To be annoyed that I am treated badly at work

[thecakefairy]

Hi all,

I've worked for my company for 31 years and promoted April 2016.
My immediate boss was supposed to train me but there were so many issues, mainly with her behaviour.
I raised a grievance which was hard as it became obvious she had told some lies to wriggle out of it and I felt my honesty was put into question.
Anyway, she eventually left under a cloud and I felt somewhat vindicated as dishonesty was involved again.
I never really learned the job properly and I've always been disappointed about this.
Since she left, I've mainly covered her role. It's way beyond my capabilities. Recently there has been an opportunity to learn a new system which would have gone some way towards me being back on track to 'get good' at my role.
We have an agency worker who also does the same job but it's been a bit of an issue as we really could do with someone at site because the job is not just about computer work. She works from home.
We all started the training but within a few days it was obvious I would never get the chance to just sit down and get it done. I would do half an hour, then get called, emailed etc and I'd go off and then try and start it again.
The other woman easily finished the training and is now actually working on the project. It's unlikely that I will be able to be involved.
I feel as a permanent member of staff, they should be investing in my training and making sure I finally am able to do the job I was offered.
I also gave up a good role within the company to take this one and feel that down to other people's bad behaviour, my career is just being trashed.
AIBU to feel my company should be supporting me to finally being trained to the standard promised?

[StealthPolarBear]

Would it be an option to block our time in your diary? Delegate to ac member of the team you trust to make decisions in your absence and disturb you only if needed

[Bambamber]

Have you spoken to anyone about it? If you don't speak up they may not realise there is a problem. Sometimes you have to make yourself heard and stand your ground. Tell them that you need appropriate training, and time to complete the training properly.

[thecakefairy]

At the moment, I am the team!
I've got another colleague in my team currently on holiday who does a slightly different role to me.
He took my old job, so I can cover for him but he can't for me.
I had a 'discussion' with the HR manager today but it did get a bit heated because he didn't help much with the previous situation and I have bad feeling towards him for not supporting me.
Everyone who could help is more than aware of the situation.

[Hidingalion]

Well what do HR think you should do about it? Sometimes when you're prompted you just have to take the initiative and sort this stuff out.

[Hidingalion]

promoted not prompted sorry

[Katiep0tato]

Are you including yourself in the “everyone who could help”? Training was provided, you have a responsibility to complete it but allowed yourself to be distracted by other tasks. You don’t say what you do for work, but in the majority of roles there are very few calls or emails that can’t wait for a few hours. Take control of your diary and look for other opportunities to “learn the job properly” instead of waiting for them to come to you.

[ShotsFired]

@thecakefairy within a few days it was obvious I would never get the chance to just sit down and get it done. I would do half an hour, then get called, emailed etc and I'd go off and then try and start it again.

So block out the time in your diary and then don't take the calls and don't look at your email. They are not compulsory, after all. Not really seeing a massive problem here?

[MargaretTwatyer]

Looking at your post you do seem to have some issues. You need to manage your time better to get the training done and be more assertive. You do come across as a little martyrish and 'everybody else's fault'.

How are you approaching this issue? You will do better if you approach it positively: I need to do this, so it is going to get done at x time on x date and the benrfiy will be y.

Going to HR, being negative and moaning about how hard done by you are and expecting them to wave a magic wand and make it better will get you nowhere.

[thecakefairy]

HR have been aware of the issues for a while.
I have a more senior boss who is under scrutiny for some of his behaviour.
He is the one who has steered me away from the agreed tasks and onto other roles but not for the right reasons.
Luckily today, I think that finally some action is being taken regarding this and some other issues.
I'm surprised the amount of people who say 'just block the time out in your diary!' It's 600 hours training and my more senior boss is more than aware that it would be impossible for me to achieve this and do all the other tasks he continually loads on top. I can't really say 'sorry mate, I'll just do what I want to do!'
I did realise as well that people who have already mastered this new system will probably be few and far between so there's nothing to stop the agency person being offered work elsewhere.
The company have left themselves exposed to a certain degree.
I would have really liked this to be a starting point to getting back to what my role was intended to be.

[thecakefairy]

Sorry, I forgot to say, the benefits to the company are obvious, so not really necessary for me to reiterate that.
We would lose a massive amount of business if we didn't have someone to maintain this system which would obviously affect us all, so it's in everyone's interest to keep a certain customer happy.

[ShotsFired]

@thecakefairy I'm surprised the amount of people who say 'just block the time out in your diary!' It's 600 hours training and my more senior boss is more than aware that it would be impossible for me to achieve this and do all the other tasks he continually loads on top. I can't really say 'sorry mate, I'll just do what I want to do!'

I don't think anyone is saying you do it all in one go though?

But if it is important and relevant, then you DO block out the time in your diary in chunks. Whether that is 30 mins every day, or all of Friday or somewhere in between, that's what you do. You then prioritise the rest of the work accordingly. If it doesn't get done (or can't be done in the timescale you have), you escalate the situation for your manager to resolve - that is what they are responsible for.

Put it all in writing to ensure everything is clear - "just to reconfirm, I'll be spending x hour/s on x days to complete the required training for y system. I will then be able to complete a and b tasks, but that will mean c and d will need deadline extensions or reallocating"

Honestly, as pp says, you need to take charge of actioning this yourself, as no other bugger will do it for you.

[thecakefairy]

I think that if the company were really thinking of the consequences of not organising this properly they would provide the time to do it.
However, I have highlighted this and as previously said this is a customer not to be messed with.
Their problem. They've been provided with the facts from more than one angle.
I've provided information of statuses of all outstanding jobs.
I don't think anyone is questioning any of that as they know they haven't provided the means to cover it.
I haven't provided timetables etc of what I'm doing when but after the last team catch up, where I let my boss know we hadn't completed the training, he obviously knew and then said he'd catch up with the other person to talk about it after (when I'd gone). I'm sure he knew it was not achievable anyway.
He should have made it that it was.

[BlueSapp]

What do you want, about three weeks to just do the training, your being very cryptic, if its so important do some overtime and bill it to the company that way no call or emails.

[Papafran]

Agree with others. Yes, you have been treated badly and YANBU to be annoyed about it but you need an action plan to get things back on track again. You need to work out how long it will take you to do the training (ie how much time can you realistically block out a day/week etc). Then you need to go to HR and tell them that as you were promoted to do this job, you need to complete the training and that you will be aiming to do it in X months. You also need to factor in whether you need additional support- e.g. is there scope for them to get a temp in to cover admin tasks while you are training?
Do you have a union rep you could speak to as well?
The key is to be proactive rather than having heated discussions with people that you bear old grudges against.

[Papafran]

600 hours of training would be 17 weeks full time (35 hr weeks), so this is going to take a long time. Maybe a year if you are doing it part-time.

[thecakefairy]

The heated discussion was with someone who is more than aware of these issues and more.
He is literally the only person who we can turn to.
He does not support workers with valid issues in the workplace.
I don't like this and neither do others and we've voiced our opinions a number of times. This is for care of others, not just for ourselves.
It infuriates me as there is a very clear case of right and wrong that any HR manager worthy of his role would deal with.
There is nothing I can do about that.
It is a lot of training but when certain companies decide they want things done a certain way, well, what can you do?
All our other customers use the same system but just with their own branding on it.
We've suggested additional staff and also on many occasions highlighted how much easier it would be if we had staff in the office rather than using a long term agency worker. I have absolutely no idea why they do this as recently I found out the financial cost (everyone else already seemed to know) and it could be exchanged for 2 permanent staff with money left over!
I've probably not made it clear enough but my boss could fix the issue if he wanted to but just adds to the work load to make it more difficult. I don't know why he does it but he's had an horrible attitude since he's been here! As previously stated, there has been some action to rectify this though.
Please bear in mind that this has been going on for 18 months now. I don't think it's even legal to offer someone a role saying it is one thing but right from the start it's not been what was offered.
Sorry, if it is not clear but I'm not giving out details of where I work, what I do and who the customers are.
Why would I?

[Papafran]

So, have you asked for clarification that they will definitely not be offering you the training? Then that could be seen as a case of constructive dismissal if you resigned.
It seems from your replies that you are getting very bogged down in details and about how unsupportive everyone around you is. What would happen if you went in with a clear action plan: ie you recruited me to do X, I need to do Y in order to do the job, Y will take Z amount of time, and I need various things put in place to allow me to do that'?

[thecakefairy]

Sorry, I think the more I've tried to explain it, the more complicated it's got.
I've discussed it with the HR manager and am intending to have a brief discussion with my manager when he is available.
I think this will be Monday.
The reason I say it will be brief is because all I'm going to say is 'you've not provided me with the means to do this training, I've missed out on what is my specific role and I expect a resolution as this has been the theme of this role since I took it'
I thought of constructive dismissal. I think I would have a good chance if I chose that route.
Everything is documented including a grievance, which despite me 'winning' (sorry, can't think of the correct terminology, no actions were put in place to help me complete my training then either! Also documentation of me highlighting this a number of times.
It's not like I started here last week or anything. I've been here 31 years and shown I am honest and get on with the job when allowed to.

[IrenetheQuaint]

600 hours is equivalent to a Masters or professional qualification! Hard to imagine a system so complex it requires that much training. Did your other colleague who's finished the training really set aside 4-5 months for it?

[thecakefairy]

The 600 hours is to learn the system and then load your previous info onto it manually. There's no automatic transfer. She's continuing into the next phase.
As I said before, it's a big and important customer. I work for an international company, not a small business.