Is this an OK email to send to my team lead at work or should I revise it?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

My 2 cents:
Missing just one email indicates some sort of issue, missing two indicates more stongly there is some sort of issue.

Possible issues:
1 - There is simply to much work to reasonably monitor email to the level of completeness required (I’ve been in this situation, even though they were flagged for follow up, there simply wasn’t enough time to get to them in a timely fashion)

2 - You have a procedural issue that is allowing some emails to slip through the cracks

3 - It’s an aberration, it hasn’t happened in 20 years and unlikely to happen again

If the issue is either #2 or #3, the next step is the same:
1 - Accept complete responsibility (don’t counter with anything)
2 - Briefly explain your new bullet-proof procedure you’ve implemented to address the problem (e.g. “I’m now flagging anything requiring follow up and then flagging when complete, I review all open flagged items every morning”)

Nobody above you wants to hear excuses, just the actions that will eliminate the problem. Even if the issue was truly a one-off that hasn’t happened in 20 years and probably won’t for another 20 years, you can’t really explain reality and have others understand it, you can only show them you take the problem seriously and you have taken steps to correct it.

22

FYI, the employee “Permanent Record” isn’t like your school “Permanent Record” where your grades and achievements are shared with others. What goes in there is only viewable by your direct manager and above, HR and you. By law, your employee file kept as long as the company exists.

I’ve worked as the HR person for several small companies and if I had to review the employee with my manager, who was deciding to suspend or terminate someone or not, I’d skip everything, good (very rare to have compliments other than for raises or promotions) or bad that’s directly relevant to the situation at hand. Verbal warning. Check. Written warning. Check. Final warning. Check. Done.

To prevent lawsuits, the most an employer/HR would confirm is that you worked there, during what time and possibly if they would rehire you again, but most former employers won’t even say yes or no to that.

23

Edit: “…or bad that’s directly NOT relevant to the situation at hand.”

24

In my experience, putting someone on a PIP is a first step in firing someone, or at least establishing the possibility of firing someone. I think your priorities should be to change the perception of your work. The best way to do that is to get your bosses to forget about this incident and get your client satisfied with your work. It’s not going to be a quick process. If I were your boss, I’d be checking in with the client in a month or so to see how things are going and they’d better tell him that you have turned a 180 and respond to their emails immediately. You need to show, not tell your bosses that you’re doing a good job.

25

“In my experience, putting someone on a PIP is a first step in firing someone, or at least establishing the possibility of firing someone.”

That’s how it is at the company I work for. A manager I’ve talked to who has loose lips told me that firing the employee is the point of putting them on a plan. They set goals which are very hard to meet. It’s all about documenting the reasons for the firing to cover themselves in a lawsuit.

He also told me that if the employee does or says anything to make it clear that they will not or cannot achieve the goals set out in the plan, they are fired immediately. One guy said “This is a lot of work. I don’t think I can do it all in a month.” That was it. He was fired.

Keep your head down and do the best possible job you can do and hope that they have mercy on you. Do not try to defend yourself. It can only make it worse.

26

thanks everyone for your responses. I did not send the proposed email. I did send, on a Friday, our meeting was on a Wednesday, a complientary email from a client about a translation that was delivered with a tight turnaround time on a Friday evening, and the Team Lead responded, “Awesome! Good end to a long week.” The week wasn’t long because of this issue, just a long week with many urgent requests. A typical week, in other words.

Anyway, I will continue to forward any complimentary emails from the client going forward as evidence of improvement.

Now madmonk28 you are right. In my experience, putting someone on a PIP is a first step in firing someone, or at least establishing the possibility of firing someone. I think your priorities should be to change the perception of your work. The best way to do that is to get your bosses to forget about this incident and get your client satisfied with your work. It’s not going to be a quick process

I have had that experince at another company, I mentioned it above, where after 15 years at this company, suddenly, I was told that I was a horrilbe project manager. They were looking for any excuse to fire people, many of my colleagues just left rather than face the constant criticsm for minor administrative mistakes. I stuck it out until they finally fired me. On the day that we had that conversation, I got my mail. In it was a card congratulating me for 15 years of service, with a handwritten note from the head of production, saying “Congratulations, it is a great accomplishment.” And there was a brochure included, where I could pick a gift. A gold watch was not one of my choices, just a bunch of crap like those you would find in the Sharper Image catalog.

That is not the company I am working for now. We had a Teams meeting the other day, discussing how we as a Team will deal with this. For the short term, I cannot deliver any translations to the client, even though there have not been any problem with past deliveries as far as the quality of the translations. But I get it. If I deliver a translation, and there is an error, which would be totally not my fault ( I don’t translate the documents, nor verify their accuracy, we have proofreaders to do that) , the fact that my name is on the delivery email might cause a problem for the client. All Team members are supportive of me and we will get through this. In almost any other company I have ever worked for, the client complains, they fire my ass.

27

Well madmonk28 you were right. I am fired. I have been a model employee for the past month, I have done everything right and I have taken even more projects than I usually do, and I always have taken more than anyone on my team, but I took even more to make up for any inconvenience to other teams members delivering jobs. I worked an hour or two extra some nights to do so, without OT pay. But I think the decision was made to fire me 30 days ago, and they slow played me. I had a one on one meeting with my Team Lead last Thursday, and everything seemed to be fine. He had no issues to discuss. So after almost a month of being scared to death to make the smallest mistake, I relaxed. Thought my job was safe.

The only question now is can I get a recommendation when I apply for a new job. I wrote Team Lead about it, he hasn’t gotten back to me, but a couple of project managers said they would recommend me. I just wrote the company CEO asking if she would.

28

Sorry to hear it.

29

This client I worked for is absolutley nuts. They will sometimes send a request for a translaition of 1000 words at 7:30 pm on a Friday night, wanting it delivered in a hour. The average translator can translate 2000 words a day. I can’t draw a triangle here, but picture a triangle with with 3 points. Quality, speed and low cost. The old saying is you can have any 2 you want, but not all 3. Clients want all 3. And then they complain with the quality of the translation is not good. Someone on my team had a translation a few months ago and “lung disease” was translated as “lung cancer.” Pretty scary for the member who got that letter. But what do you expect when we are using an agency that pays their translators .05/wd. That is $100 a day. Roughly $26k a year, and they expect quality translations for that. I have been in this industry since 1999 and have watched the quality of translations steadily decline.

30

Can you blame your job loss on CV cutbacks to new potential employers?

31

That is what I am going to say. Asked HR rep if I qualified for unemployment, she said “Absolutely. You can apply immediately.” I will trust her to mean that the reason for my termination will be that I was laid off, but I don’t know if I can trust her. I applied, will see. I don’t know what happens with the unemployment office, do they call the company?

32

In my state, they send a letter to the company stating you’ve applied for benefits and under what condition (laid off, quit, etc), which the company will agree to or deny. Things may have changed to move faster with CV, though.

33

the reason I say I don’t know if I can trust her is because I had a phone call with her last week. A “check-in” to see how I was doing and and if I was getting enough support from the Team. All smiles and no indication that my job was in danger.

34

I’m so sorry to hear you were let go. That sucks.

Also, let me add some independent confirmation that expecting 1000 words to be translated in an hour is completely insane. I worked in bilingual environments for many years, and there is no way that’s a reasonable request. Any reputable translation service would laugh in a client’s face at that kind of thing. Quality work demands more time.

35

I guess at least for the short term I could get a job in customer service, I worked for Santander Bank for a year in Rhode Island before I sold my house and moved back here in 2017. I was this guy - “Thank you for calling Santander Bank, how may I provide you with excellent customer service today?” I said that literally over 15,000 times in a year of working there.

36

I’m sorry to hear that, I hope you find a better employer quickly.

37

…I’m sorry @Mike_Mabes :frowning:

38

Anyone know about how long to start getting unemployment checks in NJ?

39

I would imagine you would start by initiating a claim online with the unemployment office.

40

I’ve done that, it said it was being processed but no other info availabe. I imagine it will take at least a month to get the first check