And the other shoe drops...

I should've known this week was just too good to be true.  The airy nature, the lack of arguments, the smiling, the whistling... was it all a dream?

Needless to say, the Rod who loves confrontation showed up again today.  I caught on right away that he was back to his old ways when he decided to argue with Jennifer on one of his favorite topics: The customer is always wrong.  Now, I think most of us have learned the opposite:  The customer is always right.  Right?  And aren't we taught, even as children, to do what we can to help a customer?  Depending on the job, that could mean anything from holding a door open, helping jump start a car, or, yes, even spending some extra time on the phone, supporting them after having purchased a product of yours.  This is clearly not Rod's philosophy.  Rod, I think, thrives when he can pick apart a customer and their procedures.  Especially if it presents an obstacle for Rod getting to his money.  In this particular example, when Jen explained that the customer wanted a demo so they could then present our solution to management (a fairly normal occurance, right?), Rod said loudly and gruffly:  "I don't like hearing that."  Well, too bad, Rod.  That's how they do it.  Nope, that wasn't what he wanted.  He just wanted the customer to buy buy buy.  He told Jen to find out when they were planning on buying this product.  Jennifer almost snorted a laugh.  "You mean, just call them and say 'Hey, when are you going to give us money?' I can't do that!"  Well, my guess is Rod didn't like hearing that either, because he launched into a long string of reasons that the customer was wrong as though Jennifer could control what the customer was doing!  Impossible man!
 
During that conversation, Rod told Jen 4 times to "Make the CUStomer UNderSTAND the BUSiness propoSItion of our software."  Check that.  He's up to 5 times now.  Five times he said that same phrase!  "We want to MOTivate this guy!  It's IMPORTant that he UNderSTAND the BUSiness propoSItion of our PROduct!"  What else can you say to someone like this?  We just roll our eyes and say "Yes, Rod."
 
Let's take a moment to share some favorite recent quotes:
 
"You have to turn in business in addition to being a friend."  Hmm.  Ok.  Right.
 
"Is it sexist if I call this client a BITCH?" 
 
"I couldn't help but notice you have an AFRICAN AMERICAN, a very LARGE African American on your football team's defense."  I suppose he thinks he's not being racist if he says the term African American while he's sneering.
 
He's told people several times today that it's been raining solidly for 3 weeks.  I guess he forgot the beautiful week of sunshine last week.  Oh wait, that's right, I remember he told someone last week that it was raining when it was sunny.  Does he just want people to think it rains all the time in Seattle?  Or do you suppose he just can't judge weather any better than he can judge appropriate business conversation topics?

I scheduled a call for Rod, one of the developers, and me.  I put it on Rod's calendar early yesterday morning.  Today, Rod decided to book a webinar for that same time.  A few hours later, he realized his mistake.  He then asked me to call the customer and fix the problem.  I politely declined the invitation and said, essentially, that if he got himself into the kettle of fish, then he could get himself out.  He begrudgingly said ok, and then said "I thought we were a TEAM here, supPORTing one another."  I asked "Rod, is that a fancy way of asking me to clean up your messes for you?"  He said, "Well, yes, just like I clean up yours!"  I wanted to ask him to tell me of the last time he'd had to clean up one of my messes, but figured it would be best to keep my mouth shut this time.
 

Well, it's Friday, anyway.  That's always something to look forward to.  Oh, and did I mention?  Rod overpaid me a few hundred bucks on this last paycheck.  That works for me... I have a full keg in my basement now, just waiting to be tapped tonight!  Happy sigh.

Have a great weekend everyone, and until next week, I wish you better times at your office than I have at mine!


Eye Tee Girl