Laugh or Cry

I think I made it clear that the last week or so has been a mad scramble where work I s concerned. Pitch after pitch after pitch. Endless meetings. The usual. Responding to new business requests is always a bit of a tango when it comes to negotiating on the submission date:


Them: Can you turn something around in two days?
Us: No, two weeks is the usual if you want something of a decent standard.
Them: Sorry, it’s super urgent. The MD/decision maker is out of town/going to the moon/such an important person that they can only read your proposal between 2 and 2.10 pm on Thursday.
Us: When should we bend over?

We had just such a situation last week. We dropped everything. We worked like dogs. We submitted the proposal with 5 minutes to spare (quite an achievement, it’s normally about 25 seconds.)

This is response we received: I am out of town on leave – I will review when I get back on Sunday, 8th August.

Nice. Kill us. Kill the international team who supplied us with huge amounts of information, in record time. When you’re off on holiday anyway? Hello Twilight Zone!

I thought twice about putting this on my blog in case it was being professionally indiscrete – then I realized that this happens so often in Dubai that it could probably be any number of businesses on any given day. In with anger, out with love….