F-ing Diplomatic Emails

Today I had on my list of things to do was to suggest a badly needed meeting on an office report that is coming due. In telling my supervisor that I wanted to suggest the meeting, she advised me that I would be stepping on toes if I just called it. She wanted me to contact the person who is currently heading the center.....fine.

I wrote the email. And made the mistake of reading it to my supervisor. Who decided that because of a one phrase that I was too harsh on the former Director.

So I rewrote it.

The next draft she was worried that if the email was forwarded on, that a co-worker would be upset. She dropped that one when I told her that I would tell this to the face of the said co-worker...and that really I was just recounting a previous conversation.

So I rewrote another part of it to satisfy her.

This draft she felt made it look like SHE was being unreasonable and irresponsible, rather than what I was trying to go for, which was recounting my own view of the situation.

So I rewrote the email again.

The next version wasn't positive enough according to my supervisor.

So I rewrote the email yet again.

When I was trying to read this version of the email to my supervisor, I broke down into tears. All I am trying to do here is send a short email to call a meeting which everyone in the office wants to have, but no one is willing to step up and make sure that it gets done. But my supervisor made it into some BIG HUGE DEAL that I have to be diplomatic about everything and that email after email wasn't right enough.

I am seriously sick and tired of being worried about breathing wrongly around here for fear that it is going to piss one person off or another.

I spent/wasted a half hour of work (and cried) for an email that only needed to say "we need a meeting on this because no one knows what they need to do". How long did that take me to write, a couple seconds?! A half hour vs. a few seconds.

No wonder we can't get anything accomplished around here.