...I suppose I was still able to do something right. Got in this morning and had a work-related e-mail that has already made my day.
It was a thank-you for some files I e-mailed during my torpor yesterday. The lady it was from is a local contractor who's been working with a client to get some stuff done to his building. As is the normal case with our little fiefdom here, it hasn't been a smooth process. Our regulatory regimen combined with things beyond anyone's control has been frustrating, both for her and her client, but she has taken it in stride and done her best to get the work done. Despite our best efforts to stymie her best efforts.
Anyway, she's a smart and pleasant person to talk to on the phone and knows her business, as well as the pitfalls of dealing with a bunch of bureaucrats and with cranky clients. She called yesterday with some questions about utilities on the project (about which I knew absolutely nothing) and needing some copies of the minutes from some of our previous meetings. After I hung up, I sent those to her, and sometime overnight she replied with an acknowledgement of having received them, as well as thanks "especially for being the happy guy at city hall."
It's hard to make me feel much better than to say something like that. Bureaucracies don't easily lend themselves to creativity, or tact, or humor, or productivity, or joy, but those are the qualities I admire and try to have as I do my work. Despite there being no organizational use for them. And even though in some cases, they create trouble--the ol', "No good deed goes unpunished," maxim.
Anyway, though, it is nice to occasionally hear from someone that I was able to help. I just wish I wasn't the only happy guy here.
Posted by Terry Oglesby at January 10, 2006 08:25 AM