to be fed up of people wanting everything NOW then not bloody using it?

[ThinkAboutItTomorrow]

Aaarg. I worked until 10.30 last night and left home this morning without seeing DD because :

client a desperately needed something to take on a trip
client b needed the minutes from a meeting urgently
client c needed to meet me at 8am

Since then:
client a has sheepishly admitted he cancelled his trip last Friday so it wasn't urgent anymore
client b hasn't sent out the bloody urgent minutes anyway
client c emailed at 7.30am to say he couldn't meet so can we do later today.

I don't mind the hours. I don't mind the work. But I do really get fed up of everything being urgent, until you have it and it can then sit in the in box for a week. Or things sitting in the in box for a week and then being passed to me when they are super urgent.

I have a life. My laptop is not actually umbilically attached to me and I do like to shut it down from time to time. It needs a rest.

Admittedly I am now mumsnetting at work so am being rather unreasonable on that score.

yep, like the client who wanted someting last week SO URGENTLY and when I sent it to her on friday morning got an out of office saying she was away until the 1st September...

You have all my sympathy.

Not much you can do if they're clients, sadly. Are they billable hours? Can you review their accounts? Voodoo dolls?

voodoo should work...

truth be told yesterday she must have checked her work email from holidays and did send a quick "thanks" reply...

Yes, voodoo is the way forward. How do I go about casually getting a hair sample. I don't stroke my clients very much (except for on occasion their ego!).... actually I was wondering if client A has all his own hair the other day (a very boring meeting) and voodoo is as good a way as any to find out.

YANBU. This sort of shit has happened in every single place I've worked (and I've worked in a lot of places). There will always be some people who love cracking the whip or who are so disorganised that everything is last minute and of course you're to blame. My current boss is a bit like this, but I made it clear early on that I won't be responsible for her being late with things. In fact I very quickly moved our working schedule around so our monthly deadline falls on her shoulders. I send my stuff to her, bang on time, every time. If it's late getting sent on from her end, that's her fault.

Previously I had a boss who would vaguely mention something then expect that something done and dusted straight away at a random time of her choosing, and of course I'd be in deep shit if I couldn't just pull it out of my arse there and then. I instituted a very strict system where she had to clearly request something either verbally (in which case I would write it down, in front of her and show it to her) or by email giving a clear deadline. Anything not clearly requested or deadlined was ignored. She soon learned.

YANBU. I work with someone who puts 'asap' on every request for information. I never know if she does this to make her feel important or because she genuinely needs the information quickly. I used to provide the info 'asap' and her stock response was always "Thanks,.but I will need to see what others say before I decide if the info you have given me is what I need". She wad once looking for suggestions for teaching sessions (we are in education). She needed these asap. I suggested a session and volunteered myself to deliver it asap. "Thanks but I think I will see what others suggest before I pass that suggestion on". Should point out here I am senior to her.

Sadly if I see 'asap' from her it goes to the bottom of the pile. She gives me a date, I comply.