I don't trust people who don't like dogs, but I always trust dogs that don't like people

First of all, I'm going to admit, the title has nothing to do with the blog post -- I just like it.  It's one of those internet quotes that may or may not belong to Bill Murray but it's funnier if he did actually say it so I just go with it.

A fun fact about government employees is that 85% of federal employees actually work outside of D.C. A lot of government employees travel frequently for work. It's why hotels offer the "government rate" not the "Wal-Mart rate." I was one of those employees that traveled a lot.

I'm going to share a story of travel and communication. I was aware I would need to audit an office which required overnight travel. I became aware of this because our administrative assistant emailed me a copy of my hotel reservation. I needed to leave in three days. At no point did my boss tell me about this trip. So in my best passive-aggressive pouty behavior I pretended like I didn't see the email. The rest of the day I did my work, avoided my inbox like it was the zika virus, and went home.

The next morning my boss asked why I had not completed my travel authorization yet. I was still was needlessly grumpy about not being told I needed to go out of town in, now, 2 days. So of course I was mature and I answered "what authorization?"  She reminded me I needed to complete the authorization right away and left. Meanwhile she never actually mentioned that I was going to be traveling.  She also never caught on that my shock about an authorization might mean that I was never told about this trip.

The next day, now t-minus 1 day until the trip, a co-worker asked what time we should meet to drive to the other office.  I told her that I was not in charge of the trip so I didn't know what time we should meet (or that we were even going...).  She then informed me that I would be driving everybody.

So I'm already annoyed that nobody had the courtesy to tell me that we were even making this office visit.  Then I'm being told that I am going to be driving everybody in my car.  After muttering self-pitying phrases on my way to my desk I see an email from our admin aide.  "Why didn't you add the cost for mileage on your travel authorization?"

Due to poor communication I was basically living in the movie Office Space.  If you're not familiar with the movie, first of all I suggest you watch it immediately, the main character is named Peter Gibbons.  Peter Gibbons is not a happy employee.  I felt like Peter Gibbons.