So for about two weeks now I seem to be at odds with co-worker. I have no idea why… I have no understanding as to what brought on her attitude. I have always thought that she simply hated everyone equally but lately I think she has a special hate on for me.
The scoop: As I’m sure you have figured out this place is a gong show! My role: well… I do a bit of everything and depending on who you talk to as to what my actual position is here. According to some I’m the receptionist, according to others I’m the secretary, then some call me the HR department, safety administrator, benefits administrator and the list goes on… oh and then there are the few that just have it right and call me girl Friday as I pretty much know a bit about everything that goes on here. What I actually do??? I have no idea. I go by whatever is in my email that day or if it is payroll related. I assist with safety co-ordination and administration, I prepare payroll, I handle the billing activity for certain parts of our operations, I’m the keeper of all paperwork not related to accounting, and I handle human resources, general administration, control and containment of confidential information, I think you’re getting the jist here…
Now, let’s talk specifically about Human Resources… firstly I’m paid as an administrative assistant… Therefor in my world my job scope should be admin assistant. I don’t mind really doing the extra work that I do for free, but I do mind having or being expected to take responsibility for management level mistakes or issues if I’m not being paid to take that responsibility… additionally, that responsibility becomes someone else’s as soon as I notify my management team of the way things are and get told I’m wrong. Correct?? Just checking that I’m not the crazy one here….So the story continues... I notified management last year that the way they wanted to restructure payroll was not to standard, any takers on what I was told…”No, that’s not right”… so MANAGEMENT decided to go ahead with the convoluted structure we currently have in place. A few months ago I notified management again that a staff member had become aware of the different in standard that we should be under and that it could become a problem if we don’t comply. Again I was told (as an administrator) okay thanks for letting me know and we will work on it. Yet… nothing done! Now that it has become a financial liability due to the OT payable and about to be demanded by staff… somehow this is all on me??? I think not!
Now back to part one with the pissy co-worker… I have gone over and above on multiple occasions to assist her and her department as there is a communication barrier between them and the rest of the world. Now an instance of this was a couple weeks ago where she asked me to email a client and clear up an escalating miss-communication. My response was simple, sure!!! Proceeded with a very polite reply to the client pointing out the communication errors on both sides, which apparently according to said co-worker was written to the effect of making all involved other than me appear “silly”. Well… I was not involved in any of this to begin with, just the solution to the problem. So of course I did not personally apologize to the client, I did apologize on behalf of the accounting department and suggested in the future if said client had any further concerns regarding the matter to contact me directly. This was followed up by said co-worker with a rather rude email telling me that it was my intention to make the accounting department look “silly”. I replied politely explaining my meaning of the wording in the email to the client as well as telling the co-worker it was not my intention to make the department look “silly”. She responded with “LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP”.
Now I’m pretty good at smiling and nodding, I mean I work here. But since this event this co-worker has been blatantly rude, unprofessional and ignorant in person and via email regarding a handful of matters. Frankly I’m sick of it. Beyond sick of it! Then to top it off, today she emails me a comment regarding some sensitive matters something along the lines of don’t tell the employee’s we are fucking them up the ass until management approves or decides how to handle the situation(oh and she cc’d this to the management team!), my response was simple… “I understand that ****** but thanks for the advice” which I also cc’d to the management team.
Well… as the “HR” person of course I’m not going to tell employee’s about anything going on at a management level as it will only create new deadlines for me which I prefer to personally delay as I like to put one fire out before I start fighting another. As the receptionist however… I couldn’t comment on anything going on because I actually don’t know anything happening around here. What I do know… is that I have personally read a number of legal documents, all on my own time. And if a friend or colleague was to ask me questions regarding said documents on their own regard in a non-work setting off the property and outside of office hours in a general conversation not related to the office happenings I can and will legally answer their questions with my opinions, experiences and interpretations as a friend. Professionally, I have made management aware and sought out required information regarding the matter, and have been told by management leave it with me and we will figure it out; Standard response to an admin assistant, I mean that’s all my entire job really should be… collecting the required data and await a decision to type a memo.
Needless to say… my dedicated job hunting time has been increased to half a day per day until I find something else to pay the bills. I will also be adjusting my budget to figure out the absolute minimum I can work for to open up my options in applications. I don’t see any other real options around here.
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