Behind the Story

Here's the scene

"Where's the report?"

"Still in the process of finishing it

15 minutes after..

"Where's the report?"

"Give me a few more minutes. I'm summarizing everything up."

Another 20 minutes after..

"What time is it? Give me the report"

"Ok, I'll give you the ones that are already done."

*Busy doing the undone part of the report*

"Shiela, I need the production posting of these items"

*Posts the production report

"Shiela, have you encoded the data of the other warehouse?"

"..."

The next day...

"Where are the supporting documents (in relation to my submitted partial report)?"

"I don't have it with me"

"Then how did you verify if the reconciliation is justifiable?"

"..." (inside my head: As much as I want to do verifications, I just don't have the time to do everything at once)

"I did not ask you to just copy the reconciliation report they've done without verifying it. You have to make sure that what they wrote in their reconciliation report is justifiable blah blah blah.."

*Thinking: If only I have time to do it. I really want to do it but I am running out of time. I'm exhausted. Confused. I'm working my ass off but still it is not enough. In the first place, how do you expect me to do inventory auditing when accounting is my least favorite thing in this world? How many warehouses do I handle? I am just one person doing at least three person's job. I encode. A lot. I audit. I make purchase orders. Do follow-ups. What else do you want from me?

Funny how our bosses do not realize that we are incapable of doing too many things all at once. Not because we are not efficient, but because one person simply cannot do three person's job simultaneously. Especially if those that he is coordinating with also do not have a clue on what is going on in their own warehouse. I am not Superwoman nor am I Einstein. I need time, plenty of it, to finish everything. It's not easy to fulfill the requests of everybody. If someone needs something, I have to do it. Even if it does not concern me, I am the one being asked. Think of the time being wasted every time I get up to go outside to make or take a call. The time it takes me to try to answer queries that I don't even understand at all. The time for me to follow-up on some scheduled deliveries. I don't have the luxury of time itself. 8 hours a day is not enough for me to finish everything. My work do not only require good summaries. Before I can write a good summary, I have to spend hours to analyze things. I want to see through the reports submitted to me thoroughly but I am constrained by time.

I have never submitted late reports, at least not that kind of late. I want to do it thoroughly and surely. If only I have time. Or if only there is someone I could split the work with. I know I am not irresponsible. I know how to budget my time. But in cases like this, even well-budgeted time won't be enough to accomplish everything for so many more reasons.

Its not that I don't have the guts to speak out to my boss. But because I know that when I speak up, the ugly truth will surface. That both people and facilities are not enough. Just like when you cram a lot of your wardrobe inside a suitcase, stuffing more than its capacity, it explodes. People too, "explodes" when forced to take in everything way beyond his capacity.