Is anyone awake? Bad work situation :(

[badworksituation]

I work freelance teaching adult learners.

Half way through the course I am currently teaching, I was told I had been doing everything wrong, by a manager. I should have been making students fill in two sets of forms every session. I had no idea.

They are long, complicated forms too one after every session.

Basically one form logs things then the other references this first form and that's what I mark off(I know it sounds stupid to me, too).

I didn't understand so had a meeting with my manager (this was a few weeks ago). She explained, I thought I understood-but I had to put it to the students, as we were now very behind in all of our work.

I wrote them some instructions, ran it by the manager-she okayed them, I put them on the portal. I addressed it in class too and they all seemed okay with it although they did say they thought we should have been doing it from the beginning (I know but I had no idea these forms existed)!

Then she told me a few days later after all students had heeded them that they were wrong.

After more emails/chats back and forth with her and my other manager, I was confident I understood. Students began uploading these forms. I marked them. I was so agitated with the amount of work (I have a lot of learners, It's TONNES) I did not sleep a wink last night worrying about it all-I've always been an organised person, I make sure I understand everything before I do anything, I don't get into situations like this! Nothing like this has ever happened before-I mean seriously I had no sleep at all and I had a class to teach today too (well, yesterday now I suppose) and tomorrow I teach the students in question.

Tonight I spent all night marking these forms off until I finally had done it all. Then I did my normal work prep for tomorrow.

I didn't check my emails until now and I have had an email off my manager saying I have yet again done it all wrong. I've marked forms right that are wrong. I've not updated something I should have updated that I didn't know how to or that I had to update it.

I am about to send my manager an email saying I have had no sleep, it is after midnight, I am clearly not the right man for the job and this is a constant cycle of her telling me what to do, me doing it and then It's wrong. I am clearly not the person to rectify this situation so I recommend they get someone else in to do it.

But I know that's a bad idea.

I have never felt so stupid in my entire life. Ever. I am clearly not the right person to rectify this situation.

Manager's email is all bright and breezy don't get me wrong but I have no clue what she wants me to do or how she expects me to fix this-the course ends in a few weeks!

I am meant to be teaching the concerned students tomorrow.

What on earth do I do

We had a senior manager who was, quite simply, a bully. She demanded a report and after seeing it said it was a pile of shit (actual words) and told the minion to redo it. Minion sat on it for a few days and resubmitted it. Manager said it was much better. Minion hadn't changed a thing. Some managers are just on a power trip.

Can you not send a teams invite to both managers and highlight the inconsistencies with both of their feedback. There should be a policy everyone is following that allows consistency across everything, there should be no ambiguity. Ask for the policy and just complete the forms according to that.

No one should be sending work emails at 11pm. Clearly don’t care about well-being. I’d have a Frank conversation face to face today. please don’t contact me out of hours, I’m already doing my best. You tell me to do X, Julie tells me to do Y-one of you is clearly misunderstanding what needs doing. Can you decide between you who is right and then can you come back to me and sit and formally train me on these forms. I’m not willing to spend every night going through these over and over again, if I’m not trained correctly.

Can you ask your other manager? It could be that this one has a bit of an agenda.

The manager who says it's incorrect needs to come and run a workshop with the students, about these forms. She also needs to give examples to everyone. That's what we did on an nvq4 course with complex paperwork. Because if the paperworks wrong, they won't pass. Its not your fault as you have to understand something in order to explain it.

You're clearly an intelligent and articulate person. The problem is not you. It's poorly designed forms and a manager who can't communicate and who doesn't understand how to behave professionally (emailing you late at night and putting the blame on you).

I'd visit her in person and say that you don't understand the forms. They're too complicated and time-consuming. I'd also be looking for another job. This is a sign that this is not a well-run company. You'll have other problems.

With any meeting you do have about it - make sure you send a follow up email stating what you were advised, ask them to confirm its correct and that if you don't recieve feedback within x amount days/hours, you'll assume all is ok and can go ahead and post the forms for the students. That way if its wrong, you have an email trail to back you up.

I'm glad you didn't send as the last para sounds like it's your fault and does yourself a disservice.

I hope you feel rested. Your manager isn’t very good at their job, are they? They should have instructed you about what to do from the start but managers like that never do because they get real pleasure from watching others fuck up. It makes them feel as though they are not the most incompetent person in the building - which they may well be. You have had great advice on here. I would ensure that I had everything in writing - so when she said you did something well you should have emailed to thank her for showing you, repeated her instructions and said that you were relieved to have done it all correctly so that when she said you had done it wrong you could question her about why it differed to the last time.

Don’t allow her to drag you into madness. You were up late last night while she no doubt slept like a baby. She was only able to do that because she knows what you are going through - even if that is only on a subconscious level. So many people are like this. Don’t allow them to get to you. It just isn’t worth it.

Thank you again everyone

Well I can't visit her in person as she's over 100 miles away.

I'm only paid for the hours I work (10-1630 one day per week). I guess the nature of the beast with teaching means a lot of unpaid work though

I honestly cannot rectify this myself. I agree with those who've said said they need to run a workshop with the students about these forms because it feels as if I'll just keep getting it wrong. I've marked one and fed it back to the student as good and then had this long email detailing how and why it is wrong.

Thank you to those who've said I come across as intelligent and articulate! I try my best. I've not got this issue or anything like it, with other companies I freelance for.

@SuddenlyOld oh god that is awful but hilarious

I'm glad I didn't send it but at the same time I still feel exactly the same as I did last night.
@Agapornis that is awful but sounds like you do a great job!
@groovergirl /hank you for taking the time to do that email. It is indeed much better and for the signature! 😊

I've currently got Tom petty I won't back down on repeat on the echo dot!

@GoldenSpangles I really wish they'd monitored my portal a couple of weeks in rather than half way through!

@Foolosophy thank you, I do feel you all backing me!
Every reply here has been useful. Thank you so much all of you.

Welcome to education, 2023 style! Forms, forms and yet more bloody forms, forms that duplicate other forms, etc. etc. Adult students are not 12 year olds, but nobody's told Ofsted yet and if the OP's organisation are taking government money, these are the hoops they are now making adults - yes, adults - jump through (no wonder a lot of adults now vote with their feet). The forms then go somewhere and are probably never looked at again. Sorry, OP, this is the reality, but your organisation does seem poor - where is the guidance and training they should be offering you, so that you are fully prepared at the start of a course?

If these forms are so important, then it's a poor show if they haven't ensured that all tutors take - and pass - in-depth training beforehand, so that everyone's singing from the same sheet. It sounds to me as though they don't understand the requirements themselves, and are flying by the seat of their pants, with everyone having their own 'take' on what's correct. This is an impossible situation and if you are certain that you weren't offered (or required to take) training beforehand, you are entitled to complain. Be sure of your facts, keep a detailed diary of what has been said/done, dates, etc, and how this made you/your students feel. Do you have HR you could speak to? Are you in a Union?

Someone is getting it wrong, OP, and it clearly isn't you.

It's not a good or well managed company to work for. Or perhaps it's just the person who keeps telling you it's wrong, or didn't tell you in the first place about these forms, who is the problem.

I hope you got some sleep. I would be tempted to email, keep it to bullet points, no emotion, just very businesslike as regards what has happened - including the fact that you were not even aware of these forms until the course was well under way. And cc it to someone above her, in the process. Also mention receiving emails at totally unreasonable hours.

Tbh, I'm not sure any job is really worth all of that hassle and lack of sleep.

I echo what others have said - don't blame yourself. The organisation have a responsibility to ensure you are trained and not just thrown into a situation with important(??) forms that need completing properly. Don't apologise - this sounds like it's on them, not you.

If these forms are part of the course, why isn't there a set instruction sent to the tutors and the students as to how to fill them in?

I do freelance reports. Some cases are just weird like this. One manager I suggested using edit in word to make changes, so I could see what the issue was.
Basically about 90% is paraphrasing, eg I’ll write ‘the year end outrun report was completed by SF on March 12th’ and he’ll correct it to ‘SF completed the outrun report on March 12th, this was the last of the year.’ Sometimes the corrections are even completely wrong, such as using you and I (thinking it’s more formal) when you and me would be grammatically correct. The document comes back covered in a sea of red over 80% of it.
We’ve fallen into a daft pattern of him wasting hours rewriting everything I do. I decided I don’t care, I barely proof read it now as he’ll rewrite it. I just hit ‘accept all’.
He seems fine using his time like this. No one else (20 odd clients) ever sends me corrections, it’s really not me.
Could you ask for a corrected form back in the name of training, to see what your manager is thinking?

I'm sorry, op, I've taught in FE and it's just a disorganised nightmare and I totally relate to your post. Constantly guessing how to do anything as my line manager never actually line managed me at all. I was so lucky I had an amazing colleague to show me the ropes or I'd never have got things done properly.

It's not you, it's the shitty system full of angry, resentful line managers who relish when things go wrong for staff.

Sums it up! I'm also this sector.

It's not you.

Look, I don’t care how stressed you are at work but you absolutely should NOT have driven after no sleep the night before. You’re lucky nobody died.

If what she's saying contradicts what your direct manager is saying then I would raise this with your direct manager. If this woman isn't your manager then why is she even getting involved?

Don't keep doing more work until everyone is on the same page about what exactly is expected of you.

I've not read all of the replies, but it sounds like terrible management to me.

I think you put the ball in her court. Ask her to go through each form and specifically detail what needs to be updated or changed. And then you can address the situation.

Is there anyone above her you can go to? Or CC in to that reply email? That might seem a little passive-aggressive, but really – I think you might need to cover your back. Just in case this manager starts making life even more difficult. Continue to be courteous and kind, say that you "really want to make this work" but would appreciate help with correcting the forms.

I'm sorry, but just emailing you and telling you they're "still wrong" is lazy, thoughtless, and passing the buck... I hope you get some decent sleep tonight.

I would see this course through (for the sake of the students) and then do no further work for this company. Complete the forms in line with the most recent instruction and leave it at that. As long as the students pass, that will do.

No role is worth the impact on your health and the potential for causing a road accident.

Any document that difficult to understand is a failure on the part of the document-creator, not the user.

I'm sorry, OP, what an absurd and stressful situation.

My take on this is that the manager realises she has fucked up by not training the OP on the forms before the course started and is now kicking the cat.
Pragmatically, OP, what could the long-term repercussions for you really be? You are halfway through the course, you have other organisations you can work for in the future. Would not working for this one cause a major dent in your earning potential? Would word get round in the industry from this manager? If not, just get through it as best you can and just dint
take work from them again.

Sounds like your Manager is to blame here. But she will never own it. I would be tempted to go off sick before resigning. Or ask her for a sample completed form.

@MillTree I CCd her manager into my response (which is a watered-down version of the emotive email I originally penned-along with the helpful additions from here

@OrangesLemonsLimes I signed up for teaching another course starting next month too, before I knew of this issue!

It would cause a dent in my earning potential @Clarinet1 but at the moemnt I feel like I honestly do not care. Word would get around the industry but again, I think I'll just find a way to cope. I dont like being freelance anyway, I only am becuase the company I used to work for went bust!
I don't get sick pay as I am self employed.

The students are in an activity at the moment and I am just looking through things again. Manager hasn't responded yet.