You Didn’t Hear it From Me…

I don’t like talking about people behind their backs. I do it sometimes but I really try not to because it makes me feel bad for the person being talked about as well as for myself. It’s not that I subscribe totally to that, “If you can’t say something nice…” thing, but if I can’t say something to someone’s face then why should I have the right to say it behind their backs? Some consider the act of talking badly about someone behind their back to be a sin, but there is dispensation available because sometimes if you don’t talk about someone behind their back you could, and this has been proven, explode. I think that dispensation only applies to blog rants though.

So there’s this customer at work. I deal with this guy fairly regularly and I don’t care for him but that’s beside the point. Okay, it’s really not beside the point. I don’t care for this person because this person is one of those people who will try and get you to do something that they don’t want to do. For example, a brochure is printing in the wrong color. Rather than open his source file to check the color to see if it matches the customer’s specifications, this person automatically assumes the print hardware is out of calibration. Trying to reassure this person that that isn’t the case doesn’t work so the only thing I can do, because he won’t give me his source file, is take the artwork (a PDF file, not the greatest thing to work with) and try and manipulate the color myself. This would take no time if this person opened the source file and checked the color but to work with the PDF file takes time.

You’re bored, I know. I’ll be quick.

Today there was another problem with this person’s project. The fault was mine, he said. I was doing something wrong. You have to do this and this, he said, not that and that. I told him I’m doing things right and he said… He said… He said… “I’m not sure you do.”

What the fuck?

Do you ever get mad and see red? That’s what happened to me so I told him to send another print file and I’ll be happy to take care of it for him and I walked away. That probably wasn’t the best thing I could have done but that’s what I did. The alternative to not walking away might not have been pretty. Ten minutes later I get an email from this person telling me that there was a problem with his source file and the work my department had done was correct, the error was with his work.

Jerk. Fuck you.

So now I suppose I’m supposed to be all forgiving with Mr. “I’m Not Sure You Do”, right? I don’t think so.