winkgirl4's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Close Call Less than a week ago, Steve (our company�s CEO and the man to whom I am entitled �Personal Assistant�) asked me to make myself familiar with our company's process of procuring travel arrangements (a long, drawn-out process- I assure you- of haggling with travel agents who know nothing about the internet and obtaining and forwarding authorization forms to persons �a�, �b� and �c�, who are as clueless as I.) I went to the appropriate authorities who assured me that, after taking care of Steve's current travel accommodations, we would go, step-by-step, through the process and I could, thereafter, be responsible for yet another aspect of his affairs. I agreed. ...Until, yesterday. Jana, the young lady who was "taking care" of said arrangements was out of the office for most of the day. So, it would only follow that, when I arrived first thing yesterday morning, I found an email from Steve requesting a specific flight and a specific hotel (the day before he was to travel). I called the travel agency that our company uses, conveyed my boss� request- emphasizing his determination to have things done his way- and allowed them to set to work making it so. When I receive the confirmation that they were able to obtain said flights and said hotel arrangements, I forward the information on to all interested parties. Problem presented, problem solved (to borrow a phrase). ...Or so I thought. Yesterday afternoon, at 5:00 (ON THE DOT!), I received a phone call from Jana asking if copies of the itinerary and certain Travel Authorization Forms had been sent to our Durant headquarters and, informing me that the E-tickets had not been issued because the itinerary had not been approved through the finance department. I assured her that they had not as, in her absence, I had only made sure that the arrangements met Steve's specifications but that I still had not been taken through our process of setting and approving such accommodations and so was, still, unaware to whom such information needed to be passed and approved. His flight was for 9:30 this morning. At 5:00 p.m., yesterday afternoon, well after everyone in our finance departments had left, Steve had an itinerary but no confirmed tickets and it was very likely that, when he arrived at the airport to board his plane, there would be NO tickets there to greet him. I was imagining, with very little effort, the ire with which he was likely to confront me and, with an equal lack of effort, he would relieve me of my duties. (I mean, after all, this trip is made to secure a $12 million contract. That�s not an easy thing to overlook.) So, last night, (as well you can imagine) I called anybody and everyone who I knew would both answer the phone and could keep said situation from occurring. After much begging and heavy negotiating (during which I think I bartered the slave labor of one of my children), the travel agent agreed to issue the tickets (this time) but stressed that I needed to fax, forthwith, the appropriate authorization forms first thing this morning so that they could be approved. And, so it is that I found myself in the office at 7:00 a.m. on the morning after my poker night, to complete and fax said documents. Then, wouldn�t you know it, I received a phone call from Steve, who, quite affably, told me that I wasn't to worry too much about it- that his tickets would be there waiting for him and that they were making too big a deal out of it. He assured me that, in all his years of managing our company he�d never bothered with this kind of red tape and that we didn�t need to start now, we�d sort it out when he got back. Not only was he not angry that he almost wastefully arrived at the airport, but seemed to find it rather funny that the finance department would even consider denying him travel capabilities. (Whew.) Still, it�s never fun to find your neck so close to the chopping block. Oh, and by the way, last night at poker, not only did I win (securing my second place standing) but I closed the gap between my place and first. Next week, it will be a race to the finish. One of us will come out the victor and the great thing about that is: the gentleman with whom I am competing is such a good friend that I wouldn�t mind a bit coming in second to him. (Though, of course, I still intend to rip and claw my way into first.) Wish me luck. 12:20 p.m. - January 31, 2006 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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