why you should always use post its

The following is a true story:

I had a little bit of extra time yesterday because I had a few cancellations. So I decided to get to the bottom of a mystery that had been plaguing me for the past few days: what had happened to the piece of equipment I had ordered for a patient 2 weeks ago. (He certainly wanted to know and had no problem calling me 5 or 6 times a day to find out.)

So I hopped on the phone and called the company I had ordered it from. They ran a tracking and reported that it had been delivered a week ago. So off to shipping and receiving I went to track it down. The shipping and receiving dept had no record of receiving this package and needed a P.O. number to track it. So back on the phone to the company. They reported to me there was no P.O. number. (for a reason that it is not worth getting into now) Back to shipping and receiving (they never pick up the phone, which explains all the running around) and he reports that items without a P.O. number are delivered to department supervisor's offices directly.

Back to the department to speak to my manager who assures me that she has never seen this package. Great. (the patient has called twice during this ordeal so far and I don't want to call him back until I have some sort of info)

Now I'm in a conundrum. This package is SOMEWHERE in the building, its just that nobody knows where. Now I send out a group email to everyone in the department asking if they have seen this box and if so, where.

I get two responses from the email, both of which essentially say the same thing: they saw 2 boxes sitting in the hallway outside the supervisor's office (she was off site that afternoon). Both people recalled hearing somebody say: "Those boxes shouldn't be sitting in the hallway. I'm going to move them somewhere safe." But neither person SAW who moved the boxes, as they were in rooms with doors closed at the time.

Then one of the responders says: "It could have been Nancy. It sounded like her." Of course, Nancy is off THIS week, so I can't ask her. I start asking around it anyone saw Nancy put a box somewhere last Wednesday. Somebody recalls seeing Nancy put 2 boxes in the vacant desk in the front office.

Out to the front office to the vacant desk. There are no boxes on this desk. I do find one box under the desk. It is not the box I want. (But I do see that this box was also delivered a week ago, so I take a detour to deliver this box to its recipient) Ok, back to the front office and I start asking around if anyone took a box off the vacant desk. Somebody remembers seeing Mary Ann take a box off the vacant desk last week. But of course, Mary Ann has left to go do some sort of errands. Which is ok, as I really have to go do some ACTUAL work now.

Later, when Mary Ann is back, I find her and ask her if she took a box off the vacant desk. Yes, she did, because somebody took her stool that she rests her feet on (since she has a ridiculously high chair to accommodate her ridiculously high desk.) She has been resting her feet on my box for a WEEK!

As luck would have it, somebody from housekeeping was walking by just as Mary Ann said that her stool is missing. She scoots off down the hall and pulls Mary Ann's stool out of the supply closet, which was put there last week by somebody trying to neaten up.

OK....Quiz time: what the hell is wrong with this picture????

Answer: A few carefully placed post it notes would have solved me untold time and aggrevation.

Communication people!! Just write it and post it!

Thank God I'm perfect.