Asked staff for help on fire drill and they said they would start right away. Call 5 hours later at 10PM and they haven't started because they wanted to watch "their show". Should I go off in the AM?

OP, do you think you could have at least made it clear to the staff members that you all would be taking their inputs and working them into the proposal tonight and that it would then also be going to the Partner tonight? I personally agree that "ASAP" is so overused in our profession that it kind of bounces off anyone with a decent sense of time management. As an example, if I have three tasks and I know exactly when two of them need to be done by and a third with an arbitrary "ASAP" deadline, I'm going to make sure I hit the other two deadlines and then take care of the third. In theory, I have managed my tasks and finished them all on time to the best of my knowledge. While these are junior members and likely do not have many other firm priorities, you will never know so it couldn't hurt to at least be clear that this was coming together tonight so any sensible person would understand that a sizable amount of downstream work, being completed in the same night, would require that they prioritize it before tv. Maybe I have had a unique experience, but the number a tasks that are not needed "ASAP" are an overwhelming minority. Be clear. Don't be high and mighty. Ask them how they interpreted the ask. Me personally, if there was something this time sensitive where every hour counted, I would not be waiting 5 hours to check in and make sure junior staff were coming along ok. This is seemingly an opportunity to improve the leadership piece of your toolkit as opposed to the manage capability as others have mentioned. People are not a "set it and forget it gadget".

Uh...it sounds like most of the people here have never worked on a proposal/are staff level. Maybe in your long term IT implementation engagements nothing is truly "ASAP" but in Business development, the deadline is the deadline is the deadline. If we don't get the proposal in, Deloitte or EY or ACN or Navigant or any other firm can and will eat our lunch, so it truly is all hands on deck. As staff, if I get a request like this I drop everything- maybe the staff member in question didn't know the true nature, maybe she didn't care - but what I do know is if I acted like this- putting off BD work until it's convenient- it would ABSOLUTELY get brought up in any compensation or promotion discussions. Don't ever get it twisted, business dev is the sacred cow of big4 and equivalent firms- if you fuck with it, the powers that be will remember.

Why are you asking someone to work between 5pm-10pm?

When you call someone "the staff" I'm not sure they are going to respond positively.

"Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part."

Manage your client. Manage your life.

"Rule number 76. No excuses. Play like a champion" - Vince Vaughn. Wedding Crashers.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hPTcLZi7oH4

I think the underlying issue is this concept of a fire drill. We don't save lives here, a few extra hours most likely won't make the sky collapse.

☝🏻️ "as soon as possible" means within business hours to me. If I received that instruction, I wouldn't have assumed that you meant within the next couple of hours, after already working a full day.

Directions were "we need your piece of this ASAP as its driving multiple other parts of the proposal. Feel free to work from the hotel on it, but please get it to me as soon as possible"

If you were crystal clear about the timeline, absolutely.

It sounds like they are "the help"

Doesn't seem like you were clear about timing.

Or maybe they are late night people. Breathe and see what you get before you go "off". Also revisit exactly what you said.

Ha @D1 either you are the luckiest son of a bitch at Deloitte or you're talking out of your ass because I've been here for 3 years and never once has it been an expectation that I don't have to work after 5 pm

@OP I don't think you should be having to defend yourself for asking someone to do something at 5:00 pm. That's just consulting life to me, sometimes shit comes up and sometimes it's at 5:00 pm - just be glad it's not 9:00 pm

This stuff makes me feel so good about my novice ass

And D1, what area are you in because I'm not sure I've ever got off at 5 on a Mon-Thurs

I probably won't go off but will definitely need to have the conversation about managing expectations. If you have other things that you need to attend to, then feel free but don't say you will do something and then not do it

It's like most of you have never worked on a proposal before.

But I also think she has the right to say "no I can't tonight, I have personal things to attend to" rather than agreeing and just not prioritizing the request

I'm not saying I don't work past 5pm. It's 9:30pm Central and I'm still working 😉 I work at night every single day. My question was more directed towards the instruction, why is the request being made at 5, did the team not discuss such urgent requirements before they left the office for the day? AND. If I saw an email like that from my SM, and I was dependent upon a colleague before I could submit MY work, I would send a text, or pick up the phone and have a friendly conversation like, "Hey! Looks like Bob needs this tonight, you work on finishing up your section, I'll finish up mine, and we'll touch base in an hour and put it all together before WE send it out." Then we all high-five and everybody wins.

Ha,ha ain't our prob brah, staff needs relax time

We are