You Chase And You Chase And You Don’t Even Get The Prize

Every month, I report the company figures to the senior team. Every month, someone doesn’t have the information for me and I have to chase them, but as I’m not in their departments, they never prioritise it. [Coworker] is the worst; his report is never in the same format twice, and I often have to go back to him for more or correct info.

This month, however, despite chasing, I have had nothing at all from him.

Me: “Hey, [Coworker], could you send me the [monthly report] when you get a chance, please?”

Coworker: “I’ve not done it yet.”

Me: “Wasn’t it due last week? I mean, can you send it over when you do get to it, please? I need it for the 2:00 meeting.”

He ignores me. I’m busy for the rest of the morning, and after lunch, I try to find him, but he is late back. It gets to 1:40.

Me: “[Coworker], could you send that report over, please, mate? I need to prep it for my meeting.”

Coworker: “Oh, I didn’t do it. I figure if you need it, then you should probably do it.”

Me: “It’s a sales report; you’re the senior sales engineer. I wouldn’t have a clue where to start looking for the information!”

Coworker: “Not my problem.”

Me: “Fine. I will have to state that the report hasn’t been done.”

Coworker: “No, don’t do that! Fine, I will send something over.”

Seconds later, he emailed me the nine-page report. I figure he lied about not doing it. But as I updated my slides, I noticed that all the numbers were identical to the previous month’s. I queried it with [Coworker], but he told me defensively that the figures were right!

I finished the report with seconds to spare. I immediately got pulled up by the entire management team about how bad my data was and how I clearly didn’t do my job properly. I had to admit that the sales numbers were provided by [Coworker], and I did query them and was told that they were correct.

[Coworker] was called in for a very awkward half-hour. He kept sticking to his guns of nothing being his fault and being corrected again and again. He let slip that the report he had been generating for the past nine months hadn’t been done properly at all. As it was a senior-level report and shared with investors, they hit the roof.

[Coworker] and I were sent out of the room before the shouting began.

[Coworker] didn’t lose his job, but I think he got demoted as he suddenly took a new job in the company. We have a new senior saleswoman who seems to know exactly what she is doing.