I feel work are being unfair

[MumtoEri]

I work on a phone line for an important helpline. Occasionally some emergency calls (our workers work remotely and up heights and can run into danger for example) and a whole bunch of other quite serious issues come through the phone line, mostly not so important though.

The 'phone' is a system, a computer screen like any call centre I suppose.

Anyway a couple of weeks ago my phone system crashed. I was talking to a worker I know quite well and it just went. I could see the call there,(seconds ticking as if someone still on the call to me) but he had gone. All the 'buttons' were greyed out and wouldn't let me click them to end the call, log out of it, or ring anyone else or any other option.

I didn't want to leave my office to speak to management because if that call dropped and another call (a crucial one perhaps) came through, that could be detrimental. I messaged my manager on the internal system..on the camera could see her at her desk but talking, she sits within seconds walking distance but I was too worried about the system rectifying itself (maybe our worker had accidentally put me on hold and would hang up, or whatever had crashed righted itself for example!) And me leaving an unmanned line.

So I waited and tried to get her attention sent more msgs no avail.

I knew another manager was further away but nearby still so I messaged her and told her what had happened in detail. I also said it was almost my time to finish work. She told me to restart my whole system so I did.

I then messaged my manager (the first one) again and told her what I had done and who had advised me to, just in case.

Managers where I work always work an hour later than staff like me.
I shut down the system and went home.

Now,I am being subject to disciplinary. Upper management have seriously come down on me and said it will go on my record for not leaving my desk to see a manager face to face and not questioning what the manager said when she told me to restart.

This is because a lot of calls came thru to my system after I had gone home. This will look bad on our company.

I feel they're being unfair. I had valid reason to not leave my workstation. I did as I was advised by a senior. I stayed behind about 20 minutes trying to be advised because I wanted it resolved, making myself late picking my daughter up. I take work seriously. I'm upset.

Name changed regular..

Is there any chance that you could have misunderstood your senior's advice, OP? It seems odd that they're saying that you didn't follow the specified actions when you have a written record of what you were advised to do. If everything is as you say it is, I don't think you need to worry about the disciplinary, because the investigation will presumably reflect that you followed instructions.

I do think they might reasonably question why you sat for 20mins with an obviously unresponsive system, waiting for your manager to get back to your message. I think that common sense should have probably dictated that you might need to take alternative action after a few minutes or so. It might look like you deliberately sat around not using your initiative until the very end of your shift.

I don't think you should be blamed for not querying the other manager's advice, unless it was specifically contrary to any training that you had received previously.

I'm not sure I fully understand. What did you actually do? But I agree they were being unfair

There was a fault in the system. The calls arrived after youd left. I'm not sure how you asking your actual manager in person would have changed the outcome. What normally happens when you leave?

Your senior didn't reply to your message. So you asked an available senior who gave you advise.

If you shouldn't have restarted the system the second senior was wrong, but not you as you asked a senior. You can't just go randomly second guessing your seniors. If you should have restarted your system but just asked your manager face to face first then the outcome wouldn't have changed.

It sounds like there was a computer fault, which no one had actually planned for or knew how to deal with. They've therefore had a fuck up as a result and are blaming you.

I would have expected you to instant message, and if no response then go and tap her on the shoulder letting her know you needed her and then return to your desk to wait

It sounds like there has been system error you did as you were instructed, what if you were working remotely? Surely it’s down to the managers to monitor if someone is still logged in after their shift has ended?

But tbh you didn't really need to go tap on her shoulder because you got the attention of another equally qualified, equally leveled senior who advised you appropriately. The fact they may have advised you wrong is not your problem

If your manager disagreed with their advise then when they received your message they could have come to sort out your system. They clearly didn't check their messages the entire time or hour after you left.

Investigation or discipline?

But tbh you didn't really need to go tap on her shoulder because you got the attention of another equally qualified, equally leveled senior who advised you appropriately. The fact they may have advised you wrong is not your problem

I agree with this, but I wonder if part of the issue is that the OP waited 20 minutes before contacting the second manager.

It seems odd that the OP would be held responsible for another manager's incorrect advice. This is why I wondered if there was potentially some sort of misunderstanding, or whether the OP had received prior training that meant she should have known that the advice wasn't appropriate. You cannot be disciplined simply for following instructions, but if there is something very obviously not right about those instructions, it might be reasonable to expect that an employee would at least double check that the manager was aware of any potential implications.

@MumtoEri

I wouldn't have been back in a few seconds. She would have had to stop what she was doing and id have had to explain it to her so I'm guessing approx one minute. My OP may have been misleading that way.

If you had spoken to your manager, they would have been aware of the incident and therefore able to back you up if 1 or 2 calls came through in the time it would have taken to speak to the manager. So your company are right to be annoyed about this. With regards to restarting the system, it's not your place to question what a manager has told you to do, if management aren't happy with you shutting down the pc they need to take this up with the manager who gave you that instruction

@BettyBurntBuns

Investigation or discipline?

I presume they will have to investigate first before any disciplinary action can be taken.

If you had shut down before you left, there seems to have been a system error that led to the calls coming in after you had left. This needs to be investigated. If this was an unforeseen consequence of your system freezing and is not covered in your procedures or training, it needs to be fully investigated and either a system fix put in place or your training and work procedures updated.

Of would involve your union straight away.
You are not at fault, you did what a manager advised you to do. You messaged the first manager who did not respond.
I would ask for clear, step by step instructions as to how to deal with this situation should it arise again. Then follow them to the letter.
They sound like dicks to be fair.

I think it sounds like a shit place to work. I'd tell them to fuck off and find a new job.

Make sure you print out copies of the messages op, in case they “vanish” from the system

On the basis of what you have written, you are being treated unfairly.

There should be clear procedures in place about what call handers should do in the event of a system failure, and all staff should be trained in these procedures and their correct understanding of them checked.

In the absence of clear procedures you were left to make a swift judgement call on the least-worse course of action. Whether you took the optimal course or action is irrelevant: if the nature of what you are doing is so critical that these events have triggered a disciplinary then you should never have been placed in the position in the first place.

The correct response to the event would be to have a no-blame debrief which would identify lessons learned and what action needs to be taken to address them.

(I work in a field which involves the handling of confidential data, and when there is an occasional fuck up, 99.9‰ of time it is a result of process not people)

Sorry for not replying I'm at work at the moment (night shift).

some answers

Yes, I agree if it was so so wrong of me to not go and speak face to face,manager 2 could have said 'come speak to me' or 'go speak to manager 1'. I'd have then replied ' so its ok to leave my desk even tho calls may come through if it corrects?' and been advised yes or no..

IF I'd have left my desk and calls had come through, I feel I'd have been in trouble for that.

I didnt leave early or on time, it was late. The call I mention came through last minute and the fault happened either around the time I was due to leave, or just before (just forget but minutes either way). I feel one of them (managers) may have been 'told off' too.

I didnt think calls were coming through, becuase this call I mention was still showing as connected (It's a bit like a call on your mobile, if you look you can see seconds ticking, indicating It's still there, and it was). My worry was it would cut out while I was away,leaving an unmanned line, OR if it was a fault and said call wasn't still there, the fault would rectify and same.
Normally if logged out, calls cannot come through. The system button for logging out wasn't responding (crashed).

Yes maybe I should have gone up to manager 1 when the system was restarting-I didnt think to because in my mind, I'd been told what to do (by manager 2) and had done it. I did message manager 1 just in case,to tell them what she had told me to do. I thought I had covered bases here as if by any chance anything was wrong with it, manager 1 would see the message and be able to speak to manager 2 and/or look at my system (on her system) to check all was sorted.

I didnt misunderstand. I sent a detailed msg to manaager 2 saying what had happened and got told 'Restart the computer'.
I didnt feel Id sat doing nothing-I felt I'd sat (after I was no longer being paid for being there) to ensure if the fault corrected/call dropped out) I would be there to asisst any calls coming through.
I did try a few things, kept trying the buttons in case they did now respond, msgd and tried to get work colleagues attention, kept saying 'hello, hello!' on the 'phone that was still showing as connected.

Normally when I leave, Id' have been successfully logged out.

I've never seen this particular fault before, but faults do happen and if the system is logged out, what happens is it usually restarts the 'phone system, but by default it puts you on 'not ready' and you have to manually prrss something to show you're there to take calls.(It also does this normally when you log into your pc on a morning). SO worst that could happen in my mind in this instance is,Id have been on 'not ready' rather than logged out of the phone, until my next shift. With this you've got a high not ready time for me-which would look bad on me, but not cause a probelm with calls coming through. I really had absolutely no idea that this could have happened-ive never heard of calls still being 'allowed' to come through if the pc itself has been logged off and shut down/shut down then restartted.

In the document theyve made me read about it, theyve said i should 'question things I'm not sure about'. I wasn't unsure my senior was right. I thought she knew what she was doing.

I Feel the messages I sent to my manager, which she would have seen after she was no longer busy, detailed exactly what had happened and she should have, if unsure I Was right to do what I'd done, checked that my system was okay and logged out of and no calls coming thorough

I've never seen this fault before or been given advice on how to deal with it. I'd never heard of calls somehow getting through once a system has been closed down.

I feel my messages to my manager 1 after following manager 2s advice, were my 'double checking'. I felt I'd made sure that she was aware of what had happened and could look up to see what my system was doing.

You should absolutely involve your union. Whether you're right or wrong they're there to support you (fwiw I don't think you're in the wrong).

It really doesn't matter whether people here think you should have got up to speak to your manager or it would have been common sense to follow some other action, what matters is what your procedures say to do in this situation. If you didn't know what to do (assuming you're up to date with all relevant training) then the training is inadequate.

Agree with others that it's not your place to be questioning a managers instructions (other than obviously if they're illegal/dangerous and all the other obvious exceptions). Restarting seems a reasonable suggestion so I'm not sure what extra knowledge you're supposed to have over and above that of the manager to know that that was wrong (was it even wrong? Sounds like it fixed the problem 🤷‍♀️).

So yes, basically, I can't see how they can find you at fault for anything. But involve your union so they don't try and screw you over.

It didn't fix the problem because calls came thru after I left. They say its my fault if resulted in this huge issue because calls came thru and nobody there to take them, for hours after id gone.. I don't know if they were still somehow coming thru while the cal id been on was showing as still connected..

Thanks for your reply. I'm going to think about protesting this.

If they were coming through for hours after you'd gone I also don't see how that wasn't picked up sooner at the time by the supervisor! They should have been able to tell they were losing calls! It sounds a right mess

I would get your union rep to go with you to the meeting. Discuss it factually. At best this sounds like a mistake and maybe others have done the same?

Maybe the process isn't clear enough? Maybe everyone needs training for this kind of thing?

The only thing I would say is if you left early, but you have clarified that wasn't the case. It sounds like your supervisors don't have a way of monitoring calls coming in (they were in for an hour after you and as PP said they should have been aware of the calls coming through). You judged the situation and acted reasonably imo, you sought help, followed advice from a manager which tbh unless it was obviously wrong or whatever I wouldn't have questioned either as wrongly assume someone would say I don't know or give the right answer rather than guess and then push the blame to you when it turns out they were wrong.

And... I’d get looking for a new job. Not that I think you’ll get fired. But that it sounds like an absolutely appalling place to work: blaming staff instead of looking for the root cause of issues

This sounds rubbish OP. You asked what to do to a manager and they responded and that's what you did. Responsibility sits with the managers.

Definitely argue your case! Manager 1 is saying you made a wrong judgement call but she can't possibly know what would have happened if you'd got up from your desk, the fault could have changed or got worse etc. Plus it would be interesting to know what advice she would have given you that would have been different to manager 2.

The basic issues are that there was an IT glitch (not your fault), there is no procedure or guidance for you if this happens (not your fault) so you are left to guess if the best course of action is to leave your phone unmanned and get a manager or stay where you are and use the internal system.
You made one decision, your manager would have preferred you make another but that's on them as there is no procedure for this.

You followed another managers instructions - the issues of calls coming in after you left is a mix of an IT issue and the fact they have no management system in place to alert them to unanswered / short calls (which seems like a big planning failure on their part of there is a chance of emergence calls coming in).

It seems to me this is much more a failing on their part than yours. I wouldn't be at all surprised if your manager has been pulled in to explain why calls were missed and is using a disciplinary against you to cover their own arse (former call centre worker here and saw similar a lot).