Awkwardness

Today I learned that doing my job formally is much, much easier than doing it informally.  As a part of my job, I often coach other people in my position.  I routinely visit them in their offices and assist them with their work.  I also audit their work.

Last month, I was asked by my manager to do this in an informal (undocumented, unofficial) capacity at one of our other offices.  When my purpose is set with the corporate knowledge that I'm going into a place to look at their processes, review their forms and guide their management accordingly, it's a cinch. 

I am armed with the tools that I need to do the job properly: checklists, information packets, samplings of appropriate forms and examples of completed work.  I had none of those things today. 

It was explained to me by my manager that my purpose would be to exclusively run through our Policy Audit point by point and mark any discrepancies.  When I called the subject of today's scrutiny, she had forgotten that I was coming over and had no idea why I was there.

So I have to ask: why was I there again?  She obviously didn't ask for my help.  I wasn't scheduled to be there.  Her claimed to be interested in hearing what I would have to say, but he wasn't even there. 

What a waste of time.  Since she doesn't care that I'm even there or not, today just ended up as an excuse to hang out at her office.  I looked at some of her forms and could understand why her manager would be concerned, but he obviously wasn't concerned enough to make an appearance.  She certainly doesn't give a rat's ass that she's screwing her job up, so why waste my breath?

Next time an 'opportunity' to embark on this type of assignment comes around, I will respectfully decline.  Either that, or respectfully catch the 24-hour flu.

"Knowing is half the battle." - G.I. Joe