You would think, wouldn't you, that a UK-based company with a worldwide reach would try to schedule its quarterly "company meeting" at a time that was reasonably convenient for everyone?
You'd think they'd have some awareness of what time it is in the Asian and South-East Asian offices. You'd think that, in deference to the fact that those of us in those regions have to stay at the office till well after 6pm every other day of the week (just to have a possible window in which to communicate with them) but try to head out at a more civilized 5pm or 5.30pm on Fridays, they wouldn't schedule it on a Friday, would they? Well, you'd think they would at least try to get it out of the way before the end of British Summer Time stretches the time difference from 7 hours to 8. And you'd think that they'd do their best to make an early start in the UK, so as not to keep us too late into the evening.
You'd think so, wouldn't you? But no.
They waited until the week after the reversion to GMT, and then fixed the meeting for 10am on Friday, UK time. Or 6pm here in wintry Beijing. Lovely.
And we got exactly 24 hours' notice of this.
Am I there? Of course not. I feigned ignorance, did a runner at 5.45pm, and came straight home to blog out my rage.
After all, I figure it's just going to be an entirely missable 40 or 50 minutes of......
"...... and we must congratulate Tina on her new baby........ and three cheers for Damon for once again clinching our quarterly 'Over-Achiever Award', by accomplishing six impossible things before breakfast....... and sadly we must say goodbye to Brian, who's leaving us to get a real job....."
And so on, and so forth. Actually, when I put it like that, it almost sounds as though it might have been worth staying for. Nah!
9 comments:
ack! I have soo much to say on this subject, which as the recipient of the majority of my "she called a meeting at 6pm on a Friday! Who calls a meeting at 6pm on Friday?? Start without me." texts, you well know.
but I'll refrain on the verbose expression of my office angst, for now, and, instead, will just go out and do all the things I'd much rather be doing at 6pm on a Friday...
The basic rule of my life is that nothing good can come from going to Ken's office after 3 pm on a Friday. Hence I do all my communication with him by phone/email after that point.
However, in a less charitable mode, Froog, I am going to call you on being a whiny bitch! Do you think the Raj was built on local time? Did Clive not whip the Frenchies on Greenwich Mean Time? When one is away from the mother country spreading civilization to the natives, one has to make sacrifices.
That and the fact that in the first 5 days this week I have billed 68 hours, which makes a 6 pm meeting seem like freaking paradise.
only 68? you aren't really just 4 weeks from trial, are you? ;)
Oh gawd, 6pm meeting start. Too bad. Glad you walked!
We just submitted the trial exhibit list, Tulsa. Next week is the joy of jury instructions, counter deposition designations, objections to their exhibit list, and Vandy being only one win away from being bowl eligible...
Cowboy, I've no idea if Clive kept his pocket-watch on UK time for sentimental reasons, but he certainly didn't operate on that time in a practical sense when subjugating ("civilizing"??) the natives. Before the tyranny of mass communications technology, this particular variety of inconsiderateness did not exist.
Give me cause, and I will whine.
Not that I want to be challenging you to even greater feats of no-LIFE-for-me-ness, Cowboy, but when I was working for that law firm in Canada we had one junior partner who billed 330 hours in a single month. He did work ridiculously hard. He did have no life. But he did also have TWO CLOCKS on the go simultaneously a lot of the time (or charged his interns' research hours as his own - naughty!).
But really, this is a pissing competition you should not be getting into.
So, you are telling me to be impressed by someone who committed multiple criminal offenses in order to bill a lot. I will probably be at 300 hours in November without double billing...
It's probably just the one offence, committed multipe times, isn't it?
And no, I was saying don't get into this pissing contest. Bragging about your billable hours - whether billed by fair means or foul - is a mug's game.
Post a Comment