Documenting

Boring documentation post...

I haven't mentioned it, but I had some weirdness at work last week. Basically it came about because another person and I were each talking to a third person, and not talking to each other.

I had discussed a problem with the third person, given a lot of context, and then 3rd person came up with a plan. I liked the plan. However, the third person didn't do a good job communicating the whole story when talking with the other person. The third person summarized things into "bottom line" and left out all the context.

Without the context, what the 3rd person said to the other person made me look very bad. The 3rd person didn't do it on purpose and I sure thought that everything was fine. I am sure the third person didn't even realize what the implications were. The other person is really busy and kind of freaked when the third person said the bottom line.

I didn't realize it, but the third person also hadn't checked with the other person about the solution. The other person should have been consulted. I didn't realize that the other person wasn't aware of the solution so I was a little shocked by other person's initial reaction. Other person thought I had dropped the ball. I didn't want the ball, but I also didn't want to drop it.

The other person and I had a chance to talk today and while it's not perfect--it never is between us--it's much much much better. I have the ball again and we'll work to pass the ball to someone else, but do it a little more slowly than how 3rd person had suggested.

Last week I was pretty much ready to quit my job. Today, I'm okay.

Remember, communication is a necessary and good thing.


How much do you hate it when I do these very vague things?