Rushed at Work and Gettin' Nothin' Done

Is life a treadmill? Yes it is. Can we stop it? Not sure we can. Difficult to get things done when life is intruded upon 24/7. Difficult to think a sane thought when you can't finish it due to an interruption. I think a solution to this nonsense would be company-wide moratoriums on interruptions at a certain time of day.

When I was an executive assistant, I made an executive decision that pissed almost every one off except the executive: no one was to interrupt him for any reason. He would answer any and every question between one and two and he was to be ALWAYS available during that time. And he was. Otherwise any questions, complaints, blabbing had to wait.

A funny thing happened. Even during the one to two hour time Carl was interrupted less than before when he was interrupted ALL the time. The sales reps were forced to make decisions themselves. Other things that seemed like fires flamed out in the span of an hour or two. The sales people calmed down because they knew if something was important they would get an answer that day no matter what.

Everyone's anxiety disapated. It was actually calm in the Sales Department. Who ever heard of that? If something did rise to crisis level it had to go through me. Now, if something really important got undealt with--it was MY fault. The sales people were off the hook and could relax. Likewise if silliness got presented to Carl and was unnecessary, my fault too.

Most of the time, I just helped the rep figure out the best answer him or herself. Oh! How smart they were. They were empowered. Everyone was happy.

As an aside, I instituted a once weekly vendor meeting with vendors I thought would help them sell the product better (network administration company). Oh, how the reps howled. For a while I was the most hated person in the company. But again, with the time circumscribed and helpful, they learned to love them. The nincompoops were weeded out. No more wasted time. The helpful ones, really helped--plus they often got a free lunch.

Another decision that made everyone crazy, I implemented a program where every sales person HAD to take an engineer with them at least once a month on a sales call with their BEST clients. Guess what? The engineers knew everything about the products and how to make it work. Sales went through the roof. Also, salespeople stopped griping about the "stupid engineers dragging their feet" and the engineers felt better because they could educate the reps.

Finally, every Monday morning for one hour the reps all got together with Carl. A pep meeting, a planning meeting, a "go forth and conquer" meeting. The hew and cry was almost unbearable. Almost. I'm a stubborn woman. Again, though, questions were answered, priorities made clear and then everyone was set loose.

After the first two months Carl said, "Melissa, I do believe everyone in this department has come to me complaining about you. You must be doing something right."

Four months later, after the reps saw things work, we all be came fast friends. Trust was very high. The reps finally realized that the desire was for them to get more sales and to have the tools to do that.

The most important thing though, was a boss who let me do my job and supported me. He supported everyone else too, but they were too undisciplined and took advantage of it. By setting up some perameters, boundaries in psycho speak, everyone worked more efficiently, and ultimately happily.

I abhore wasted time and disrespect for other people's time. It was so satisfying helping people achieve their dreams--even if it was only monitary goals set in a sales department. That was a fun job. I was low man on the totem pole, but so what? I got paid squat but so what? Challenging work, a free rein to do it, and a great boss--that is what people want more than money. The lack of these things results in rushed work with nothing done and frustration--sounds like the current business situation.