General Vent

Know what drives me nuts? Getting blasted for things that are not, and never were, my responsibility. 

 

I can, and do, and will take responsibility for my own actions. If I do a good job, I will accept the praise (as long as it doesn’t involve a big embarrassing hooplah). If I screw up, I will admit to the screw up, and do my damnedest to turn the problem into a non-problem. 

 

If I agree to coordinate the efforts of others, I can, and do, and will take responsibility for managing the process. And there’s the rub. There’s a huge difference between “managing the process” and “taking responsibility for each and every facet of the process.” It means that if I tell someone that I will have my part done by a particular date, I will do everything in my power to make that happen. And if for some reason it looks unlikely, I will inform the key figures in advance, and work on some sort of alternative to avoid problems down the line. It also means that I expect for other people to do the same. 

 

Screw ups happen. Unforeseen circumstances happen. And when they do, we all need to work together as a team to solve the problem. This is my approach not only at work, but in life. I may not always come across as a warm-fuzzy people-person (because truth be told, I’m just not), but when I end up in a situation where I have to work with other people, I really am one helluva team player. 

 

But when somebody else blatantly drops the ball, and I have absolutely no power whatsoever to turn the problem that they caused into a non-problem, I do not take kindly to being blasted for what ultimately is another person’s irresponsibility. 

 

Nobody likes to get chewed out. But typically, it is a karmic debt to be paid. If I screw up, I will suck it up and take my lumps. But when I am getting chewed out inappropriately, I will stand up for myself – especially if the person who is attempting to do the chewing out did not bother to put two and two together prior to lecturing me.

 

People call me anal-retentive for a reason. After many years of being insulted by the term, I have come to embrace it. I AM an organized person. I really DO have my shit together. And I take a lot of pride in the fact that this is an extremely useful and somewhat rare skill. 

 

I do not and will not take credit for another person’s great idea, successful negotiation, or triumph. Don’t expect me to take the blame for somebody else’s screw-up.