Accountability

I was told today that there are 3 kinds of people in this world:
1. Those that take responsibility for their mistakes
2. Those that make up lame excuses for their mistakes
3. Those who run and hide when they make mistakes.

I would like to add another:
4. Those who scream and yell and blame when they make mistakes.

In the past 2 days, I have encountered an example of each.

1. Those that take responsibility for their mistakes.
I never thought I was one who takes responsibility. I always felt I came up with excuses to cover for my perfectly human faults. This was until I became a manager, and heard every excuse in the book. Excuses are transparent as the Zombie Lady's skin. I really started trying to take accountability once I started my job a year ago. In my experience, those that say "I fucked up" are the ones who get the most respect. So since day one, when I fucked up, I would say "I fucked up". I wasn't sure it was working, until I was told during my review that its one of my most commendable traits. When I tell the client "I fucked up", they laugh it off and say "hey, it happens." I never want people rolling their eyes and fuming, so I try to be the first to raise my hand when someone asks "who pooped in the closet?"

2. Those that make up lame excuses for their mistakes.
Let me give a little background first. I am a Meetings Coordinator for a pharmaceutical company. The sales reps tell me they want to do a meeting, and basically I tell the speaker where to be and when, and book a venue, usually a restaurant. Ok, moving on...
A couple months ago, one of my speaker's (the speakers are always doctors) secretary called me to tell me Dr. MindlessFlake was very upset, because he showed up for his speaking engagement, and there was so meeting going on, so I should have let him know it was cancelled. Dr. MindlessFlake showed up at Union Pacific, a restaurant in Union Square that we never use because it doesn't fit into our budget. Not only is it too expensive, ITS BEEN CLOSED FOR 5 MONTHS. When I explained this to Secretary of Dr. MindlessFlake, she said he claims he had all this paperwork I sent to him about the meeting. I went through all my files, and had nothing. I told her, if he has this paperwork, fax it to me so I can look it over, and we can figure out where the miscommunication was, but I had nothing. Dr. MindlessFlake misplaced this paperwork. How convenient. On Wednesday night, Dr. MindlessFlake had another meeting, and decided not to show up. When contacted, he said "No one told me that the date was confirmed. Well, I guess I'm even. You guys told me before to go to a meeting that wasn't happening." Interesting. Sounds like redemption to me. Anyway, I sent him 2 e-mail confirmations, and he had e-mailed me twice in between about something else. Strange how he gets selective e-mails, isn't it? Should I have called him the day before to confirm? Absolutely. But he likes e-mail.

3. Those who run and hide when they make a mistake.
Thursday night, Dr. Missing had a meeting. Dr. Missing did not show up. Dr. Missing was called and paged, but she did not return her calls and pages. She wrote me an e-mail on Sunday asking for more details about the meeting, she absolutely knew it was happening. When I find out that Dr. Missing is not dead in a ditch, I'm gonna be really pissed.

4. Those who scream and yell and bitch when they make a mistake.
This example could be the most entertaining of all, but with my limited vocabulary and understanding of any type of language, putting it into words will not do it justice. Long story short, one of the venues charged me $100 per person, after I had asked Miss FrenchBitch if we could do the $75 menu. When I asked to do this, she said "sure, I'll take care of it." I think Miss FrenchBitch was first an example #3. She didn't fax the receipt for a month, and I believe its because she knew she fucked up. Then once she did, I would call her every day, and she would either have to call me back, or was "busy." When I decided to ask for another manager, I was quickly transferred to Miss FrenchBitch, who would call me back. I gave her 2 weeks, and no phone call. So since I was already in an unpleasant mood because Dr. MindlessFlake didn't show up for his meeting, I decided to call her and not let her call me back, and she's busy? Oh, that's fine, I'll hold. Miss FrenchBitch gets on the phone, and within 3.2 seconds, starts raising her voice. Oh, no you didn't. You fucked up, I'm paying you, you kiss my ass. I start raising my voice, then she starts cutting me off. The voices escalate until a shouting match ensues, and I have an audience. Basically what it came down to is, her fancy-pants hip New York City Restaurant has procedures and everything is done through e-mail. In the words of Sherry, "oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to read your mind." I didn't know "I'll take care of it" is French for "please do all correspondence through e-mail".


More news on the zombie-front coming soon. The plot takes a twist!!!