DONE, DID AND FINISHED

Isn’t it wonderful how when a project is complete it can have more than one form of being complete? You would sort of think when somebody told you they were done with an assignment and what they did and so you assume that means it was finished that would translate into all aspect of the project being complete. Or am I being silly to assume that done, did and finish should all imply something is totally complete?

Well at city hall this just doesn’t happen to be the case. At least not when I’m dealing with the variety of bureaucrats who run the various departments or even just work there.

With private industry such as contractors you appreciate how they may have a sort of sliding rule of when they view a project as completed. It is sort of like having them give you a guesstimate on when it will be finished. Whatever they tell you is generally never quite close to the truth. But if you are smart you learn to cope with this reality.

However with the employees in my little asphalt pond of the world I naïve assumed things would be different. I don’t know, but I stupidly thought if I told them to tell me when something was done that they would understand that is what I meant.

Instead what I get so often is some finish jargon. There is the date when the preliminary work or fact gathering function is complete. Remember the key word here is “function.” See I have come to understand that they divide a project into functions or phases and thus when each phase is complete they technically in their mind at least part of the project is done. And they will tell you what all they did in a nice typed report.

As for it actually being finished, well that part always stays a little fuzzy. Oh the real masters of double talk will bless me with confidence of how there is “light at the end of the tunnel” blah, blah, blah. Still it really comes down to the predictable. What I ask is lost in a myriad of words intend to avoid answering the question!

Yep, I have learned that reality. Of that you can be darn sure. I just wish I hadn’t been so stupid when I started out and assumed I would get an honest straight forward answer from any of these clowns. I mean if I want to hear crap, I’ll listen to myself talk.

Naturally I have my own way of getting even. It happens at review time. If I’m dealing with some department head that has tried to buffalo me with this stupid jargon of making the end of the project sound like the end when it isn’t even close to being finished, then I do the same with his review.

You know it sure is wonderful how these guys really hate that kind of game when they don’t control the rules. But normally I only have to do that once or twice with most people before they get the message.

As for the voters, well I do avoid bothering them with that aspect of explaining when a project is actually done. Like everything else with the citizens I resort to my more standard peddling of promises that are vague enough I don’t even have to worry about them understanding it anyway. What can I say, it’s a living.