Obligations

Just gotta vent for a minute on this one, folks.

One of the supposed requirements my employer has for people in its services division is that we maintain a current resume, in the corporate standard. I've mentioned before that I'm currently assigned to the team that reviews and validates those internal resumes.

Unfortunately, there's no consequences for not updating one's resume. And some people who are on long-term client assignments don't care whether theirs is updated or not. So we have to send reminders, usually copying their account manager so they can see the lack of cooperation from the employee. For some of my less responsive people, I've taken to indicating the date of the original request in the email subject, and then driving that point home by including the number of elapsed days in bold in the body of the email, on the third (and later) reminder. For example:

To: Deadbeat.Employee@bigcompany

CC: deadbeats.account.manager@bigcompany

Subject: Request to update your Bigcompany resume (original request 9/26/2007)

Good morning. The resume team has not received the update we requested on September 26, 37 days ago. Please take a minute to update your resume, addressing the items outlined below, and return it to the resume mailbox (resumes@bigcompany) by Wednesday, November 7.

Apparently, someone got offended that we would highlight the length of time it's been by bolding it. Excuse me?!? That's the point. If you won't fulfill your obligations, then we'll embarrass you into doing it.