Work Stuff
Since I am back to full-time billable to a project, I have been doing more work that I usually like to do. For this project I am the Project Manager, which really means I am the person who has to make sure things get done. I work with both the our client and our client's customers, so I have to be nice to both. If it was our client's suppliers, I could be a little more direct with them. So I am in the position where I have a bunch of people who don't report to me, have better things to do and I need things from them in a timely manner. This results in emails like the following, to one of our client's customers that has been ignoring my repeated attempts to get information:

Stacey,

As I mentioned in an earlier email (below), (Client's name) is working on an accelerated schedule and has changed the go-live date to 2/9/04. In order to meet this tighter time frame we will need to have everything tested by the previous Monday, 2/2/04. Ideally, this means we will need test files from you no later than this Wednesday 1/28/04. If this is going to be a problem, please let me know so that I can keep (Client's name) in the loop. If there is anything I can do to help you with this, don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks for your help with this,

-Dave S.

So that's pretty typical. Here is a translation:

Stacey,

Send me the files now.

And quit blowing me off, bitch,

-Dave S.