You can’t ask your supervisor to run interference for you? You know, if Annoying Coworker wants to usurp your time (which is basically a resource under the control of your supervisor), she should submit it to your supervisor, and let your supervisor make it an assignment.
She will never change if you continue to enable her by doing her last-minute rush projects! Why should she?
How long before you get in trouble with your supervisor because you miss deadlines on some of your own “big projects”? Then you will have worked hard and made her look good by getting her tasks done on time, and made yourself look bad by delaying your own projects. Why do that?
Next time it happens, go to your supervisor, and ask which of your big projects you should delay to work on her last-minute rush task. And then work on whatever your supervisor says.
Yeah, what he said.
I don’t understand, if Annoying Coworker is just that and not in a position over you, why can’t she do any of this stuff herself? Sounds like she’s an ass-kisser to your supervisor and your supervisor enjoys it.
I’ve worked at places where the honest-to-God response was always “everything is a priority.” From senior management.
And as we know from Syndrome in The Incredibles, when every job is a priority, no job will be.
Anyone who makes that observation to me gets asked “Ever read Animal Farm? Yes? I.am.not.the.horse.” I may have to explain that a bit more for the illiterate and unread. Then if they still won’t give me priorities, I make a note of it in writing, send them a copy, and set my own priorities. When shit hits fan, points to documentation.
On another note:
Mother of pearl! I worked for at least 5 hours yesterday on a fiddly little report in Cognos*, saving every single step of the way, and was 99.9% finished at the end of the day. I had to have a more experienced colleague look at one little problem I couldn’t track down.
This morning, all but the first 5 minutes of work has disappeared. Aaaaggghhh! No-one has any idea how this could have happened. The report is not saved in a different location or under a different name. It’s just reverted to the first saved version (actually I don’t even remember saving it at that stage, there was so little in it).
*Cognos users will appreciate my frustration when I mention that this report had a Union in it. I hate Unions (in Cognos).
Do you save on a network? I never save on the network. Aside from the security issues, if my work disappears I want to know exactly whom to blame, even if it’s myself.
Today, in the midst of two crises, I got called out for a document having inaccurate internal references. Fortunately, I could clearly (and not at all pleasantly) prove it had been reformatted after it left my control. I still have to fix it, but at least everyone knows that I am being the hero here, not the goat.
Nope, with Cognos, I can only save report code on the Cognos server. So I got nothin’.
And no one has any idea how this could have happened? That’s not true.
Someone knows exactly what happened and who did it, and they will never tell you.
I’m not that paranoid. There is no way that anyone else could have preserved that early version of the report and substituted it for my almost finished one.
Here’s what I think happened, but it’s strictly a WAG: I had two reports open at the same time, because I was copying some code from one to the other. These different reports were different tabs in IE (this is a web-based application). So I’m thinking that, even though every time I saved I was on the tab with my report, somehow it was the other report that was being saved.
Alternative explanation is that there was some server fault that caused them to re-load a previously-saved version of the server data from earlier in the day. This is the one that I prefer, as it would not mean that I was either crazy or incompetent.
I just put in an IT help ticket to ask that exact question, who knows, maybe someone will own up.
It’s very possible.
BINGO!!! Also, what Sailboat said–Annoying Coworker is an ass-kisser. She is the department Golden Child Who Can Do No Wrong. If there’s any conflict between the two of us she will always win. So while these are all good suggestions, if I took this to my supervisor, she would expect me to do this plus everything else, all at the same time. Because of incidents like this in the past, if she wants me to do something, she is supposed to go to my supervisor, but I think that’s ridiculous.
This project has two parts, and I’m not responsible for the second part. I never have been in the past and I don’t plan to in the future. I’m just waiting for Annoying Coworker to bitch about that so my supervisor will want me to do that too. I’ve discussed with my supervisor in the past why I’m not able to do Part B (mostly because I’m probably working on another project that has a deadline, so I’m usually not available to do Part B). However, my supervisor has the memory of a goldfish, so pretty often when we discuss a problem and come up with a solution that works for all of us, she’ll forget that we even talked about it in a week or two. So I’m sure it’s going to be an issue sooner or later that I still don’t do Part B, and Annoying Coworker is going to go tattle to my supervisor, who is then going to demand that I do it, and that might be where I actually walk out the door. I like my job, but I’m getting tired of dealing with this kind of crap.
Whoops, sorry–I messed that up. Sailboat was correct about everything being top priority. And t-bonham@scc.net, I do these things for her because if I don’t, she will go whine to my supervisor, and I’ll have to do it anyway, and then I’ll look bad for not being a team player. If I say no to anything my coworkers ask me to do, I’m not good at “teamwork.” This doesn’t apply to anyone else in my department. If I need any of my coworkers to help me with something, I will ask them if they are able to help me with this project, and if they say no, I’ll accept that without bitching and whining. I don’t get the same respect (but mostly it’s just a problem with this one coworker).
I think she’s working her way up to being my grandma, give her a few decades.
When we go across the street for coffee, we get a pastry. She takes half the pastry, saying “the other half for you”. After a while she says “you’re not eating it?” “No, Grandma, I had lunch just before coming to pick you up”. Then she takes half of that half, says “this for you”. After a while, she eats the last quarter.
I have a grump today. In a drafting department of 4 people (used to be 5, but one guy transferred the other day) the only person here is me. There is a very large project due, plus a myriad of smaller things that have to go out today (one of which I had never done before and it took longer than I thought). And it’s just me. And to make it more interesting, yesterday (when a bunch of this stuff should have gotten done) the server crashed and was all down all day. Gah!
I’m carving out a little time to eat and cruise The Pit, but I’m already exhausted! There is a bottle of cabernet somewhere out there that has my name on it.
Wouldn’t it be nice if supervisors actually checked with newer staff about outside commitments, transportation issues, etc., before making out schedules? I now have to talk to D about how starting the 25th and going through the end of May, I cannot work closing shift on Friday due to an evening class. He didn’t know about that class when doing the schedule, but he also never asked about such issues. I also cannot close Tuesday, Wednesday, or Friday, due to bus schedules. Again, he hasn’t checked on these things. Granted, he’s quite busy and only just inherited my department. I did leave a note for him (he wasn’t in today, just dropped off the new schedule and split) explaining my schedule issues and telling him I do need to discuss this with him, and I do have two weeks before any scheduled shift is a problem.
Errr, make that “Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday” regarding days I can’t close due to bus schedules. Hate it when I find a typo after the edit timeframe has expired.
Good news, though: much less time spent working with F, since his shifts now differ a lot more from mine. He also hasn’t spoken much to me in the last few shared shifts, beyond minor things like him needing to borrow a pen.
As a new staff member, I always thought it was my responsibility to inform my supervisor about any unavailabilities I have.
I’ve tried to tell him I need to discuss that with him, but he either forgets that I needed his attention or didn’t have time for that conversation, which I think puts at least part of that on him for failing to follow up with a subordinate who TOLD him she needed to discuss that with him when he had a few moments.