Most of my 20 year career working for small to medium-sized businesses where everyone is doing multiple things, I have been expected to request, remind, nag and poke my C-suite execs repeatedly for sometimes weeks for basic things like – answering my fucking emails that have critical questions, getting their expense reports on time so they can be reimbursed, reviewing and approving items (that aren’t allowed to go out without their approval), input on any changes, basically anything I need from them. They double or triple book their meetings and decide at the last minute which one of us is blessed with their presence. I’m so tired of it. I thought this newish job would be better but nah, same shit, now I have not just one but two people I report to who are terrible at responding. We are remote but I had the same issue with in-office work. If I dare mention that I need a faster response, or if I push forward without their input due to a deadline and they aren’t happy about it, I’m told “you just need to bug me more”. I’ve tried to schedule meetings to review outstanding issues but they just get canceled or pushed out to when it’s too late, but the thing is, if they NEED meetings and don’t want to do email, they’ve never mentioned it, and even when I ask directly if they would prefer that “nah, email or chat is fine”. Our system is set up with checks and balances, as it should be, yet one side of the system drops the ball. And don’t get me started on how they forget something major that we discussed and approved, then months later they’re all “wait why is it like this???” then I have to pull receipts. Look, I understand I work for them, all I’m asking is for some basic respect like responding in oh I don’t know, with a couple of days so I can do my job in the manner they want it done. If I treated my employees like this I’d be mortified.
I’m not your fucking secretary, I have a whole ass job on my own and a department to manage, somehow I keep track of what my team needs from me and I respond to them and review my shit in a timely fashion. I’m sorry you’re so busy in back to back meetings and traveling but you also get paid three times what I’m paid, and if you’re leading the company you can figure out a better solution – use a goddamn reminder list or something. I’m OVER IT!
Oh and if you guessed that they expect me to respond immediately at all times, even after hours, then you’re absolutely right.