tide of professional flotsam and jetsam. The demands and the oversights and the corrections rise up daily, such that I spend hours at a stretch, working only to tread water. And it's not just any peak season, either. It's actually a "Perfect Storm" kind of season, when walls of water form a coliseum around us and we realize the only (unlikely) way out is through one continuous, exhausting fight.

So strange, the public perception of what we do versus the reality. I used to meet people on airplanes who would ask, "And what is it you do?" I'd tell them them and -- without fail -- all the women would say, "Well, that must be fun!"

It's not really so fun.

Mostly... lately... and for a while to come, it is problems and stress and problems and ulcers and problems and drama and problems. It sure ain't hearts and flowers, folks.

Last week, as an axample, I said "NO" so many times, I started shooting it out randomly, like I had Turrets. "Do you want dinner?" "NOO!" I guess I was practicing getting the word out, because when I needed it with my accounts, I first had to interrupt them, then use my best intimidate-the-wayward-child voice. "No, that is not possible." And still, many refused to hear me or to stop lashing me or to simply move on.

(As an aside: I don't even understand why people ask things that amount to "will you NOT make any money so that I can impress someone with my inability to follow rules, and will you kiss my behind while you're not doing that?")

Oh, and I haven't even mentioned the "yesses." I've also had to say "yes" to things I dislike, things that are really not good for my company, more times than I care to count. Because some mistakes we make are bad enough, we must do whatever required of us to make amends.

This is what it's like, these days, at my desk. And maybe all of this is why, when I noticed the following comment in a tech-support email from my company's web site, I laughed like there's no tomorrow.

-----Original Message-----
Please , PLEASE > > have mercy on me, I am considering eloping.... > weddings are > > just > > a pain in the ass.
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