The worst part of working in a mine-field....
Is that you never know exactly where the damn mines are.
I HATE MY JOB! I HATE MY JOB! I HATE MY JOB!
Friday night, I had a major melt-down that I thought was THE END OF THE WORLD! I noticed at the very end of the day that one of my client's outbound flight had been changed from the 11th of November to the 13th of November, BUT that the car and hotel were still showing the 11th. I knew that the client had told me his partner was using his miles to upgrade him, so I thought that maybe in the upgrade process somehow the dates had gotten changed to the wrong date. This would mean that the client would get to the airport and have no ticket.
On the other hand, if he meant to change it to the 13th, but hadn't changed the hotel then he would get there on the 13th and have no hotel because it would have been canceled when he no-showed on the 11th.
So I noticed this and then DESPERATELY tried to get in touch with the client to find out what the hell was going on. Called his cell. No answer. Called his office. No answer. Went home on my bicycle in a state of hysteria and managed to forget to write down the cell phone number, so I had to call after-hours to get it. Tried calling again. No answer.
By this time my blood sugar was WAY DOWN, I was shaking, I was freaking out and my poor husband had to put up with me snivelling and whining about it was all going to be my fault, even though it wasn't.
Hubby and I rode our bikes to The Wild Pepper for dinner. (Hubby is on a mission find a Sichuan restaurant in our neighborhood that will provide the same "mouth numbing" heat as Spices!) I was still freaking out, so it's amazing I got there without killing myself.
Shortly after we ordered, my cell phone rang and it was the client. EVERYTHING WAS FINE! He changed the flights himself AND called the hotel....WITHOUT BOTHERING TO TELL ME!!!!! Thanks for that, client. But it was ok. I went back inside and had a crying jag of relief and then enjoyed my dinner. The food was good, but not the HOT HOT HOT of hubby's dreams.
I also apologized profusely for putting hubby through my "oh my god, I'm going to get fired" craziness year after year after year.
So we had a nice weekend.
And then I had to go back to work, where I have been desperately trying to get approval for an attorney in one of the Asia offices to get a ticket to visit her parents in December. She hasn't been out of her work city since she flew out in December of 2011. My email correspondence and memory was that she had changed her return once, then tried to change it again, but couldn't because validity was running out so we decided to refund it, leaving her with no outstanding funds. So I told everyone involved. Then someone asked well, how much was the refund, so I got in touch with accounting and found there was NO REFUND. Then I called United and found out that the ticket expired back in July.
So potentially, the law firm is out at least $3000.00 because I'm a flake, but I don't see how I could have flaked....I mean, yes I flake all the time, but this was some pretty major flaking. Then there's an even worse possibility, which is that I tried to get a refund and it turned out they couldn't because of the fare loss in going from a round trip to one way. Which MIGHT mean I knew about this and just decided not to tell anyone and hope it would go away.
I hope this is not true....but it's not impossible. I could have just panicked and been afraid to tell anyone. If this is true, not only will I probably fired, but I should be fired. I suck. I'm a terrible travel agent and if I'm going to act like a child, I can't be trusted to work in this industry. Even if the best case is that I just flaked and lost the $3000.00, I still should be fired.
About the only positive in any of this is that if I get fired right now, I should be able to get temp work in retail at least through the end of the year and then I can think about what I'm going to do with my life.
I'm waiting to hear from United to see whether of the really horrible options is the correct one. Then I need to call Carol and let her know what's happened and make it clear that I understand how bad it is and that if she needs to let me go, I'll totally understand.
I've been in knots all day with this. I've picked off almost all my Goddess nails. I thought the big crisis was my client with the messed up flights....but it's this thing that's been waiting to explode for 6 months.
You never know where the goddamn mines are.
I HATE MY JOB! I HATE MY JOB! I HATE MY JOB!
Friday night, I had a major melt-down that I thought was THE END OF THE WORLD! I noticed at the very end of the day that one of my client's outbound flight had been changed from the 11th of November to the 13th of November, BUT that the car and hotel were still showing the 11th. I knew that the client had told me his partner was using his miles to upgrade him, so I thought that maybe in the upgrade process somehow the dates had gotten changed to the wrong date. This would mean that the client would get to the airport and have no ticket.
On the other hand, if he meant to change it to the 13th, but hadn't changed the hotel then he would get there on the 13th and have no hotel because it would have been canceled when he no-showed on the 11th.
So I noticed this and then DESPERATELY tried to get in touch with the client to find out what the hell was going on. Called his cell. No answer. Called his office. No answer. Went home on my bicycle in a state of hysteria and managed to forget to write down the cell phone number, so I had to call after-hours to get it. Tried calling again. No answer.
By this time my blood sugar was WAY DOWN, I was shaking, I was freaking out and my poor husband had to put up with me snivelling and whining about it was all going to be my fault, even though it wasn't.
Hubby and I rode our bikes to The Wild Pepper for dinner. (Hubby is on a mission find a Sichuan restaurant in our neighborhood that will provide the same "mouth numbing" heat as Spices!) I was still freaking out, so it's amazing I got there without killing myself.
Shortly after we ordered, my cell phone rang and it was the client. EVERYTHING WAS FINE! He changed the flights himself AND called the hotel....WITHOUT BOTHERING TO TELL ME!!!!! Thanks for that, client. But it was ok. I went back inside and had a crying jag of relief and then enjoyed my dinner. The food was good, but not the HOT HOT HOT of hubby's dreams.
I also apologized profusely for putting hubby through my "oh my god, I'm going to get fired" craziness year after year after year.
So we had a nice weekend.
And then I had to go back to work, where I have been desperately trying to get approval for an attorney in one of the Asia offices to get a ticket to visit her parents in December. She hasn't been out of her work city since she flew out in December of 2011. My email correspondence and memory was that she had changed her return once, then tried to change it again, but couldn't because validity was running out so we decided to refund it, leaving her with no outstanding funds. So I told everyone involved. Then someone asked well, how much was the refund, so I got in touch with accounting and found there was NO REFUND. Then I called United and found out that the ticket expired back in July.
So potentially, the law firm is out at least $3000.00 because I'm a flake, but I don't see how I could have flaked....I mean, yes I flake all the time, but this was some pretty major flaking. Then there's an even worse possibility, which is that I tried to get a refund and it turned out they couldn't because of the fare loss in going from a round trip to one way. Which MIGHT mean I knew about this and just decided not to tell anyone and hope it would go away.
I hope this is not true....but it's not impossible. I could have just panicked and been afraid to tell anyone. If this is true, not only will I probably fired, but I should be fired. I suck. I'm a terrible travel agent and if I'm going to act like a child, I can't be trusted to work in this industry. Even if the best case is that I just flaked and lost the $3000.00, I still should be fired.
About the only positive in any of this is that if I get fired right now, I should be able to get temp work in retail at least through the end of the year and then I can think about what I'm going to do with my life.
I'm waiting to hear from United to see whether of the really horrible options is the correct one. Then I need to call Carol and let her know what's happened and make it clear that I understand how bad it is and that if she needs to let me go, I'll totally understand.
I've been in knots all day with this. I've picked off almost all my Goddess nails. I thought the big crisis was my client with the messed up flights....but it's this thing that's been waiting to explode for 6 months.
You never know where the goddamn mines are.