The furor over my misguided email has died down quite a bit, but the problem defined by it still exists, and slightly more exacerbated because of my email. I give a heavy sigh, shrug my shoulders a bit, and then move on. One of the nicer things about the whole incident is the demonstration of support by the rest of Board for me, and my leadership. It doesn’t help that it has (potentially) cost us a good volunteer Treasurer.

Work today started off encouragingly enough, and then quickly started swirling around the bowl…

My first session was attended by one (1, un, uno) person. Although we had a good time, and he was suitably impressed by the efforts of the programming team, it is always disheartening when there is only one. As one of my co-workers pointed out, however, I am still getting paid, the company is still billing me out at the usual rate, and it is the client’s loss, not ours. Still, self-esteem and all that…

I then tried to confirm my haircut this afternoon with my favourite stylist to discover that they somehow misplaced my appointment, and no, they just can’t fit me in today; how ’bout tomorrow at the same time?

I was then made aware of an email (that I am refusing to open and read, for the moment) from a client who is apologizing for leaving us with the wrong impression. After a strategy session on Tuesday, we talked through what the potential role was for me/our company, and we came up blank… everything was basically handled, and being corralled by an ‘a-type’ lady, and quite competently. Now they are saying that the impression was a mistake, and that they require quite a bit of ‘backfill’ on an organizational-get-the-manuals-and-the-paperwork-done level. And I had taken the opportunity, based on the impression we were given, to fill my calendar with other outstanding client work.

And now I am sitting in the training room waiting for my next session attendees. They are, at this moment, 14 minutes late… all of ’em. Even the remote access/netmeeting registrants are not logging in. Now, to be entirely fair, there are only two of them scheduled for the afternoon, but nevertheless, that’s still 100% no shows! Its at times like these that I despair of the client’s ability to motivate their staff, or to at least ‘market’ the training I provide in a way that makes it as appealing and exciting as I work so hard to make it.

And another heavy sigh…