A
Anglewannabe
Guest
ok, here goes another post about my work and I know I will get some heat but I really want some perspectives.
Background: I work in the head office. My job use to be done in a satellite office over 1000 miles away from where I am located. The reason they hired me is because they wanted my job to now be done in head office. ‘Lisa’ use to do my job. She still works in the satellite office doing other things. Sometimes her (name removed by moderator)ut is needed.
Often, Lisa will send snarky emails to me and she will copy people (including my manager). Some people she copies really don’t need to be in the loop. My strategy was to keep my resentment to myself.
Now that I am trained, we have less communication
Issue #1-) A supervisor ‘Bill’ who works in the same office as Lisa called me since he had trouble entering something in the computer. I called the software company (since I felt it was my job to help Bill). The software added another code to our system. I thought I did a good job. Bill told Lisa about the new code. Lisa sent a snarky email to every supervisor in her office, my manager AND an accountant ! (I have no idea what office this auditor works in but I can assure everyone this issue and code have NOTHING to do with accounting) She scolded me for adding a code. Bill sent me a private email apologizing. I called Bill and said ‘Just so you know, we are cool. Please read between the lines I don’t want to put anything in an email’. My main concern was making sure Bill knew he did nothing wrong
When my manager was back from his day off, he asked to speak to me and said ‘Just so I understand why was this code added’. I can’t really remember what I said because I was petrified in the heat of the moment and was acting like a kid who just got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. My manager said ‘Ok, maybe she just doesn’t want there to be too many codes added’ That was a week ago and nothing has been said to me since. I still worry about what my manager is thinking
Issue 2-). The reason I asked to have a code added is because I told Bill we needed to give a client money. When Lisa found out I wanted this client to receive money, she emailed at least 6 people including my boss. Most people don’t even deal with this division and don’t need to know. She told me according to the contract the client was not entitled to a full refund. I had previously looked up the Federal Law (which has more authority than the contract) and the client is entitled to a partial refund by the Law of Canada. I went to my boss and showed him where it said in the law we owed the client money and asked him how he wanted me to handle it. He said ‘Don’t give the money and if there are legal ramifications, we will deal with them later.’ So I swallowed my pride and emailed Lisa and told her my manager said to follow the contract. Now my dilemma is my conscious. I feel horrid knowing someone was cheated out of money that is legally his.
Issue 3-) Several supervisors have been emailing me since now that it is 2016, they can not make certain entries in the software. I called the software company and they told me I had to make an appointment with a service specialist to roll the numbers over to 2016. They also suggested a certain method that would allow supervisors to make their entries in 2017 before we do the roll over to prevent the inconvenience next year. I spent a lot of time dealing with this issue. At the time my thinking was ‘This is my job so I will do it diligently’. While talking to the software company, I realized there would be 10 cases that would require manual adjustments since they were exceptions to the rule. In my private thoughts I decided I would do them Monday since I got off the phone at almost 4 pm… I emailed all the supervisors to tell them they could now make their entries. I did not mention the 10 exceptions to avoid too many unnecessary details.
Well, just before I was about to leave work Friday, I got another snarky email from Lisa (that went to several people) telling me that I did not follow the usual procedure and I should have done every client manually. And then she listed the 10 cases that were ‘wrong’.
So, now, if questioned Monday by my manager, how do I explain I was well aware of the 10 exceptions and fully planned to do them Monday without looking like I am making excuses?
Issue 4-) There is one lady ‘sara’ in my office that is a really nice person and we get along well. I have a very adamant opinion that things should balance. She does not share my concern of balancing all the numbers. I have quit pestering her since she was starting to get angry with my questions and I felt it was better to keep the peace with this lady. However, it has come to the point where I feel that the business issues really need to be resolved for me to do my job properly.
I feel really caught because as Sara is a very friendly woman and these could be on going issues that could eventually come back to make me look like I am not doing my job.
Angie
Background: I work in the head office. My job use to be done in a satellite office over 1000 miles away from where I am located. The reason they hired me is because they wanted my job to now be done in head office. ‘Lisa’ use to do my job. She still works in the satellite office doing other things. Sometimes her (name removed by moderator)ut is needed.
Often, Lisa will send snarky emails to me and she will copy people (including my manager). Some people she copies really don’t need to be in the loop. My strategy was to keep my resentment to myself.
Now that I am trained, we have less communication
Issue #1-) A supervisor ‘Bill’ who works in the same office as Lisa called me since he had trouble entering something in the computer. I called the software company (since I felt it was my job to help Bill). The software added another code to our system. I thought I did a good job. Bill told Lisa about the new code. Lisa sent a snarky email to every supervisor in her office, my manager AND an accountant ! (I have no idea what office this auditor works in but I can assure everyone this issue and code have NOTHING to do with accounting) She scolded me for adding a code. Bill sent me a private email apologizing. I called Bill and said ‘Just so you know, we are cool. Please read between the lines I don’t want to put anything in an email’. My main concern was making sure Bill knew he did nothing wrong
When my manager was back from his day off, he asked to speak to me and said ‘Just so I understand why was this code added’. I can’t really remember what I said because I was petrified in the heat of the moment and was acting like a kid who just got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. My manager said ‘Ok, maybe she just doesn’t want there to be too many codes added’ That was a week ago and nothing has been said to me since. I still worry about what my manager is thinking
Issue 2-). The reason I asked to have a code added is because I told Bill we needed to give a client money. When Lisa found out I wanted this client to receive money, she emailed at least 6 people including my boss. Most people don’t even deal with this division and don’t need to know. She told me according to the contract the client was not entitled to a full refund. I had previously looked up the Federal Law (which has more authority than the contract) and the client is entitled to a partial refund by the Law of Canada. I went to my boss and showed him where it said in the law we owed the client money and asked him how he wanted me to handle it. He said ‘Don’t give the money and if there are legal ramifications, we will deal with them later.’ So I swallowed my pride and emailed Lisa and told her my manager said to follow the contract. Now my dilemma is my conscious. I feel horrid knowing someone was cheated out of money that is legally his.
Issue 3-) Several supervisors have been emailing me since now that it is 2016, they can not make certain entries in the software. I called the software company and they told me I had to make an appointment with a service specialist to roll the numbers over to 2016. They also suggested a certain method that would allow supervisors to make their entries in 2017 before we do the roll over to prevent the inconvenience next year. I spent a lot of time dealing with this issue. At the time my thinking was ‘This is my job so I will do it diligently’. While talking to the software company, I realized there would be 10 cases that would require manual adjustments since they were exceptions to the rule. In my private thoughts I decided I would do them Monday since I got off the phone at almost 4 pm… I emailed all the supervisors to tell them they could now make their entries. I did not mention the 10 exceptions to avoid too many unnecessary details.
Well, just before I was about to leave work Friday, I got another snarky email from Lisa (that went to several people) telling me that I did not follow the usual procedure and I should have done every client manually. And then she listed the 10 cases that were ‘wrong’.
So, now, if questioned Monday by my manager, how do I explain I was well aware of the 10 exceptions and fully planned to do them Monday without looking like I am making excuses?
Issue 4-) There is one lady ‘sara’ in my office that is a really nice person and we get along well. I have a very adamant opinion that things should balance. She does not share my concern of balancing all the numbers. I have quit pestering her since she was starting to get angry with my questions and I felt it was better to keep the peace with this lady. However, it has come to the point where I feel that the business issues really need to be resolved for me to do my job properly.
I feel really caught because as Sara is a very friendly woman and these could be on going issues that could eventually come back to make me look like I am not doing my job.
Angie
and somehow Lisa didn’t like your approach. It looks like your manager is ok with your approach.