I edit a weekly e-newsletter. He's been trying to get this entry into the newsletter for the past two weeks. I actually had to write the article for him because "it wasn't a good use of his time to write it himself" (this is a guy who comes in at 9:30 and leaves at 4 every day).

This week, he submitted the entry for the newsletter but did not send the three attachments for them. Deadline was Tuesday; as of last night, I still hadn't received them. I called him up. "Oh yeah. Well. My boss's boss was supposed to review them. But she's been out all week sick." [Bald-face lie, because I sat in a three-hour meeting with the woman on Monday.]

I told him to get me the goods no later than 9:00 this morning. 10:00 rolls around and still no files. The newsletter is published on Thursday mornings. So I call him. He's very surprised to hear from me.

"I told my boss I NEEDED them. I don't know what the holdup is."

So I picked up the phone and called smarmy guy's boss's boss. And he was stunned and all freaked out.

"You can't just call her up! She'll get mad!"

Because I'm sleep-deprived, and was feeling fairly confident at this point in the day, I didn't care that calling a senior executive to tell her she was late reviewing something might seem too ballsy. I had a newsletter to publish, dammit. When I put on my editor's hat, I'm unstoppable.

Later, my coworker told me smarmy guy had said to his boss that "despite the fact he had delivered all the pieces" I neglected to publish his article in the newsletter.

At which point, SG's boss came to pay me a visit.

Innocent me: "T., SG told me P. was still reviewing all those pieces, and he instructed me to pull the article." Blink blink.

Not until later did I find out that SG got seriously reprimanded for lying, and trying to pin the blame on me.

I hope this means he'll stop slithering around in here all the time.

Not that I would say this out loud to anybody here (because I haven't been here long enough to learn who's catty and not) ... but if you're going to be sneaky, at least be smart.