Nastygrams

That's what we call it when we get a really nasty ass email from a client threatening us with some something or other.  I got two this week.

Usually it is something like if you can't deliver "y" deliverable by "x" deadline then we are going to take our business elsewhere.  Or they say if you can't deliver on this in a timely manner we are going to go elsewhere.  These nastygrams do not phase the partner or so it seems.  Sometimes he even says (not to the client of course) - go right ahead you are a pain in the ass anyway.  Okay those are my words.  He would never say ass.  Fortunately, it is his responsibility to manage client relationships and not mine.

You know how I say I never miss a deadline?  Well I don't.  But he does.  I'm not saying that as a criticism I'm just saying that he/we are that busy that although I never miss an internal deadline, we miss external ones.  For the most part that is not my responsibility though more and more the partner is trying to get me to deal directly with clients and have my own relationship develop with them (you can imagine how I feel about this).

Anyway, I forgot what the first nastygram this week said.  That's how much I must have cared.  It's not like I am hiding anything from the partner.  He is fully aware of what goes on between me and a client and deadline etc.  If we are missing an external deadline, I have made him fully aware of it.  The clients will sometimes send me nastygrams and not copy the partner because I think they think that they can scare me or something.  Ooooooo big scary client.  I mean seriously, the first thing I do with every nastygram I get is forward it to the partner and say hey check this out.

At the end of last week, the partner got a nastygram about me - how about that.  The GC at the client sent a note to the partner that said, my colleague has been working with [insert my name] something or other and she blah blah blah blah and blah.  Well I hadn't done a fucking thing wrong in the first place and the very thing that the GC was annoyed about was the partner's problem, not mine.  Not to mention the fact that this is a client who I have been told does not like to pay the bill.  Awesome.

So then today I get a nastygram from the junior attorney that I have dealt with at that client telling me we acknowledge that the partner is out this week, but if you don't give me something to tell my team the GC is going to go directly to the partner and blah blah.  It was like WARNING WARNING, the GC is going to try to get you in trouble....

So what did I do - first I sent it to the partner and said hey, check this one out.

Then I called the guy, and was like hi, thank you so much for your note and blah blah.  And he was oh, I'm so sorry they are pressuring me and I didn't want the situation to get raised to the partner's attention.  Ha too bad cause I already sent your note to him.