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work related babble

Posted in Crazy Wisdom on Friday, April 18, 2003 at 11:26 am by flerly.


Okay, so there is this apparent Bitch working in our San Francisco office named Catherine. I’m thinking she’s some sort of sales-wench, because she seems to be in charge of organizing information between the customer and the project manager, in this case my buddy, actual neighbor, and former cubicle neighbor, Marc.

Well, for the past several weeks I’ve heard Marc complaining that Catherine keeps trying to get him in trouble by saying he is ignoring e-mail messages from her. She complains by emailing Camp, Hatcher, regional sales manager, account manager executive, and anybody else she’s got in her address book it seems. On a couple occasions she has called these people to complain about Marc. Never, though, has she managed to ever call Marc, who is provided with a voice mail and a cell phone from FNIS, and is reachable 99% of the time you want him. She sends some e-mail, gets no reply, then starts calling everyone BUT Marc to complain.

Well, the problem here is, since we were bought out by FNIS, we have all been assigned FNIS e-mail addresses along with our Comstock e-mail addresses. We haven’t gotten rid of the Comstock emails yet because as of yet, FNIS isn’t set up so we can use Outlook to check our mail. It can only be checked via a web interface, which is insanely slow and rejects most attachments. IE, it sucks. Most of the Comstock people not only don’t use it, but many, like me, haven’t even gone to the website to set up a password or anything to even try to use it. Why bother. They’ll let us know when it’s useful to us.

Now, back to San Fran Bitch. As soon as the company-wide e-mail went out that all employees now have FNIS e-mail addresses, she went through her little address book and added us all in there, apparently deleting the perfectly good Comstock e-mail addresses that she had been corresponding with us at.

Well, for novelty, Mr. Marc does set up his FNIS e-mail, and finds messages from Catherine the Bitch in there already. They correspond at that address for a few days, until the shortcomings become evident, then he very politely emailed her asking her to please discontinue use of that e-mail until further notice, and resent her his Comstock e-mail.

As the story goes on, Catherine the Bitch, of course, continues to use that FNIS e-mail. Marc contacts her from Comstock account, she replies his FNIS account. Thus, there are some missed emails. Marc checks FNIS e-mail again, again asks her to use Comstock mail. Again, Catherine the bitch ignores it.

Here is about when the griping begins. Marc gets called in for an “employee conference” where he is asked why he hasn’t been making the effort to deal with Catherine’s issues. He complains that he isn’t a psychologist, and thus probably can’t address her real issues, but as far as emails are concerned he has told her several times that she is using the wrong e-mail address for him. He also explains how he is available by phone 24/7, thanks to his cell, and that not once has she ever called to ask him about any of the “urgent” emails.

Did I mention that her emails tend to be of the “You must attend this mandatory conference call this afternoon at 2pm your time” type. Sent the morning of. Then, she does the conference call, with herself, whatever other FNIS people, and the customer, and voila, Marc doesn’t show because, well.. he hasn’t a clue. So, she’s out there making him look like an idiot to FNIS.

He gets called in again for poor job performance, this came down from corporate. Again he explains the situation. Again they understand. Again, nobody does anything about Catherine.

Finally, on Tuesday of this very week, Catherine sends another of her “You must be on this mandatory conference call” crap emails, and doesn’t bother to send it to the correct address, doesn’t bother to call and follow up, doesn’t bother to find out that Marc is actually out sick. Surprise, he’s not on the call. He just happens to check his FNIS e-mail while he is home sick on Wednesday, and finds a new message from her, a forward of the conference call mail, along with a new rant from her about what an embarrassment Marc is by never showing up on these calls. This is again carbon-copied to him and the entire sales team, the entire management team, and whoever else she thinks gives a damn. She expresses her wonder at how he can still be working for us.

So, finding this e-mail, being at home, and not having been called in for another “meeting” about his attitude yet, he decides to play at her own game. He replies to her message, carbon copying everyone on his FNIS e-mail list, along with everyone she had contacted, asking her to please acknowledge this, his fifth request for her to use his correct e-mail address, which he provided again, or his phone number, which is toll free, which he provided again, or his cell phone number, which is on 24/7 which he provided again. He informed her that he was out sick currently, etc etc, and thus in my opinion made her look like an idiot. He also explained in detail why he, like most Comstock employees, were still using their Comstock emails instead of FNIS mail, and asked her yet again to remove his FNIS e-mail address entirely from her address book, so the mistake of sending important timely emails to that address would not happen again.

Very good, in my opinion. Go Marc.

But, better still, this morning, e-mail box had a forward of the whole thing, not only to all the same FNIS emails, but also to all@com-stock, from — who else — all@com-stock spammer Carmen “one-more-thing” Kelley, addressed directly to Catherine the Bitch saying she had noticed the same problems with her FNIS e-mail, and that Catherine should remove her FNIS address and being using her Comstock address until further notice, too.

A lot of people here, not privy to the drama leading up to this, complained about spammer Carmen again, but I had to set them straight. In this case, go Carmen. Wish I’d thought of doing that last night when I got the e-mail from Marc. Of course, I don’t use my FNIS e-mail address at all, so I guess it was better from her.

And now you know. Carry on.

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3 Comments

  1. goaticusmaximus has made a Comment

    Augh! Ngggggrphhhh! yerchtyiaiuyriuy!!!!!!!! Rah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Techno-idiot corporate-asshole loser-users drive me nuts.

    Well, at least we can be smug in our certainty of Catherine drowning when the Big One hits, and western CA slides off into the ocean. And not a moment too soon, I might add.

    April 18, 2003 @ 4:32 am

  2. flerly has made a Comment

    That’s a good thought. I don’t think anyone would miss Catherine.

    I just hope I get to visit San Francisco before the big one. I hear it’s pretty, unlike Los Angeles, which I found just filthy & smoggy.

    April 18, 2003 @ 4:39 am

  3. goaticusmaximus has made a Comment

    ‘Frisco is pretty nice. A tad on the expensive side, mind you, but definitely a neat city.

    HelLA is a cesspool. I hate that fucking place. May it burn for all eternity, in it’s own perfect, plastic-coated box.

    April 18, 2003 @ 4:44 am

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