"My answer is: No!"
Last year, together with three foreign colleagues, I wrote my first book. The book was published by Springer and they give the authors a discount when purchasing their own copies. There was some budget left in 2018, so we wanted to order a number of these books as a group. Strangely enough Springer made us choose: either we would get an invoice with VAT (7%) and author discount (40%) or an invoice without VAT. That was an easy choice, so we deployed the order through the TU/e purchase-order system. We received the books in time for Christmas.
Last week I received a letter (on paper) from Springer. I had to pay the invoice immediately, otherwise they would never deliver me books again. After some searching, accompanied by many e-mails and phone calls, the invoice appeared to have been stuck at finances for six weeks. With a positive attitude our secretary called to ask what the problem was, because calling works better than mailing. The phone was answered with the words: "My answer is: no!".
Stupefied, but luckily quick-witted, she asked a question to which "no" was not a possible answer and she broke open the conversation. And after some further questions, it turned out that the TU/e cannot pay invoices with VAT on them. I had to pay the invoice myself and declare it. That’s alright, but why they did not tell me this when the first invoice came, is a mystery to me.
Misunderstandings
Unfortunately, the above scenario was not an isolated incident. The enormous bustle due to ever increasing student numbers and all renovations and relocations unfortunately have one special victim. And that is communication. When people come under pressure, they try to communicate more efficiently and that leads irrevocably to misunderstandings. There is sometimes simply no time to sit down next to someone to find a solution together. Flows of e-mails are often the result, sometimes even with a negative tone although not intended.
I am sure that sometimes I make the same mistake. For which I apologize in advance. Let us all try to keep thinking together and invest energy in our mutual communication. Stop mailing and call each other for a change. Nine times out of ten you will lose less time, that is if you do not answer the phone with "My answer is: no".
Discussion