06 August, 2009

The *other* kind of proactive.

Before going away for a couple of days the Stress Fiend warned me about an order that was going to cross Ted E.'s desk: "Watch out for it, because this isn't the same as the stuff we've already ordered for someone else, he'll think it is, and then try to either give away the other client's stuff or haggle with them to give away their gear instead of just buying what the new client actually needs."

Sure enough, the order hits Ted E.'s desk, he places it with the supplier and then rings the existing client to tell them he's received a request for some more of the stuff they already have.  The client is understandably confused. Does Ted want him to share some of his inventory if he has a surplus?

"Oh no. I've already placed the order for the new stuff. I just wanted to tell someone."

The Invertebrate half-collapses with laughter and, when Ted gets off the phone, asks him what was the point of "just wanting to tell someone".

"I just get inquisitive," Ted claims.

(Inquisitiveness and curiosity are his perennial justifications for assuming he's the only one who understands what's going on and is therefore entitled to interfere in everyone else's job. He thinks it sounds better than "meddlesome and have too much free time" and that we're all fooled.)

I explain that the Stress Fiend had already looked into everything Ted E. was trying to meddle with (tactfully refraining from saying this was because she knew he'd do exactly what he was doing). The Invertebrate explains that sometimes just because two things look the same and one person has plenty of it, doesn't mean you can "borrow" from them and give it to someone else.

Ted sulks: "Well I'm sorry for trying to be pro-active, then!"

Because in the Ted E.-verse proactivity is all about doing something for one client that you don't understand but nevertheless disagree strenuously with, and then running off to a second client to tell them you were just forced at gunpoint to do the wrong thing.

3 comments:

gregor42 said...

There is an acne treatment, the name of which is a homonym for the word in question.

If it wasn't so damned expensive I would suggest that you buy a bottle & discreetly leave it on his desk.

If only to inflate his sense of paranoia.

mercyground said...

he must be part cybork (to automate things like remembering to breathe)

Dear God i'd have killed him by now if i was forced to work with him.

Godel Fishbreath said...

how are you doing?
no word for a while.
Seans