I Told Him So!

Actually, I didn’t have the chance, as he told me months ago to "butt out" or "don’t stick your nose in", only in more polite terms (which he, unfortunately for me and my crew, can not do very often). The "he" and "him" to whom I refer is a coworker whom I will hereafter call "Ob", described in my 7/18/06 post as "obnoxious". (Adapted from Will & Grace: "He puts the ‘noxious’ in ‘obnoxious’. Come to think of it, he puts the ‘ob’ in it, too.)

Ob came up with a "brilliant" idea to put five more trash dumpsters on campus and eliminate the polycarts (wheeled, curbside, 96-gallon containers emptied by a side-lift, automatic truck). Right away, I thought of several possible concerns with his idea, but as he and I don’t see eye-to-eye, I decided not to tell him right away, or else I might seem antagonistic. Plus, as I am not supposed to stick my nose in, why should I bother? I’ll just let him screw things up himself. Following are the possible problems.

1) The custodians already resist carrying trash to dumpsters at other sites on campus. I don’t foresee them embracing this idea.

2) Ob’s intent is to save money on trash collection and disposal costs for academic buildings. 2a) What about the auxiliary (non-academic) sites? 2b) Will adding dumpsters counteract the savings of eliminating polycarts?

3) Where are the dumpsters to be located? Ob told me (verbally) the names of the nearest buildings, but he did not describe the actual locations adequately, nor did he show me on a campus map (in preparation for problem #4, below). Note: I offered to print him maps of each building area, so he could point to exactly where he wanted to put the dumpsters, if he would e-mail me the building names (instead of rattling on in his typically loquacious manner, making it to a third topic by the time I can finish writing the first name).

4) Will we need to move or remove any plants or irrigation? (He never did move that dumpster which crushed half of a shrub and which balances precariously on a curb between said shrub bed and the parking lot. You know, the one he said wasn’t where I saw it with my own eyes, the one that is still there, next to the surviving half of a shrub.)

5) Did he ask the parking department if they’re okay with losing two parking spaces per dumpster?

6) Are these five dumpster sites adequate to handle the trash coming from approximately twenty buildings with polycarts?

I thought this was just an idea of Ob’s, until I heard some things this week that revealed that he already implemented his "brilliant" plan.

A) A phone call from the more-than-curious parking dept., asking why dumpsters suddenly appeared in their parking lots.

B) A phone call from an irate faculty member, asking why a dumpster now blocks the space he always parks in.

C) My boss saying, "You are not going to put a dumpster in place of that planter!"

Oh, if only I were able to say I told him so! Still, I am gleeful (practically joyous) that I was right. (It’s not that I derive any pleasure about being right; it’s because I am right and Ob wasn’t.)

A coworker tried to defend Ob, saying, "We didn’t think of that." Hmm. It seems to me that "we" were not consulted. "We" were told to butt out. Otherwise, "we" would have forecast said problems. (Technically, "we" did, but "we" were not encouraged to verbalize them.)

Other than that, Ob never sent me the e-mail list of sites. Such a simple request, don’t you think? The reason I want the e-mail is so I have written (as it were) proof of the route changes. Why do I need written proof? Because I’m the one who receives the invoice each month, and I need to explain why the bill suddenly changed. Because the spreadsheet I created (which has worked well for the past four years) to bill the various departments now has to be changed. Because I now need to tell the accountant why my estimate for the year, the one I approved just last month, will vary significantly from the actual charges. Couldn’t Ob have come up with this idea, oh say, five months ago, when I drafted the new fiscal year estimate? Three months ago, when I adjusted it for the annual C.P.I. (Consumer Price Index) increase? How about even last month, before we submitted the estimate to the purchasing office and had the official purchase order approved? No, wait. That would make sense.

Other, relatively minor, irks remaining are these. I still don’t know where the dumpsters are to go (or were put, as the case may be). Since Ob won’t verify his anticipated savings with actual numbers, I’d like to calculate the estimate myself and prepare my explanation for the accountant -- that is, if Ob would only tell me what size dumpsters they will be and how often they will be emptied. What about the auxiliary polycart sites? What do the custodians (or at least their manager) think? Can twenty sites adequately be replaced by five? (If so, you’d think that his predecessor or I would have thought of it already.)

I probably will mention Ob again, as he frequently gets under my skin. I have refrained mightily from griping about him in this medium earlier, as I don’t want to bore you with complaints. However, as I couldn’t very well do the dance of joy at work when I heard about the fallout, I had to release my energy in some way.