Introduction
For the last 13 years, I’ve worked as a Technical Writer and Web Developer. I had a brief hiatus for three years when I went back to get my Master’s degree. When people ask what I do, I usually say I create web sites because that requires less explanation than the “real” answer. I spent the first half of my career with the same company, a small firm in the Sacramento area. The company itself had only been around for a few years when they hired me, so I had the pleasure of seeing the business grow and being a part of it. I also got the opportunity to meet a lot of “interesting” clients and go through some experiences that almost have to be lived to believe. As I move on in my career, I often look back at my experiences to see what kind of humor or lessons can be taken from them. I think most of us can share stories about difficult co-workers, unreasonable clients, and bosses who don’t always know what’s really going on. I know in my 13 years, I’ve experienced a little bit of everything. These stories are meant to help us find the humor in our work lives. After all, we spend a lot of our time, and lives, at work, so we might as well laugh about it. The names have been changed to protect the innocent as well as the guilty.
“By the way, we added some skills to your resume.”
One of the companies I worked for had two sides to the business: a project side and recruiting side. I worked on the project side and spent most of my time at the office working on five to ten projects at a time. But on occasion, I’d be sent to a client site to do some consulting. One day, my project manager told me I was going to a client site to scope out a new project. I was most likely the one that would be working on it, and I’d be over there a few days a week for a few months. I arrived at the client’s office and asked for “John,” the HR manager at the company. John came out and we talked for a few minutes, then he started showing me around the office. I thought to myself, “Hmm, why is he giving me a tour when I’m just here to find out what the project is?” Red flag #1 went up in my head.
“This is where you’ll be working,” John said, pointing to a cubicle near his office. “The computer already has our software and the Java development tools loaded.” Ok, red flag #2 and 3 went up.
“Oh, Sue didn’t say the project was being done in Java,” I said.
“Really? I know I told her about it when I sent her the skill set for this job,” John replied. Red flag #4. “Have you worked in Java before?”
“Honestly, no I haven’t. I’ve worked in JavaScript, but they are entirely different languages. Maybe Sue just got confused when she was looking at the skill set.” I was now beginning to sweat.
“Wow, that’s really strange. I could have sworn Sue said you were familiar with Java and C#,” John said.
He was beginning to look a little irritated by now and my fifth red flag had gone up. I didn’t know what the hell was going on, but I knew it wasn’t good.
“Well,” John started, “I’m sure it’ll be fine. We usually work an 8-5 shift and take an hour for lunch. Why don’t you go ahead and take your lunch now, and when you come back, we can get started.”
Shit! This guy actually thought I was supposed to be going to work for him today. That sure as hell wasn’t what I was told. I calmly nodded my head, went out to my car, and dialed my project manager as fast as I could.
“Hello, this is Wendy.”
“Wendy, it’s Erin. We’ve got a big problem,” I sighed. “I don’t know what Sue told you, but this guy expects me to start work today. And I don’t even have the skills needed for this job. What the hell is going on?”
After explaining the situation, Wendy told me she was going to talk to Sue and Mark, the head of recruiting who had put this together in the first place. She said she’d call me back as soon as possible. After about 20 minutes she called.
“Ok, I hate to do this to you, but you’re going to have to explain to John that there’s been a mistake and you can’t work on the project. Tell him that Sue will contact him later and that we will find someone for him ASAP. Then just get back here and we’ll talk.”
I got off the phone and waited for the lunch hour to be over. I went back to John’s office and explained the situation to him. He was not happy. Fortunately, he didn’t hold me responsible for the screw up. I apologized on behalf of the company and told him Sue would contact him this afternoon to work something out.
When I got back to the office, Wendy, Mark, Sue, and I went into the conference room to discuss what had happened. Mark was of course pissed at me because I “should have been able to do the project.”
“I’m not sure why they even thought I was qualified for the project,” I said.
“Well, we updated your resume to include some of the skills they were looking for,” Mark explained. “Isn’t Java close to JavaScript? We thought we’d just get you in there to find out about the project while we looked for someone else. Then we were going to tell them that we had to pull you off, but had found a replacement.”
Yeah, because that’s so ethical, I thought to myself.
“Just for future reference, Java and JavaScript aren’t even close to being the same language,” I said. “And in the future, don’t send my resume out with information that isn’t accurate.”
That was the end of my involvement in the fiasco. But it wouldn’t be the last time Mark caused us problems with a client.