Hot Potato and the E-mail Inbox....

I’ve never thought myself to be OCD in anyway, but lately I find myself consumed with my e-mail inbox. You see, I use my inbox as a sort of “to-do” list. If a matter needs to be dealt with, it stays in my inbox until it’s either been dealt with by me or had become someone else’s problem. Once it’s been addressed, it gets moved out of the inbox and into a customer specific folder. Out of sight, out of mind.  Life is good, but...

Around my workplace, it’s like a big ole game of “hot potato”. Something comes in and of course, it needs to be dealt with ASAP. Sending a response to the person immediately is the ideal course of action, but lately, I’ve noticed a new mentality forming around here. I like to call it a “stall tactic” and my boss is the king of such tactics. If you ask him a question, you will get at least three questions in return and at least one of them will send you off on a wild goose chase…to places unknown, where no one has gone before and no one will go again. Ever.

Why does he do this? Besides the fact that he’s bat-shit bananas, he does it to buy himself more time and I think he has commitment issues.  This drives me crazy because I can’t move anything from my inbox because nothing is ever finalized – it’s just stalled in limbo…in a realm between worlds.  Seriously folks, I have contracts that I’ve been working since I started here over 1 year ago and they were started 2 years previous that haven’t been finalized and they are still in my inbox!

If an inbox could grow dust, mine would have dust bunnies swirling about it and ghosts haunting the hallways.

Comments

Brindy said…
I remember in the days of paper circulating offices looking for someone to take ownership, my ex used to initial the SEP and date them and put them back in the internal post. They then got files thinking it had been dealt with. ONly, hos initials were DEW. He was using his own shorthand for 'Someone Elses Problem!'

Pity you can't find the electronic version and pass your old files on.
February 16, 2012 at 3:26 PM
raydenzel1 said…
I would think it is costly to put off those decisions.
February 16, 2012 at 5:19 PM
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