They give you one task…
It was a normal and quiet morning. I was mentally wrestling with an excel project; I never click the right thing and my spreadsheets are always a tangled mess. It was almost lunch time and I went to go check the mail before I left. When I came back from the mailbox, I noticed an email asking me to find some last minute flights for the boss. No problem. I clicked through Expedia and found some. Two bosses returned (only one was flying) and they had me book a flight, hotel and rental car for that evening- to a town that’s about a 3 or 4 hour drive away (depends on your driving style, I guess). Well, Expedia was being lame and wouldn’t book the flight because it was too close to departure time. Instead, I booked the flight directly from the airline website and someone else did hotel and rental car. As I’m clicking through for the requested departures, entering credit card information and what not, two people walk in for a meeting. Then my phone rings.Then a grocery delivery kid swings by. I put the call through, get the meeting folks situated, take the delivery kid to the back, come back to my desk and the phone rings again. I answer it while finishing up the airline order, send the call through, confirm the airline purchase, print the ticket and take it back to the boss. BAM, random burst of busy is over. It was no skin off my teeth.
Until the boss noticed I booked his flight wrong. Both ways.
NEAT.
I swear up and down and all around that I clicked the correct flight times. The boss, fortunately, is wonderfully kind and just said, “No worries, just change it to the correct time.” Then he goes into a meeting with the folks from earlier. I still felt like a real dick though. How difficult was that task on a scale of 1 to 10?
Exactly.
I called US Airways and then a person walks in the office to pick something up from an accountant. I get that settled and then someone else walks in. This office saw more action in a 20 minute time frame than my entire four weeks in this twilight zone of a business. SO, I redialed US Airways and spoke with a nice lady. Shout out to the nice lady at US Airways. She cancelled the flight free of charge because it was booked online (I was worried it would cost $150 because I thought that’s what I heard the automated voice say before I got a live-person). I asked her to please re-book it for me over the phone so I didn’t go on another mindless clicking rampage. We sorted out travel times and she asked, “Wait. What state are you in?” I told her Arizona and since she was on the east coast, the computer wouldn’t allow her to book the flight on such short notice.
I made a desperate but inquisitive sounding squeel/grumble, kind of like, hmmm…ehhh…hgahhh!! This nice lady obvioulsy dealt with her fair share of crazy because she said, “Why don’t you book this online and I’ll stay on the phone. The time difference should allow you to book the flight” HA. I am child. But okay, it worked. I explained each stupid step as I clicked through. I realized where I made my mistake. US Airways had a big box that said “book now!” in red, with their suggested round-trip flight, not the flight I had originally clicked. I mindlessly clicked the big red link without double checking. Heh. Oops. I told the nice lady that and she just made a a sweet and slightly condescending aww sound.
Boss got the desired flight. I ate my desired lunch.
