Wherein I Tell You About My Day and You Pretend to Care
Background
We’ve had a major renovation that we’ve needed to do at work for years.
Here’s enough detail to understand the situation:
Things have gotten so bad that we’re really risking turning people away unless we do something.
What had been done 20 years ago by a couple of college kids (and never really worked well, adequately, but not well) needed to be replaced.
We got a bid from a company that specializes in the type of work we need to have done, a company we’ve worked with before, and a company which has done extensive work for another organization in our area. All their work has been first class. (The first job they did came in early and under the estimate.)
This bid was approximately $22,000 including installation.
Some on the board wanted to do it right away, others wanted to see if we could get some kind of a grant, some didn’t see why it needed to be done (i.e. they didn’t see the need, even if they knew some others might seen the need).
With roughly $400,000 in the bank, we decided to go ahead and make the purchase.
Then the chair of the budget committee refused to sign the contract until we had talked about the contract at another board meeting, since all we had done was vote to accept the bid and he wanted us to vote to accept the contract even though there was no substantial difference between the bid and the contract.
So we wasted another 30 minutes rehashing the entire thing which amounted to nothing more than a few more opportunities to restate the “I don’t think we ought to spend the money” position with the rest of us sitting there thinking “I don’t want to spend it either, but it needs to be done and we’ve deferred it so long that pieces of the old system are completely defunct.”
Today
So the work actually began today, and is supposed to be done Friday.
A delivery man from the local rental center arrived this morning around 9:30 with a one-man lift (cherrypicker) which had been ordered by the contracting company.
They weren’t yet on-site (no big deal, they’re coming from a distance).
The secretary signed for the delivery, and I showed him where I thought would be a good spot to leave it.
No big deal, right?
Except that this afternoon our treasurer arrived with the invoice for the delivery/rental of the lift and shoved in my face.
“Who’s going to invoice this? Who signed for it? Is anyone have oversight of this?”
He continued to rant (not quite yelling but talking very loudly) while I tried to read it.
“This was a sucker contract, it’s open ended, we never should have signed that thing!”
One might assume that he was in the “We don’t need to spend the money” camp.
Finally I said, “I don’t think there’s any need to get aggressive about this, I’ve only had it for 30 seconds, and I’m trying to figure out who should sign for it.” (Meaning “who should sign the voucher for it” not “who should have signed for delivery”.)
Secretary: “Well, I signed for it. Should I not have done that?”
(Note: both the treasurer and I were in the secretary’s office when the delivery man came, and no one made any objection at the time.)
Him, to her: “I wouldn’t go around signing for things without knowing who is going to pay for them!”
Because really, it was only vital to all of the work they did on site all day, we should have turned the delivery man away.
Him, to me: “I’ve spent all day on this! I’ve had it for longer than 30 seconds!”
Me: “I said that I have only had it for 30 seconds. I don’t know if this is our responsibility to pay or if it was part of the contract.”
Him: “Well, I don’t know either.” [went on to rant more about the contract]
Me: “Let me call David [who has worked with this company before, coordinated the bid, and knows more about the job than all of the rest of us combined times two] and see if he has a copy of the contract.”
Him: “I have that. I have a copy of the contract.”
At which point he went to his desk, pulled out a file folder, looked at the contract, and announced, still in an angry tone of voice: “Lift rental…. it’s in the contract. This contract is too vague, it’s all specifications.”
Me: “It’s in the contract that they will pay for the lift rental?”
Him: “Yes.”
Me: “…” (I had plenty to say, but I was holding my tongue.)
Me: “OK, so that settles that, right?”
I don’t think he said anything else. He was flipping through the contract and not making eye contact.
I put the invoice down on the secretary’s desk and went back to my office.
The Kicker
Remember the total bill for the project? $22,000?
Would you like to know how much the lift delivery/rental fee was?
$150.
A hundred and fifty fucking dollars.
Otherwise known as 0.68% of the bill.
And for this you are getting in my face?
For 0.68%?
Not only that, but 0.68% which was already included in the contract that you claim is “too vague” but a) had the specific answer to the question that you asked and b) you hadn’t bothered to look at?
Note: A sign of emotional maturity would have been apologizing for overreacting and being wrong and kind of a jerk about it. However, no apology was forthcoming.
