Also, a frustrating work thing
Feb. 21st, 2024 11:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amado12021:
Boss: Hey, we need a freelance writer to write a book for us. I'll give you the names and numbers of these people, and you'll interview them and write a 1,000 word story for each person, okay?
Me: OK. Do you have consent forms for these people?
Boss: They all consent.
Me: OK...
2022:
Me: Hey boss, one of those people we interviewed ... well, I re-wrote her story as a newspaper spotlight like you asked, but she wrote into the newspaper saying she never consented to the story and she doesn't like her story being used as an advertisement.
Boss: OK, shit. She's in the book?
Me: Yeah.
Boss: OK, I need you to contact everyone in the book and ask for their permission to use their stories. And get them to read the stories and approve them, okay?
Me: OK. I'll need everyone's phone numbers and emails.
Boss: I can't give that information out to you.
Me: ...But...you've done it before. So I could interview them.
Boss: I cannot just give these people's contact info out to anyone.
Me: How am I supposed to contact them...
Boss: Just contact whoever you can. Just whoever you already have the contact info for, contact them.
Me: O...OK. And do we have, like, actual consent forms that I can send them, or do you just want me to ask if it's okay and ... I don't know, mark it down in a spreadsheet somewhere??
Boss: We do not need consent FORMS, just get permission and write it down. And make them approve their stories!!
2023:
Me: Hey boss, about half of the people I contacted NEVER got back to me. And there's still a huge fraction of the people that I just don't have contact info for. What do we do? Do we take the stories out for the people who never approved their stories?
Boss: No, we can't do that. We're keeping all the stories.
Me: Without consent?
Boss: They gave consent when they agreed to an interview.
Me, mentally calculating all the hours I spent hounding people to review their stories and give consent again: :^) OK.
2024:
Me: (No longer in marketing, blissfully free of this book)
Boss: Hey! How are you, how's school, how's your cat? Hey so about this book.....did we ever get ✨consent forms✨ for all the people in it?
Me: Oh no.
Boss: Hey, we need a freelance writer to write a book for us. I'll give you the names and numbers of these people, and you'll interview them and write a 1,000 word story for each person, okay?
Me: OK. Do you have consent forms for these people?
Boss: They all consent.
Me: OK...
2022:
Me: Hey boss, one of those people we interviewed ... well, I re-wrote her story as a newspaper spotlight like you asked, but she wrote into the newspaper saying she never consented to the story and she doesn't like her story being used as an advertisement.
Boss: OK, shit. She's in the book?
Me: Yeah.
Boss: OK, I need you to contact everyone in the book and ask for their permission to use their stories. And get them to read the stories and approve them, okay?
Me: OK. I'll need everyone's phone numbers and emails.
Boss: I can't give that information out to you.
Me: ...But...you've done it before. So I could interview them.
Boss: I cannot just give these people's contact info out to anyone.
Me: How am I supposed to contact them...
Boss: Just contact whoever you can. Just whoever you already have the contact info for, contact them.
Me: O...OK. And do we have, like, actual consent forms that I can send them, or do you just want me to ask if it's okay and ... I don't know, mark it down in a spreadsheet somewhere??
Boss: We do not need consent FORMS, just get permission and write it down. And make them approve their stories!!
2023:
Me: Hey boss, about half of the people I contacted NEVER got back to me. And there's still a huge fraction of the people that I just don't have contact info for. What do we do? Do we take the stories out for the people who never approved their stories?
Boss: No, we can't do that. We're keeping all the stories.
Me: Without consent?
Boss: They gave consent when they agreed to an interview.
Me, mentally calculating all the hours I spent hounding people to review their stories and give consent again: :^) OK.
2024:
Me: (No longer in marketing, blissfully free of this book)
Boss: Hey! How are you, how's school, how's your cat? Hey so about this book.....did we ever get ✨consent forms✨ for all the people in it?
Me: Oh no.
no subject
Date: 2024-02-21 07:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-02-21 10:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-02-22 07:38 pm (UTC)Recently, we had this issue where our CEO verbally promised us all that we'd get $1500 bonuses and a paid week of Christmas vacation if we met our yearly goals. Months later, she kept acting baffled whenever anyone asked her about it. She claimed she'd never said any such thing. She didn't realize that her CAO had actually written it all down AND put it into a PowerPoint for one of our monthly all-staff meetings, so everyone had seen it, and everyone had ACCESS to it. In writing! XD
She still managed to weasel out of that one, but it was satisfying to see her confronted with the written material.