When I do a packing or pickup job, I'm finding I don't like having someone to help me. It tends to mess me up, and things don't get done the way I want. Like this job in Key West. For the first part I had someone to assist in picking up the Judy Blume archives (which are now safely ensconced at Yale), mainly because she's a huge fan and, fortunately, got to meet Judy.
But she's also one of the owners of the company, and has her own way of doing things...which don't work for me...but it has to go her way or the situation gets tense. So that issue we had with Office Depot not filling my order for packing supplies got more complicated than need be.
If I'd been the only one handling it, I'd have just taken the substitute boxes and headed on. But assistant got into the middle of it and wanted a credit for the difference in the boxes' cost -- a whole $5 -- so there were credits to be done and recharging the boxes and some went on my credit card while some went on hers, and I have no idea what finally got paid or charged or credited, in the end. I think I wound up taking a hit of about $9...but I can't be sure; I might not have. So I'm swallowing it and figure I'll deal with it once I get all my expenses reimbursed.
I never have worked well with others. I do things differently and approach situations from odd angles, and it can cause friction very quickly. Like today, I was asked to prep a last-minute addition to the Boston Book Fair and I was working along and suddenly found half the work I did had already been done by someone else, and me doing it was messing them up. So they got pissed off at me for not figuring out they only wanted this half done and not the other half...and I felt like dirt because I thought I'd screwed up in some way.
Of course, the same went for my screenwriting. When I did try to put aside my concerns and just follow the lead of two people I thought were on my side, all I did was get angry and hurt and ruined a script I'd been proud of, not to mention permanently damaged my friendship with them. Because while they were doing what they thought was right, it was wrong for me...and for the story, really. Completely. And achieved nothing. The script is now dead, and I helped kill it by agreeing to do what they wanted until things went too far.
So now I write my books and get feedback and use what I like and ignore what I don't, and while I get freaky and angsty and irritable and euphoric, it's all on me...and that make me feel at least a bit better about what I'm doing.
I guess that's something.
But she's also one of the owners of the company, and has her own way of doing things...which don't work for me...but it has to go her way or the situation gets tense. So that issue we had with Office Depot not filling my order for packing supplies got more complicated than need be.
If I'd been the only one handling it, I'd have just taken the substitute boxes and headed on. But assistant got into the middle of it and wanted a credit for the difference in the boxes' cost -- a whole $5 -- so there were credits to be done and recharging the boxes and some went on my credit card while some went on hers, and I have no idea what finally got paid or charged or credited, in the end. I think I wound up taking a hit of about $9...but I can't be sure; I might not have. So I'm swallowing it and figure I'll deal with it once I get all my expenses reimbursed.
I never have worked well with others. I do things differently and approach situations from odd angles, and it can cause friction very quickly. Like today, I was asked to prep a last-minute addition to the Boston Book Fair and I was working along and suddenly found half the work I did had already been done by someone else, and me doing it was messing them up. So they got pissed off at me for not figuring out they only wanted this half done and not the other half...and I felt like dirt because I thought I'd screwed up in some way.
Of course, the same went for my screenwriting. When I did try to put aside my concerns and just follow the lead of two people I thought were on my side, all I did was get angry and hurt and ruined a script I'd been proud of, not to mention permanently damaged my friendship with them. Because while they were doing what they thought was right, it was wrong for me...and for the story, really. Completely. And achieved nothing. The script is now dead, and I helped kill it by agreeing to do what they wanted until things went too far.
So now I write my books and get feedback and use what I like and ignore what I don't, and while I get freaky and angsty and irritable and euphoric, it's all on me...and that make me feel at least a bit better about what I'm doing.
I guess that's something.
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