At work, would I get in trouble for this short cut

[swbsam]

A co-worker who's slightly senior asks me, two days ago, about making him 100 dvds for a conference he's going to today. I'll go with cliffs:

1. He tells me on Wednesday evening that he would like 100 promo dvds for a conference (I'm the web manager/ video guy around here)

2. I tell him that I would try to get it sourced but that, since the timing is tight, we may have to do it in house. I call two companies we use, they can't do it in the time frame (they're booked)

3. I tell him that it takes a while to burn and label each disk and that i'd try my best to get this done

4. yesterday is filled with a mail server issue that needed to be resolved asap so I wasn't even able to get the supplies until after lunch time

5. I've been burning non-stop and only have 50 done so far and printing onto the cd itself will take way too long, so I'm printing on the sleeves

6. It won't be the professional output he wanted, plus I'll be short about 20 dvds (I have to mail out in a few hours to make it)..

Should I attach a note, apologizing for the short cut but stating that I required more headsup? Or shoudl I just be mum about it, send the dvds and call it a day?

 

[LS8]

I wouldn't say anything. If he makes a stink just politely reply that you did what you could with the alloted time and that mission critical systems take priority over last minute projects.

I don't see what he could be angry about.

 

[Uppsala9496]

Tell him that given the timeframe you had, that was the best you could do.
Not saying anything makes it come across that you didn't care.

 

[hiromizu]

I would've told the moran that it couldn't be done. You suck at task management!

 

[Capt Caveman]

Inform him. And use UPS or FedEx for the last 20 dvds since they do late pick-up.

 

[OCGuy]

Hey asshole, when I say 100, I mean 100. Now get your ass back in your cubicle and burn my DVDs, or you will go back to resetting people's tool bars and fixing outlook.

 

[swbsam]

Originally posted by: hiromizu
I would've told the moran that it couldn't be done. You suck at task management!

I'm not justifying anything, but it's his nature. EVERYONE complains about his tendency to tell us about necessary tasks at the last possible moment.

He gets away with it because, yes, a promo dvd is a very good idea... But he should have asked me last week.. He gets shit about his last minute nature all the time and just brushes it off, but he's honestly worth more to the company than me so, well, I'm not going to get into a fight over this.

 

[udneekgnim]

personally, I'd go with the apology and explain the timing issue

then again, at my work place, I'm not very afraid of telling the truth, and I'm sure this type of mentality varies by work place

 

[JS80]

kinkos?

 

[swbsam]

Originally posted by: JS80
kinkos?

That's what I said... You know, I'll mention that on the note - if he'd like our logo printed on the dvd that he could go to kinkos.

 

[Vehemence]

You're already fired, you just don't know it yet!

 

[clamum]

Originally posted by: Ocguy31
Hey asshole, when I say 100, I mean 100. Now get your ass back in your cubicle and burn my DVDs, or you will go back to resetting people's tool bars and fixing outlook.

Hahaha!

I'd include a note saying that I was sorry I couldn't get them all done, but I had a critical issue to deal with on Wednesday and I got as much as I could done.

 

[her209]

Tell him you just got back from buying a speedboat.

 

[nakedfrog]

Failure to plan on your part emergency mine blah blah blah

 

[rudeguy]

Call him and see what he would prefer?

 

[DnetMHZ]

See my sig...

 

[swbsam]

Originally posted by: nakedfrog
Failure to plan on your part emergency mine blah blah blah

Well, burning 100 dvds isn't really in my job description. My job would have been to burn the master (or ftp over to our duplicator) and dropped it at that point.

i was doing beyond what I should to help him out..

We don't have the tools for dvd duplication. I'm using my freakin' macbook, so I don't really think it's a failulre to plan on my part. It was a failure to give adequate lead time on his part.

 

[hiromizu]

Originally posted by: swbsam

Originally posted by: hiromizu
I would've told the moran that it couldn't be done. You suck at task management!

I'm not justifying anything, but it's his nature. EVERYONE complains about his tendency to tell us about necessary tasks at the last possible moment.

He gets away with it because, yes, a promo dvd is a very good idea... But he should have asked me last week.. He gets shit about his last minute nature all the time and just brushes it off, but he's honestly worth more to the company than me so, well, I'm not going to get into a fight over this.

So why do you take on the task of guaranteed failure? That makes you a failure...Otherwise you could have assertively told him how long it'll take which isn't that hard to figure out.

A Macbook eh? Should've told him it'd take you 2 weeks and a few replacement laptops to geeder dunn.

 

[swbsam]

Originally posted by: hiromizu

Originally posted by: swbsam

Originally posted by: hiromizu
I would've told the moran that it couldn't be done. You suck at task management!

I'm not justifying anything, but it's his nature. EVERYONE complains about his tendency to tell us about necessary tasks at the last possible moment.

He gets away with it because, yes, a promo dvd is a very good idea... But he should have asked me last week.. He gets shit about his last minute nature all the time and just brushes it off, but he's honestly worth more to the company than me so, well, I'm not going to get into a fight over this.

So why do you take on the task of guaranteed failure? That makes you a failure...Otherwise you could have assertively told him how long it'll take which isn't that hard to figure out.

I said that I'd try, because it needed to be done and I'm the guy who would be best suited for the attempt.

But you are right in that i was a little intimidated and bit off more than I could chew... The dude's like crazy intense - it's hard to turn him down!

P.S. I'm a wuss

 

[LS8]

Originally posted by: swbsam

Originally posted by: nakedfrog
Failure to plan on your part emergency mine blah blah blah

Well, burning 100 dvds isn't really in my job description. My job would have been to burn the master (or ftp over to our duplicator) and dropped it at that point.

i was doing beyond what I should to help him out..

We don't have the tools for dvd duplication. I'm using my freakin' macbook, so I don't really think it's a failulre to plan on my part. It was a failure to give adequate lead time on his part.

You misunderstood his statement. He was quoting, or attempting to quote an old saying:

"A failure to plan on your part does not constitute and emergency on my part."

It's basically a nice way of telling the guy who asked you to make the DVDs to go jump off a bridge.

 

[ed21x]

well, printing the labels isn't a difficult task, but burning the DVD's should be something that you can ask other people to help you with since it's so time intensive. Doesn't your office have a ton of computers?

 

[swbsam]

Originally posted by: LS8

Originally posted by: swbsam

Originally posted by: nakedfrog
Failure to plan on your part emergency mine blah blah blah

Well, burning 100 dvds isn't really in my job description. My job would have been to burn the master (or ftp over to our duplicator) and dropped it at that point.

i was doing beyond what I should to help him out..

We don't have the tools for dvd duplication. I'm using my freakin' macbook, so I don't really think it's a failulre to plan on my part. It was a failure to give adequate lead time on his part.

You misunderstood his statement. He was quoting, or attempting to quote an old saying:

"A failure to plan on your part does not constitute and emergency on my part."

It's basically a nice way of telling the guy who asked you to make the DVDs to go jump off a bridge.

GOT it.. Thanks for the clarification, that does make sense.. Backbone.. growing.. slowly..

 

[swbsam]

Originally posted by: ed21x
well, printing the labels isn't a difficult task, but burning the DVD's should be something that you can ask other people to help you with since it's so time intensive. Doesn't your office have a ton of computers?

Printing the individual text using an epson cd printer is the task I'm skipping.. It takes forever and needs to dry and.. ugh.. it just won't happen.

I called our IT guy in the morning and asked about this - him and I are the only ones with DVD burners in the entire organization.

 

[swbsam]

Originally posted by: hiromizu

Originally posted by: swbsam

Originally posted by: hiromizu
I would've told the moran that it couldn't be done. You suck at task management!

I'm not justifying anything, but it's his nature. EVERYONE complains about his tendency to tell us about necessary tasks at the last possible moment.

He gets away with it because, yes, a promo dvd is a very good idea... But he should have asked me last week.. He gets shit about his last minute nature all the time and just brushes it off, but he's honestly worth more to the company than me so, well, I'm not going to get into a fight over this.

So why do you take on the task of guaranteed failure? That makes you a failure...Otherwise you could have assertively told him how long it'll take which isn't that hard to figure out.

A Macbook eh? Should've told him it'd take you 2 weeks and a few replacement laptops to geeder dunn.

Actually, this is pretty weird, but I dual boot on my macbook pro and, in windows using nero or dvd decryptor, the task takes a full 2 minutes longer than in os x (per disk).. In this case, the mac is actually good for something 🙂

 

[hiromizu]

Originally posted by: swbsam

Originally posted by: hiromizu

Originally posted by: swbsam

Originally posted by: hiromizu
I would've told the moran that it couldn't be done. You suck at task management!

I'm not justifying anything, but it's his nature. EVERYONE complains about his tendency to tell us about necessary tasks at the last possible moment.

He gets away with it because, yes, a promo dvd is a very good idea... But he should have asked me last week.. He gets shit about his last minute nature all the time and just brushes it off, but he's honestly worth more to the company than me so, well, I'm not going to get into a fight over this.

So why do you take on the task of guaranteed failure? That makes you a failure...Otherwise you could have assertively told him how long it'll take which isn't that hard to figure out.

A Macbook eh? Should've told him it'd take you 2 weeks and a few replacement laptops to geeder dunn.

Actually, this is pretty weird, but I dual boot on my macbook pro and, in windows using nero or dvd decryptor, the task takes a full 2 minutes longer than in os x (per disk).. In this case, the mac is actually good for something 🙂

Nice. I guess that means 50 mins saved towards a crash 😀