I have an important meeting. My company’s biggest client is in serious negotiations with the EPA tomorrow morning. This client brings in millions of dollars into the company each year. The auditor can’t make it to the meeting. The job manager can’t make it. So it’s all come down to me, little Joan, Environmental Engineer. Not Auditor, not Principal, not Senior Professional. Just Environmental Engineer.
| EPA man: | Environmental Engineer, eh? Tell me about this proposed liner! What’s the hydraulic conductivity? |
| Joan: | (squeak) 10-9! That’s metres per second! |
| EPA man: | And what’s the risk to the environment? Well? Well? Spit it out! |
| Joan | Well, there’s already lots of pollution around there… |
| EPA man: | (roars) NOT GOOD ENOUGH! |
| Joan: | (bursts into tears) Waaaaaaaaaaaah! |
…that’s not what happened, is it? 🙂
Jonathan
No, thankfully 🙂
I was not brilliant but I was also not incompetent.
I think there’s trouble ahead for this client. It’ll be ‘interesting’.
I just realised.
You know anyone who’s in an auditing-type job, including environmental engineers, will, by the very nature of the job, be lied to fairly often?
Doesn’t mean I like it, but it seems to be a fact of life.
Sorry.