Thursday, March 6, 2008

When Schedules Get Screwy

My real job requires me to be a scheduling freak. Sequence - order - deadlines. Lots of parts & pieces to move around the board all to be used to assemble a finished product - in my case buildings. I get to SEE the progress each day as the project takes shape, so there's a certain amount of instant gratification. When we hit bumps, such as weather, equipment delays, AWOL workers, etc, everything gets reworked, tightened up & jockeyed around. The end dates never change. I've been doing this long enough that this doesn't really phase me. (Never let 'em see ya sweat!) I'm finishing a project now. Made lots of money. Done in plenty of time. Happy client. A cakewalk. Friday was going to be a cruise control kind of day.

AND THEN THURSDAY AFTERNOON HAPPENED.... Tomorrow's schedule - is all screwed up. How did this happen? Somehow I now have 3 meetings in the morning - 2 at the same time (in different places, no less), 1 is with the owner of the company that I work for - just him n' me. Guess which meeting I won't be missing. The architect emailed me TONIGHT that he & his team will be on my project tomorrow AM. I won't be there. The building inspector will be on site for 2 inspections. Requested him for afternoon - he's taking 1/2 a day off tomorrow so he'll be there in the AM. I won't be there. Busted my butt preparing a presentation (a few days in advance so I wouldn't work on the weekend), finished it this afternoon - 20 minutes before a notice by email that that meeting has now been postponed. Tomorrow I will have to fit 2 days into 1.

Friday Cruise Control - set at 95 mph.