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in need of some serious advice
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[Chris Blair] “Most business people I know understand that as long as someone is working hard, trying to find information, and making a sincere effort to get the job done, there’s not much more you can ask of them.”
Just to elaborate on this point a little more — from your boss’s perspective, you don’t necessarily learn much about a vendor or an employee when a project goes well. When the wheels fall off, though, and you see how they respond to a crisis, you learn who you can really trust.
If you panic, shut down, avoid the work, and pass the buck, then you will fail — but as Chris mentioned, this is clearly NOT the path you’re on.
If you avoid panic,clearly identify the problem and consequences, keep communication open and honest, marshall whatever resources are at your disposal, develop and execute a plan to fix the problem as best you can, and come up with a plan to avoid the problem in the future, then you earn trust.
No matter what your line of work is, things both inside and outside of your control are eventually going to go wrong. It’s how you respond to Murphy’s Law that differentiates you from your peers.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
This is why I referred to his task as the “Kobayashi Maru Test”: it’s not something you beat, it’s a test of character, how you hold together when nothing else does.
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Walter –
That’s wonderful advice. Thank you for giving the thread such a positive and helpful twist. -
[Rob Grauert] “And my two supervisors are definitely in the middle of no where. They’re shooting a hunting show in Arkansas, Louisiana, etc. Sometimes they are at a hotel that has internet, but phone calls are often very hard to hear and are always cut off eventually.”
This may sound stupid, as I’m guessing you’ve already done this, but I’ve found that texting works wonders when the bosses are in bad cell signal territory. Text messages only need a second or two of stable signal to pull down into the phone. It’s def helped me a time or two when I couldnt get the boss on the phone but needed to keep him appraised of the situation/get his judgement on something that was above my authority to decide.
Keep your head, and do your best. Hope it works out.
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