Weird times 2 - Thanks for nagging

      As noted in the previous post, we are going through the process of selling the company, and it's led to some weird situations. One such example is the grading permit for a site we recently built an expansion on. The building portion is open and operating, but the grading permit - particularly, the landscaping part of it - has not been finalized yet because, well, it's winter. It's very hard to prove to a county that yes, you did plant flowers in this spot when there's nothing there but bare dirt; they get a little suspicious and make you wait til things are blooming and demonstrably not dead. Unfortunately, our grading permit was set to expire in early April, and you have to submit a renewal request at least two weeks ahead of time. Part of my job as I-Dotter and T-Crosser is to put calendar reminders for my entire department when a permit is going to expire, so we have enough forewarning to decide if it needs renewal. 

     So two months ago before we knew about the potential company sale, I got the calendar reminder that the permit would expire. I don't actually go out to the construction sites, so I emailed my boss asking if we should renew. Silence. This is not terribly unusual, so I set a reminder for a week later. More silence. I set a reminder for three more days, silence; three more days, silence; you get the picture. By now, word of the sale had gotten around and I was very tempted to just kill the reminders and let whatever happens, happen... but that's not what my job is. So for three more weeks, I just copy/ pasted the "Do we need to renew this?" text into a new email and resent it to the boss every three days, figuring eventually, he'll get annoyed enough to give me a real answer. 

     Lo and behold, I finally got an answer and an explanation after two more weeks, with two weeks to go before the deadline to renew. Apparently, the county inspector had been hemming and hawing on whether or not he would accept our assurances that we'd planted things before they bloomed in spring. The weather had been up and down, and both he and my boss were banking on it going up long enough to prove plant growth. A late cold snap nixed that idea, and the inspector said we'd have to wait til things started growing. I get the go-ahead to request the permit renewal, and think no more about it.

     As usual, though, the boss has to have the last word; unusually, this time it's good. For unrelated reasons, I had to physically go into the office a day or two later, and, with no one in the building but the two of us, he quietly (though socially distanced) says, "thank you for nagging me about that permit. There's a lot going on  now, but it would have been bad if we let that drop." 

     First time in my life I've been thanked for nagging. Strange times, indeed.