You want me to WHAT?
I arrived at work today to a voice mail. It's Monday, so that didn't really shock me. Happens all the time on Mondays.
Then I listened to it. It was recorded at 0730 today. Odd. It was from my "NEW" supervisor.
I say "new" in quotes because this guy recently moved over from the corporate office to ours and was supposed to be in charge of part of our office, but not me and not the service technicians. I got this information from my "then" supervisor, who tells me things. There has been no word from the corporate office, nor from him. He's easy about telling me to do things. He asks, which should be a plus. It isn't his fault, so I don't hold it against him.
Anyway, over the weekend, a decision was made. Some of our employees are not updating the company database everyday, and so TPTB cannot keep their thumbs on them as firmly as TPTB feel they should be. So, a plan was created. Myself and the other administrator in our South Florida office, would call these employees at 1530 each day and "timestamp" the open call in our database that each employee had "touched".
"What?", I thought. "You are saying that people in this company cannot (or will not) do what is required of them in a timely manner, so you are going to make it MY responsibility?"
After explaining, he asked, "Can you do this?"
My answer, silence.
He said, "Hello, you still there?"
My answer, "Yes."
His response, "Did you hear what I said?"
My answer, "Yes".
His response, "What do you think of this plan?"
My response (without saying what a stupid plan this was...), "Wait. You are saying that you all are concentrating on the fact that these people will not do their jobs, so your plan is to push the responsibility off onto me?"
Him: "We have to do something. The Execs are looking at this report..."
Me: "Well, make the people who are not doing their jobs responsible, not me. I can be a team player. I understand that they might not be able to connect to the server while on site (even though the company provides them with a laptop computer with wireless connection), so if that is the problem, let them call me, and I'll be more than happy to update the database for them. Besides, what if I am at the bank at 1530? What if I am off work? What if I am on the other side of the building, receiving in a pallet of equipment? Shouldn't the onus be on them to call me? I have voice mail. If they call me, and I'm unavailable, they can leave a voice mail message, and I can update sometime in the next hour."
Him: "You might have a point. Let's try that for a while, and see how it goes."
Thanks, asshole.
Oh. Then there was the kicker. He asked me to send him, via email, a breakdown of each employee, the customer's account they worked on, and the amount of time they worked. Literally, the example I was given looked like this:
Employee One:
Customer 1: 1 minute
Customer 2: 5 minutes
Customer 3: 45 minutes
Customer 4: 1 minute
WTFO?
We have a database, have I mentioned? I run a report for everyone in my office on Monday morning. All of this information is included in this report. Someone at his level should be able to run this report.
Really.
---
When I left the office today, I had received NO calls from employees who were supposed to call me with the above information. Consequently, I sent out no email to my new supervisor.
I can't wait until tomorrow when he asks, "Why?"
Then I listened to it. It was recorded at 0730 today. Odd. It was from my "NEW" supervisor.
I say "new" in quotes because this guy recently moved over from the corporate office to ours and was supposed to be in charge of part of our office, but not me and not the service technicians. I got this information from my "then" supervisor, who tells me things. There has been no word from the corporate office, nor from him. He's easy about telling me to do things. He asks, which should be a plus. It isn't his fault, so I don't hold it against him.
Anyway, over the weekend, a decision was made. Some of our employees are not updating the company database everyday, and so TPTB cannot keep their thumbs on them as firmly as TPTB feel they should be. So, a plan was created. Myself and the other administrator in our South Florida office, would call these employees at 1530 each day and "timestamp" the open call in our database that each employee had "touched".
"What?", I thought. "You are saying that people in this company cannot (or will not) do what is required of them in a timely manner, so you are going to make it MY responsibility?"
After explaining, he asked, "Can you do this?"
My answer, silence.
He said, "Hello, you still there?"
My answer, "Yes."
His response, "Did you hear what I said?"
My answer, "Yes".
His response, "What do you think of this plan?"
My response (without saying what a stupid plan this was...), "Wait. You are saying that you all are concentrating on the fact that these people will not do their jobs, so your plan is to push the responsibility off onto me?"
Him: "We have to do something. The Execs are looking at this report..."
Me: "Well, make the people who are not doing their jobs responsible, not me. I can be a team player. I understand that they might not be able to connect to the server while on site (even though the company provides them with a laptop computer with wireless connection), so if that is the problem, let them call me, and I'll be more than happy to update the database for them. Besides, what if I am at the bank at 1530? What if I am off work? What if I am on the other side of the building, receiving in a pallet of equipment? Shouldn't the onus be on them to call me? I have voice mail. If they call me, and I'm unavailable, they can leave a voice mail message, and I can update sometime in the next hour."
Him: "You might have a point. Let's try that for a while, and see how it goes."
Thanks, asshole.
Oh. Then there was the kicker. He asked me to send him, via email, a breakdown of each employee, the customer's account they worked on, and the amount of time they worked. Literally, the example I was given looked like this:
Employee One:
Customer 1: 1 minute
Customer 2: 5 minutes
Customer 3: 45 minutes
Customer 4: 1 minute
WTFO?
We have a database, have I mentioned? I run a report for everyone in my office on Monday morning. All of this information is included in this report. Someone at his level should be able to run this report.
Really.
---
When I left the office today, I had received NO calls from employees who were supposed to call me with the above information. Consequently, I sent out no email to my new supervisor.
I can't wait until tomorrow when he asks, "Why?"
posted by Mike at 7/24/2006 08:56:00 PM
7 Comments:
Now now... are we playing well with others??? ;)
Wow...the stupidity of corporate America baffles me sometimes. This is like something from "The Office."
Just keep saying "It pays the mortgage, it pays the mortgage..."
Dave: I thought the compromise WAS playing well with others.
Dan: I'll have to take your word. I hate that show.
Spider: That's what TheHusband is for. I don't need this crap.
I don't know... it kinda sounds like somebody trying to justify to his boss that he's *doing* something, and that sounds kinda stupid.
I tell you I cannot wait to stop working in an office period... give me the insanity of the classroom, crazy parents and administrators anyday! GRRRRRR I feel your pain - I worked for several "Bill Lumbergs" from Office Space for many companies over the years...
TOS: Well, TheHusband has been trying to get me to move back to D.C...
Can you get me an interview?
(I kid, of course. I don't wanna move back.)
Post a Comment
<< Home