soapboxdiner

Sometimes it is possible to be too right

So, the meeting. I'm sure you are all dying to know how the stellar ideas that I have been racking my brain over for the last month and a half were received, aren't you now? Sure you are.

Today was spent nearly entirely from one meeting to the next, peppered with putting together my presentation of the returns process and how to utilize technology to improve the process. It was grueling and nerve-racking, but it all got done. At 2 pm, we all sat down for our meeting, and at 3:30, it was resolved.

Account Management is out of the loop. Can I get a Hurray from all you (three) SBD fans out there?

So practically speaking, what does this mean? It means Receiving will no longer pass kits off to me to photocopy. They will continue logging the kits in their auditing form, but they will now be directly returning all product to stock. Big Boss will be setting up another account with an online tracking service that will email all the information I need in order to track down the customers, only it will happen proactively, as the online service can and does report all returning kits to us as soon as the shipping companies send them back. (For those of you that keep track out there, this happens about two weeks before the kits show back up at our door.) This company also has the capability of sending out the first contact email to the customers, using the very email I have been using all along. This takes 500 phone calls off my To Do list, right off the bat.

I have also been given an alias on the anonymous CSR email address, so once the online company forwards the returns to me, all I have to do is import that information to my log and wait ten days to send a second email to those customers who did not respond to the first. Customer Service will create manual orders for those customers who respond primarily, so I no longer have to reship any packages. The originals will already have been broken down and returned to stock as part number units. Shipping will at that point ship the orders.

I will no longer have to go to Accounting to have fees assessed, because everything at this point will have become customer-initiated. All I do is populate a log and send out email reminders.

This all sounds really excellent, right? The process is completely automated now, right?

Big picture? Everything will run smoothly.

My little corner of this Company universe? As I said to my Boss today, trying to be funny, "You know this will either make or break my time here with the company, right?" To which she replied with innuendo, "I don't blame anyone for leaving. I'm just stupid enough to stay." And all put together in the meeting by the Warehouse Boss, "You realize that your purpose here will be expended with now, right? You will no longer have a function in this program."

My Boss is happy we will no longer have to maintain a responsibility to the program. The Big Boss is ecstatic that there will no longer be an extraneous and expensive inventory to manage. The CSR manager is pissed that her team has to actually do their job, and most likely in two weeks, once my Boss is back from vacation, I will be out of work.

Today, I "righted" my way out of work.

I suppose I should feel really good that I was instrumental in organizing a process for a company that would not have otherwise had this automated.

But I am more just filled with dread. I am pre-grieving that all my hard work and brain power have only resulted in a loss of my utility for the company I sweated for.

I guess this can all be chalked up to a good reference and time spent fruitfully and well, despite its ending.

It all disappoints me... and makes me just a little mad. If it were my world, I would get kudos and accolades for what I was instrumental in creating. But it's not my world, and I am just out of work.

5:11 pm - 08.28.02
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