When being right is wrong

Much ado about nothing here in cubicle land.

We’ve got a hot pertata, and I don’t know how this is all going to work out.

See, we have this client, we’ll call him Captain Do It Myself.

He’s got a, er, habit of being quite entrepreneurial when it comes to the Procurement function. He wants what he wants and he wants it right now. He doesn’t like being told he has to wait while we review, negotiate or, you know, do all those things to protect The Company that we’re employed to do.

We’ve been, in our best accommodating way, working to bring him “into the fold” of Sarbanes Oxley love.

So, late last week, Capt’n Do it Myself went a little nutty.

He asked one of my employees for a soft copy of the most current version of redlines on a contract she’s been working VERY diligently.

Normally, this is not a problem. However, given the history…

She refused.

He lost his mind.

And since he’s got a job title that outranks me by a lot, he lost his mind not to me but to the people that I report to (and decide my paycheck).

The thing is, what my employee did was right. He didn’t need to have a soft copy. He’s only going to usurp the hard work already being done.

Early part of last week we uncovered a contract he “just signed…what, it’s no big deal!” that has us in all sorts of hot water. Things have gone bad and we only have that piece of crap to defend ourselves with.

We’re trying real hard not to end up there again.

Problem is, being right doesn’t always make you right.

And it seems once you get to a level where you have real walls and a door, what is “right” depends on how loud you can yell.

Much like a toddler.

This saga isn’t over yet. I’m unsure how to best support my employee. If what she did was correct, then why does she feel so crummy?