Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Consulting Horror Stories: Part Deux, The Supervisor

Story 2: The Supervisor

Background: The story you are about to read is real. Only the names have been changed; to protect the innocent, er..um, the guilty. The scene is 2001 and this consultant has been working on four projects simultaneously. Stressed, this consultant decides upon a vacation. Concerned about the week ahead, consultant works furiously to do additional work before leaving on vacation.

Setting: My Office, Supervisor Office, 2001

Participants: Me, Supervisor

Monday Morning:

Me: Supervisor, I’d like to take a week vacation.

Supervisor: Sounds good, go ahead!!

Tuesday – Friday : (Me works crazy hours on four projects to ensure all work is completed prior to departure. Spends in excess of 12 hours / day during week to complete documents and meet with developers so no ambiguity exists and that Me isn’t the stove pipe in the system)

Vacation Week: Enjoys week off knowing that all work has been done and that Me is not going to be the person who leaves work undone in an absence and causes issues to people doing their work. For Me’s first “real job”, Me is feeling responsible, important and needed and overall mature.

Week Following Vacation: After taking time off, Me returns to work eager to see how Me’s efforts have helped the team even in Me’s absence. Me gets into office early, checks emails, follows up with developers and catches up on work. Me has been in the office since 7:00am.

8:00pm:

Me: (walks to Supervisor’s office. Knocks on open door) Supervisor?

Supervisor: Yes.

Me: Do you have a moment?

Supervisor: (sighs) Yes.

Me: With me being gone all last week I wanted to see how I did in preparing for being out of the office. I did a lot of extra work to ensure that I wasn’t a roadblock to the project and wanted to make sure that I did not cause any issues b/c of the work I did or that I was gone and didn’t provide anyone with what they needed.

Supervisor: You know, we don’t need you.

Me: um…What?

Supervisor: We don’t need you.

Me: (confused) umm..all I wanted to do was to make sure I didn’t do anything that caused any issues to anyone.

Supervisor: We don’t need you.

Me:(bewildered and crushed, walks out of supervisor’s office and goes home. Questions existence, importance to group and company and overall self worth)

The End.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Everyone is replaceable, right? BUT... I also think supervisors like to feel more important than THEY really are, too! Don't worry about it. I am sure you did great and it was much appreciated by those who would have been effected. Your supervisor just doesn't get the power of affirmation.

Anonymous said...

Maybe you have an overinflated sense of importance. Maybe you don;t work as hard as you think you do. Maybe your supervisor is right and you need to rethink how you work. Maybe it's not the rest of the world.

If you were that good, wouldn;t you be a supervisor?

Anonymous said...

lol. very hilarious (née horror) story it is!