Molly and Kevin,

This is the second unanswered e-mail from Nir Rosen this week. You have the e-mail from me--copied to you, Molly--from last week promising a contract this week.

You have the specifics--$6000 for expenses, the standard $2000 for fee, the standard 8000 words.

He is intending to be in Iraq in time for Ramadan, as specified in his original e-mail. That's now less than two weeks away.

We need to get him a contract and make arrangements for payment today.

Given the slow response, that payment should be a bank transfer, so he can buy a plane ticket today.

This needs to be taken care of immediately.

Ted

Minturn responded at 10:17 AM:

Dear Ted,

I am confused about the tone of this email.

I don't handle contracts or wire transfers and Kevin is out of the office today.

Also, you did not directly give me the specifics for the piece-- I didn't know the word count, and Nir Rosen wrote back to you last week (see email below) saying he could take $5,000 if you preferred. As far as I can tell, there was no reply to that.

If you need a contract ordered in the future, please email Kevin directly with the specifics, and please cc me on the emails.

Please let me know if you would like me to contact Kevin at home today and work on getting this taken care of.

Best,
Molly

Genoways replied at 10:54 AM:

Molly,

I spoke to Nir by phone, telling him that the offer of $6,000 stood. He has agreed to extra work; he's due the full amount. My last communication stands. If you had questions, you should have asked. If you felt this was someone else's responsibility, you should have passed it on.

Regardless, yes, this needs to be taken care of. If you can take care of it yourself, do so. If you need Kevin's assistance, call him.

As for the tone of the last e-mail and this one, I would describe it as officious. It is not my preferred mode of communication; in fact, I hate it.

But after what I've been hearing from HR this week--the word that the staff has threatened to quit en masse--my collegiality is a little threadbare.

So let me rephrase: Please see to it that one of our authors has the money he needs to travel on our behalf. Please do whatever it takes to accomplish that task today.

Ted