Low Man

Last week SMSN was out of the office. She's the person called "lead clerk." She's called this because the last time they made someone in her class the "supervisor" it blew up in their faces (Of course, it didn't get any better when that person was raised to the actual supervisor class, but I digress.) She came back on Monday. Each day since then, we clerks have received an e-mail from her telling us different ways that we have fucked up.

The first one was right on. One of our jobs is to make sure certain documents have been signed. If they're not signed, we get them signed. If we just send them on, they can't be processed. And since EVERYTHING that moves a file is on a deadline, the longer things like signatures go unnoticed, the more likely our office is going to be dinged. So, we all need to be more vigilant about the signatures. (The main problem with this complaint, though, is that out of the fifty or so files that were sent to her last week that SHE's processed, only one didn't have a signature. I think for the most part, we're pretty good about this one.)

In the second one she reminded us to put the date and our initials at the top right of the front page of every document that we process. The problem with this one is that when the documents get to her, the first page she sees isn't always the front page. If we send stuff to secretaries, they readjust it. As do the judges. So, if she doesn't go through everything, how does she know that we didn't initial it? I understand, though, that it's easier for her just to say we aren't doing something, rather than actually investigating.

Today's e-mail told us that we aren't putting lien paperwork in the right place in the files. Liens have their own special brad on the backer. They all go there. Someone (a secretary) brought a file to her attention where a lien was on the main brad, not the lien brad. Her e-mail told us to remind US not to put the liens on the first brad, but on the second. 'Course, she didn't remind the secretaries to do this too. And they put a lot more liens into files than we do, since most liens come in while the files are with the judges. It's our fault, though. It must be.