What we have here is a failure to Communicate

Folks, it's all about communication. So, we're still working on the billing issue I talked about a couple of posts ago. In the conference call with the client we promised that we'd have the billing corrected and a complete audit of bills sent and money received by last Friday. Friday at 3 PM, I get a call telling me that it's not going to happen until Tuesday. Remember, the original conference call was a week and a half ago. Did they just discover Friday that it wasn't gonna happen? I'm guessing that's not the case. They should have let me know it wasn't going to happen when they first realized it. Client is beside herself.

Okay, so now it's Tuesday, the drop dead date for this fricking billing, and a cast of thousands have been huddled in a conference room all day, after having worked on it over the weekend, and I get a call at 12:30 my time (I'm on the West Coast, the cast of thousands on the East Coast) telling me they'll be back to me within the hour with the final result. BTW, why this is taking so many people so long on what should be a fairly simple issue (after all, billing for product should be something we do routinely, no?) escapes me.

The afternoon passes - I got nothing. At 2:30 (5:30 EST) and every 15 minutes thereafter I call the 3 principal players and get no answer. Leave messages. Nothing. At 4:35 (7;35 EST) I fire off a scathing memo to my boss because I, naturally, assume that everyone has bolted and they were too scared to call and tell me they were packing it in for the evening. I'm pissed and call the client to tell her that we have, once again, missed the deadline.

While I'm on the phone with the client at 5:10 (8:10 EST) I get a call from my HO and it's half the cast of thousands to tell me they've got something. Now of course your initial inclination is to say, "Wow, Rich they stayed till eight o'clock to make the deadline", and normally I'd agree with you.

But.

Number one - I'm out here, by myself, freaking out all afternoon not knowing what's going on. Communication. I should have gotten a call (or 2) telling me they were still working, so I knew and could tell the client. Instead, my blood pressure is through the roof.

Number two - did I get what we needed? Well, of course you know the answer to that - No. The audit we promised them a week and a half ago? Not until Friday at noon. Why? "Because this is a lot more involved than we realized." And you just realized that it was "involved" now, at 5:30 on Tuesday? Communication.

And the icing on the cake was when, after I complained about missing the deadlines, I start to get a lecture about "managing expectations". Please. Tell me something's gonna take two weeks, I'm fine. I'll make sure the client understands and usually I'll get us a few more days. But I'm not the one that told the client when this would be done - HO did in the conference call and follow-ups.

Point of this is that when you're not going to get something done when promised, let everyone know as soon as you know that. People understand. Everyone gets in these situations - things interfere, problems arise, systems go down. It happens. But you've got to let everyone know. You've got to communicate. The problems end up to be far worse if you don't.