In search of relief

Monday's deadline on the patient floor renovation on WLH was marred by Jann bringing in a bunch of redlines on a progress set (coulda used those a day earlier) as well as her downloading some of the drawings and made some changes, but she did it in a different version of the software so it botched the drawing format. It was also botched by Wayne suddenly deciding to review some drawings and making comments, half of which I'd already thought of and picked up, oh, about 72 hours ago. We ended up getting the printer late in the afternoon and getting the drawings first thing this morning. Arnie and I put the drawings--around 30 rolls of heavy-ass drawings--in Wayne's SUV to be delivered to a pricing meeting, while he...I don't know. Fucked around somewhere in the building.

Look, I have no problem doing "lowly" tasks, but it rankles me when I do stuff like that for people that don't seem to be interested in doing the same for me. I resent it because I get the distinct impression from Wayne's behavior over the past few years that putting drawings in someone's car is beneath him. I hate to break it to him, but he's not. If you're unlicensed, as he is, there is no task too low for you. Them's the breaks, buster.

So, between Norman and Dame Judith, I worked out an email to Jann in which I invited her out to lunch so that I can share with her some ideas and observations on how to make the projects go even more smoothly. I thanked her for allowing me to join her on these projects and said I enjoyed working with her, and that I'd boserved some ways in which we can make things work better.

One of these, the Dame and I decided, was to be upfront but with a polite tone of voice, that Wayne's meetings aren't that helpful for me and were a major factor in me having to work over the weekend. I can offer suggestions on how to streamline all these "meetings", and I shall, and I may also follow Derek's tack that he took with CA on a recent project. After heading up the design team on the project that he's now doing CA on (that is, watching and helping it get built), he asked Jann not to put anyone else on the project with him. As Derek put it, "It's just easier for me to spend 50 hours a week doing it right the first time than 40-60 doing my work and fixing someone else's mistakes or having to re-answer questions because they were answered wrong the first time."

Amen, Derek.