Last minute decisions...

 Recently at work, I got delegated to assist my Manager with a delivery for a project that belonged to an ex-colleague who had quit recently. The delivery is for a new upcoming Condo and the Architect Firm had gotten a bunch of furniture from us to furnish the common spaces.

This ex-colleague of mine belonged to a completely different department and he handled more of the larger commercial projects, but because he was the only person left in that department, when he left, that department pretty much dissolved, so they threw it to my Manager to handle.  

Due to the sheer amount of furniture that had been purchased from us, the delivery had to be split into 5 separate deliveries and during the first delivery, before I was thrown into the project, my manager was pretty much on her own, and apparently, there were so many issues happening on site that it started to overwhelm her and she had a bit of a mental breakdown afterwards when she went home. 

She brought her concerns about this project up to upper management and they decided to add me into the delivery based on the fact that I had "project management experience", that reasoning made zero sense because my project management experience is completely unrelated to this, so I have zero clue how upper management made that connection that I would be of great assistance, but I decided to help out anyway out of sympathy for my manager, plus if I had an excuse to work outside of the store, I'm gonna take it because it's really boring to be cooped up in there all day.

So far, I have already attended 2 deliveries and it was definitely not as easy as a simple delivery, we had a lot of restrictions that we had to adhere to due to the fact that the place is still partially under renovation, permits were not approved in time by the Main Contractor on-site, so the first delivery that I was a part of that could have ended a 2pm ended up dragging all the way to 7pm as we had to spend 4 hours waiting for the Main-Con to approve our Risk Assessment documents because we had engage a Lorry Crane to Cargo Lift a massive 600kg table for us. Turns out the reason why it was not approve is because we were using a generic Risk Assessment Form for submission when the Condo Management was suppose to give us their Main Contractor's Risk Assessment Form to fill out and submit. 

We still have 2 more to go next year because that's how the condo management decided to schedule the deliveries, which is kinda weird considering that fact that furniture are usually only delivered at the end of the renovation, but the condo is still partially going through renovation works. Everyone on my side of the delivery team has just come to the agreement that whoever is doing the Project Management for the project is doing a very bad job, they actually attached a 2 month old newbie to be our main contact for that project and that poor guy is constantly getting scolded by his upper management because he was just very blur about the whole thing, the verbal abuse he had to endure had gotten bad that he has submitted his 1 month notice after our latest delivery.

My manager has also shared with me that she is planning to submit her resignation letter next year as well because of how much shit she has to do that is completely unrelated to her actual job scope. My manager has since taken a 1 week break from work, so now I am in-charge of communicating with the condo management team until she returns.

They are currently expecting another Risk Assessment Paperwork for the engagement of a Lorry Crane for the next delivery in January. As far as I am aware, the Lorry Crane cost is being covered by our Company, so when we are required to engage the Lorry Crane again for the upcoming delivery, everyone naturally assumed once again that it was going to be covered by our company.

A few days ago, my Upper Management messaged the company's internal group chat asking how many more times we will need to engage the Lorry Crane for the delivery project, I replied and told her that we will likely need to engage them 2 more times as some of the rooms that will house the heavy furniture will not be ready in time, to which she responded with....  

"Could we just deliver everything at one go, the Lorry Crane is going to cost us $2000 each trip. It's very expensive to get them 2 more times."

... so I relayed her request to the Condo Management in the official group chat and ask if we could just deliver all the items in one go and store the ones that are not yet ready to be set up in a separate area first, to which the Condo management said the room wasn't ready yet and they didn't want to risk the furniture getting damaged. 

I then forwarded that to Upper Management and told her it was not possible, to which she responded something along the lines of...

"I want all of us to be realigned with the Lorry Crane Cost. We will not be covering their Lorry Crane expenses, the first time we did it was out of goodwill, however, the cost for this second engagement will be borne by the them, so what you need to tell them is that we recommend for them to deliver everything at one go to help them save cost."

... when I first read her reply, I was just quickly skimming through it and thought what she meant was that if the Condo Management was going to require us to engage the Lorry Crane 2 more times, then we will only cover the cost for the upcoming one, but the cost for the following one will be borne by them. That makes sense because based on the delivery schedule plan that was agreed upon at the start of the project, we will need to engage them 2 times in total, getting us to engage the Lorry Crane a third time just because your site couldn't complete their works on time should not be our responsibility, this way it's fair for everyone, we will engage the Lorry Crane twice as per the delivery schedule plan and their side will be given a heads up that if they choose to delay the delivery because of issues on their end, then they will be the one to bear the cost of the Lorry Crane's third engagement. 

But then when I re-read the message again, I realize that it was not at all what the message meant.

What the Upper Management wants me to tell the Condo Management is that they (Condo Management) will be the ones who will be bearing the cost for the upcoming Lorry Crane and that we will only cover the very first one that was hired for the delivery 2 weeks ago.

I was really confused because no one who is in direct contact with the Condo Management on site is aware that we will be making them bear the cost of the Lorry Crane, everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY, was under the impression that we will be covering the cost for it.

So what the fuck is up with the curveball and why the fuck am I only being told about this days before we have to submit the documents?

I messaged my Upper Management privately and told her that everyone is under the assumption that the cost of the Lorry Crane will be borne by us, this includes everyone at my company that is involved in the delivery, the delivery guys as well as the Condo Management, that the conversation she wants me to have with the Condo Management is not going to go well because this was clearly a decision that nobody is aware of.

She then told me she agreed, and I thought she meant that she agreed how unreasonable it was to throw to cost to the Condo Management last minute. But then she later clarified herself in a follow message and said that she agreed that the Condo Management will not take it well, but will give me a call to tell me how to handle it.

I had made up my mind then that I was not going to be the one to have the conversation about this cost issue with the Condo Management. 

Fuck. This. Shit.

You don't make last minute decisions that will piss off the client and then make me play the bad guy for your stupid decisions. I will not just sit idly by and be the one who will have to endure the barrage of verbal abuse from them.

NO! 

Anyways, I had a call with her and I asked her if this had been the plan all along or was it a last minute decision she had decided to make, she said the plan was to always have the Condo Management bear the cost of the second Lorry Crane engagement, which I immediately knew was bullshit, if this was a decision that had been decided from the start, then it should have been brought to everyone's attention from the very beginning, the most important being the attention of the Condo Management, this are the terms that should have been discussed with them, but there is no proof any of of that happening, and instead, her justification is...

"We did not tell them we will engage the Lorry Crane to move their goods from the beginning. We only told them we will deliver it to the first level."

... okay? But when the Lorry Crane was brought into the picture as a requirement, why was it not discussed then about who should pay for it? 

If this was the plan from the start, to get them to pay for the second Lorry Crane, why would she be so concerned about the cost of the Lorry Crane when I told her we needed to get it 2 more times, she even wrote down...

"....cost us $2000 each trip..."

... not cost them, cost us, in the message.

I told her over the phone why I thought this was a bad idea, that this was not a conversation I will be initiating with the Condo Management because they will clearly be upset about it and I am not about to be used as the company's meat shield. I am already doing the company a favor by assisting with the delivery, this is already beyond my job scope, you are delusional if you think I am going to go above and beyond to throw myself into a hole that you have dug. 

So that shit will instead be dealt with by my Manager when she comes back from her break, and I have a very strong feeling that this conversation could potentially be the needle that breaks the camel back for my manager. We'll see how it goes, if everything goes wrongly, then my Manager will no longer be with us in March, and honestly speaking, looking at the way Upper Management is currently handling this situation, I would very much like to leave as well and just find a new job.