The Red Coats Are Coming!!

Once again, in their infinite wisdom and in the name of globalization, the organization I work for has decided that I should report to a guy who is located in London. It's bad enough that my organization gets "re-organized" about every 6 to 9 months (meaning I get a new boss every time) and we're scattered all over the U.S. (meaning I've only met one of my past 5 bosses face-to-face), but now they've thrown in the big pond and a 5 hour time difference between me and my Boss du Jour. One thing is certain, he won't be physically looking over my shoulder.

One might think the Brit, wanting to make a good impression, would reach out to his new subordinates without delay to establish a good rapport. One would be wrong. The Brit was my new boss for almost two months before I got the first email from him, and then it wasn't sent to me personally. It was a common introduction sent to the entire team... STRIKE ONE! The next communication I/the team received was notifying us that he had hired a Management Trainee - another name for fresh-faced college boy with permanently stained lips from kissing too much ass - to assist him with the mundane (my word) tasks of herding us Yanks. So, to add insult to injury, now I have to respond to this ass-kissing infant as if he was my boss... STRIKE TWO!!

The first time I actually heard my bosses voice was late last Tuesday afternoon. By late I mean 4:00-ish Eastern Time. The boss and I were both on the same conference call where we learned of a rush-rush request from one of our project sponsors. Here's the problem -- by the time the call ended it was 5:00 PM ET / 10:00 PM London time. I had to leave the house in less than an hour for a montly dinner meeting and I was scheduled to leave Wednesday morning for 3 days of vacation at the beach. And it couldn't wait until I got back on Monday (today). Having explained this to my new boss and apologizing for having to dump it on him, he said "no problem", he would handle it on Wednesday. So, I sent out an email to all involved parties on Tuesday evening saying that my boss would take care of things on Wednesday... and I copied my boss. Now it's Monday, I'm back in the office and trying to get in touch with the boss to see how things turned out in my absence last week. I was a little concerned because I knew he should have copied me on any correspondence and there was nothing in my in-box. I sent an IM and waited 1.5 hrs for a response... silly me... at 8:00 this morning it was already lunch time in London. It turns out I had good reason to be concerned. My first clue was when he responded with basically, "was I supposed to do something?" The bottom line is, he dropped the ball and the thing that couldn't wait until Monday has now waited until Monday... and now I have to clean up the mess and apologize to everyone for the delay... STRIKE THREE!!!

Are the Brits still pissed about that whole War for Independence thing, or has common sense taken another slap in the face for the sake of political correctness and globalization? Either way, I am so screwed.

Dear Lord, can I please hit the lottery and retire early?