Meet Matt Walkington

Kind of humourous but mainly painful: for the present project, I went to extreme lengths to make sure that an instrument we might have needed (an AUTOSAL salinometer for measuring the salt content of seawater samples) went to Canada for repair and recalibration. Despite the odds and difficulties it all seemed to have happened just in time with the salinometer due back at great expense on the day of departure. But there was a final hiccup. The freight company forgot or neglected to work out and tell me that the box would have to come by road from Auckland to Wellington, rather than as air freight, and that would mean an extra day on top of their original advice.What I learned is something I knew already. Assumption is the mother of all stuff ups. You can't assume that other people will prioritise a job in the same way that you would yourself and that, if you want to make something happen with certainty and without errors and delays, you can't assume the job is under control and you need to check back with people regardless of their reassurances. Of course, in many situations, you need to balance that advice with the long-term need to be on good terms with people you work with and not be too much of a pain to them.