what do you say?

there are situations that i really HATE being in, especially at work, when i have to do or say things that i know will not be taken well but can't avoid. and today was one of those days.

following a problem between one of the teachers and her student, i'd asked her to provide me with a mini study plan for the following weeks. she sent me a summary of what they'd done. so i sent an email to clarify it was the next month i was waiting for. to which she sent me a simple 'day 1: lesson 1, day 2: lesson 2', which clearly wouldn't do. i can't send that to my client. so i sent her another email explaining (again) that we were expecting something more like a syllabus, as the one she'd shown me during our meeting, although it didn't have to be quite that detailed (i even sent her an example).

late this afternoon, i called up the teacher to find out how things were going, as i was supposed to send it in today. i was ready to give her more time if needed, although it couldn't possibly take her more than an hour to make, not even that. but she didn't see it like that. she couldn't believe i was asking her to do this. this was too much - i was really overstepping, she said. i was speechless. it's not like i was springing this on her. we'd discussed it. and i wasn't out of line, it was my job. but she was really upset. i tried to explain - calmly - that this was part of the service we offered the clients, but she wouldn't listen. she couldn't see why she had to do this and if that was how it was going to be, she might just as well quit. this was getting completely out of hand. this was going nowhere so i tried to calm her down - although frankly, i myself wasn't doing too well by then - said i'd stay in touch and hung up. i think she realised she'd gone a bit far but she clearly wouldn't let go.

it took me a good 20 minutes to recompose myself and another 2 unrelated phone calls to get back to normal. not a great afternoon.