I’ve been lurking here for a while and have to say this is my favorite thread in The Pit. I haven’t posted yet simply because I have only been at my current job for 8 months and was still in the honeymoon period. I have two workplace gripes right now:
As part of my end of month duties, I send out a few reports to a select group of people on the 1st of every month. Every month I get the same request from the same person to add data to the report that only she uses. The report is already cumbersome and I cannot alter it on my own. I would have to put in a query request to IT so they can alter it. I have explained that it is not worthwhile to get IT involved and waste their time when I am sure they have more pressing requests AND add data to an already data intensive report that tons of people look at just for her. I have explained to her mulitple times how to pull the data she is requesting in another report but she has decided that is too much work (2 steps and 2 minutes of work) and we should just add it to the other report and everyone else can just delete it if they don’t use it. Huh? We go through this dance every month. Every. Month.
After only 8 months here, we are already going through a re-org of our Department. My background is in Marketing and so is my education. That is why I was hired for this position. I have never done anything but Marketing. My current job is a little out of my comfort zone. It’s maybe 65% Analytical and 35% Marketing. I knew that when I took the job but was told I was hired to start bringing back more of the Marketing portion of the position. After the re-org, I will be doing no marketing at all. That’s right, zero. My job will become 100% analytical. In fact, my new division is Analytics (not-for-profit=divisions are smaller than departments so departments are comprised of muliple divisions instead of the reverse). Analytics (in this case pulling reports, analyzing data, etc.) has always been a small part of my job because prior to this job I worked for smaller companies where I wore many hats. Now it is my whole job. Plus, I am now reporting to a different manager. It actually pushes me up one rung on the org chart as I am now reporting to my boss’s boss. Not that it means anything. So, less than a year in and my job duties have been overhauled and I have a different boss than the one who hired me even though my old boss is still here and still in the same department. Re-orgs are a new concept to me.
Inundated! Sorry, I’ve been trying to think of the word that “denuded” replaced.
jb1931, can you just ignore your co-workers monthly request? I have very little patience for people who waste my time, and that’s just what she’s doing - it isn’t going to happen, so leave it alone! And I’m sorry to hear your job is changing so drastically - that happened to me once, and it didn’t end well (I ended up being fired for not being able to do a job that I wasn’t hired to do and wouldn’t have applied for had it been that way originally).
Create a word document with the last email discussion you’ve had with that coworker and save it in your reports folder. When she sends the request again you just send her the document with the line - No changes in the situation since we last discussed. Repeat as necessary. It’s no less annoying but a lot less work.
We’ve been through 4 reorgs in the last year and there is definitely one or two more coming in the first half of 2013. It’s nice that they’ve recognized the problems and are trying to fix them but holy hell I can’t keep track of who my resources report to. Some of them are having trouble keeping track of who they report to.
Thanks for the advice. If she does it again, I will ignore it the next time. I feel that I have explained it to her enough times. Yesterday I was going back and forth with her about another request her boss made. Since her boss is on vacation I was forced to deal with her. Her request was too broad so I asked her for more specific information so I could more accurately respond to her request. Instead of just admitting that she could not answer the question, she did not respond to my last email and instead emailed my boss asking for the same thing without telling her that she has already asked me. It backfired on her because my boss gave her the same answer and then told her not to email both of us the same question separately. Her response was that she was confused. Really? I am just done with this lady.
On the reorg, I think I will be okay because I am already doing the analytical part and I don’t mind it and am pretty good at it. However, it’s just not all I want to do. I really enjoy have creative tasks as well to break up the day. They also added another word to my already insanely long title. Working for a bigger organization has been a learning experience for me.
The state has a policy - if a person is involved in a certain broadly named program, we’re supposed to code one screen indicating it. Pretty simple, really.
Oh, hell no. Someone in another county has to get her grundies in a bunch, stating I have messed EVERYTHING up by following state policy. The person isn’t involved in this specific program, so I should not have coded it! True, he is in a program that is the same damn thing, just called something different. YOU CAN’T DO THAT! Why, yes, I can.
Now it’s been escalated. The other worker put nasty notes on my case, not kosher. Calls have been placed to the state office to fix my “error”. I’ve had to email up my chain of command to cover my ass.
Did I mention that coding that screen does nothing? It’s there for data integrity, nothing else? The other worker is not grasping it, just making my day stupid.
I think I was thinking inundated yesterday and somehow just messed it up in my head.
Still inundated, but the furnace is working again so I’m not freezing. Yay! I’m slowly whittling the paper down and feel like I’m missing something still so hopefully I figure out what before I leave today.
We have these things called Procedures. I’m sure you were told about them. One of them is that we don’t just give any access to anyone who emails you directly asking for it. Like you did. And when I send an email to you AND your boss (and my boss, and a bunch of other people) detailing how this is not to happen, and why, and tell you to remove that access, actually fucking doing it might be nice. Making me explain it all AGAIN the next day because you claim to be confused, and I again tell you to remove it and you again don’t do it isn’t really helping your longevity with this company.
Amusingly, I sent a “remove this access now please” email to the DBA group email box and it was assigned back to him to do it, and he did it immediately.
And when the person who owns that database comes back next week, they’ll have an email from me detailing how someone they hadn’t approved having access to it had access for several days because a DBA just up and gave it to them and then failed to remove it TWICE upon being told to do so.
So do send this as a request to IT to modify this report. Make sure they know that it’s only for 1 person, and that the data is already available from another report, so they know that you don’t think it very important. They will assign it a priority compared to their other pressing requests (like ‘when hell freezes over’).
But then, every month, you can respond to her: “That change has been requested from IT, and is in their pending workload. In the meantime, it has to be done manually from the other report. Attached are the instructions on how to do that.”
Still annoying to you, but maybe she’ll get the hint eventually. At least, now her complaint will be with IT for not getting this done. And the IT department may actually reject the request, saying that it is not worthwhile – insufficient ROI.
Or the IT manager or department head may send a budget request/invoice/cost center thingy to this person’s manager for the cost of making the change, at which that manager will probably decide to ask why this person is unable to get the information like everyone else.
How long do you folks take work calls after you leave a job? Its been almost a month and today I got texted twice by Jane and then a frantic voice message from my boss over an issue that was fully documented in the awesome procedure manual that I wrote.
I did call my boss back, but that was mostly for the chance to get gossip. The Ratking reigns supreme.
The big move has happened, the IT department has finally been moved into a building that was designed for them, instead of being in a 50 year old warehouse. The IT department orders new equipment by pallets. The new building doesn’t have a loading dock or a door big enough to move the pallets through. The new building also doesn’t have what is required for the server room, so that will stay in the warehouse. One lone room, surrounded by shelves of boxes, that is a 20 minute drive from the new building. I understand that many of the IT people are not as thrilled with their new building as they could be.
So…anyhow, how long do you folks take those sort of calls? Bill told me that I should stop after a week and then offer to be a consultant. I keep taking them for the gossip. How do you deal with them?
I pit the both of my erstwhile bosses, the daughter and SIL of the founder/owner. I’m happy you have family in for the holidays, however, you’ve created a work culture where everyone is afraid to do anything without your blessing, since you’ve both made it so clear that we’re either fuck-ups or thieves. I live on deadlines, morons, and your not bothering to come in, nor answer email or calls, means that I cannot proceed, and when I finally do get a go, 2 weeks after I asked for it, I have to spend a lot of YOUR money, to get it done on time, when had you taken the time to review it, I could have produced it in-house for a lot less. And I’m sorry, saying you didn’t read the mail because you just had so many that day you couldn’t face it and blew them all off, is not a valid reason. And then heaven forbid I get this hideous stomach thing that’s going around, and have to leave at 11, after starting at 6am, which obviously means I wasn’t planning a day of fucking off, you decide to call me on the carpet. I will PUKE on your carpet, I swear.
flatlined, the term you are grasping for is ‘hourly rate’. Take what you would realy like to be paid. Multiply by at least 5. Inform the AZ crew that is the rate, three hour minimum, for each time you are contacted for a former-work-related item.
That’s what I did and it worked like a charm. Over the 6 weeks of notice I gave not one of them made time to learn the database or any processing procedures, and since the only other person who knew that stuff was going out on medical leave a month after my last day I knew they’d find themselves in trouble soon enough. So I said feel free to call me any time, my consulting fee is $50/hour with a one hour minimum, but I’m happy to help any time. Not one call.
Tell them that you’ve forgotten, but they can look it up in the procedure manual you left them.
Oh, and tell them to have a nice day in your cheeriest voice.
I stop the very moment I walk out the door for the last time and cease to be paid.
After that, you’re on your own. Should have worked out any issues with me before you stopped paying me. Or we can talk about how you’re going to pay me to keep doing work for you.
Oh, you see, I already am a consultant. So if someone writes or calls me about anything that will take more than one sentence to explain and/or answer, I remind them of my rates…
One-liners such as “I can’t remember or find the code for that cost report we only run once a year, do you remember it?” “Have you looked in the Bosses Manual?” are free.
Same as Chimera - the minute I walk out the door for the last time, I don’t know anything and I don’t have to respond to any emails or calls. Or, as others have suggested, make your consulting rates known to them and stick with it.
I did take one class of call: the whispered call from the trenches. When a former coworker would call with hilarious stories. Or with gems like “PsychoBossLady thought she could replace you, but she’s got two people doing your job, and things are falling through the cracks. And none of us are offering to help!”
