Deeply offended by manager?

[avenueaspirr]

She’s my new manager but we’ve both been in the business roughly the same amount of time (5 years) and we do know each other.

Our first meeting she asked why my productivity had slipped - I advised of the reasons (new systems that don’t work basically and we physically run out of work so I do admin tasks that don’t count towards recordable productivity)

Then before I knew it a week later she’d booked me in to screen share with a colleague to literally sit there and watch them work. I was so offended for the following reasons.

• I gave legitimate reasons and I wasn’t questioned further
• I’ve been doing this job for 5 years so the fact she wants me to watch someone else do it was insulting
• That she discussed my performance with another colleague who is the same level as me

@avenueaspirr blimey you’re getting a bit of a hard time here.

Systems can cause such a delay. I need to update a certain system every morning otherwise I could be pulling off completely crap data.

The system is written in a mega ancient access type format and is used by 1000s people who do the same job as me daily.

This can take between 5 mins and an hour to update, and just because I’ve updated it on my laptop doesn’t mean it will be updated on my desktop back in the office.

The second system can be massively glitchy also, sometimes it saves the data from system one, sometimes it doesn’t. So most days I’m double handling cases.

This is entirely a system issue and not a productivity issue.

Add into that the fact our individual providers systems all run on different platforms and I can be accessing 20+ a day.

Sometimes I manage to sort one case a day, sometimes five. It really depends on if ALL systems are playing ball in the order I need to use them.

So @avenueaspirr I totally get the productivity, or lack thereof, but I would say maybe look at the screen of the other worker as they may have found a way of beating the system quirks.

Good luck.

I never once said it’s only mine affected. I wouldn’t have a clue what others produce daily or what impacts them. It’s not ONE error message, it’s multiple or it also can take 5 minutes to load as it’s stuck on a timer. I work from home

So what did your manager say about the system errors and as others have repeatedly asked are there issues with you WiFi etc.... that could be causing you problems? What are other people doing differently to you? You need to find all these things out.

Have you spoken to your colleagues to ask if they are having problems too?

@avenueaspirr Your answers to PP who are questioning or critical suggest there’s a bit of an issue for you with attitude. If you’re running out of work, but refuse to ask for more, because you’re “not a child” and then you’re asked about a low productivity rate (presumably in compare with the rest of your team, or your company norms) aren’t you cutting off your nose to spite your face - just a little bit?

It sounds as though you need to find another job ….

[quote ShortBacknSides]@avenueaspirr Your answers to PP who are questioning or critical suggest there’s a bit of an issue for you with attitude. If you’re running out of work, but refuse to ask for more, because you’re “not a child” and then you’re asked about a low productivity rate (presumably in compare with the rest of your team, or your company norms) aren’t you cutting off your nose to spite your face - just a little bit?

It sounds as though you need to find another job ….[/quote]
I’m genuinely baffled. I don’t know where you think this work would come from?

If your bank balance is at 0 and you have no overdraft and I say to you withdraw some money then - what would you do?

My manager cannot just magic work out of thin air. If there’s no work then there’s no work.

As I stated before numerous times this month alone they have been asking people to take days off work as there’s clearly not enough work to go round. Why would they be doing that if you think they are so capable of producing additional work out of nowhere?

It is hard to know all the ins and outs, but if she did feel you could learn from others, I would expect that to be discussed in advance before it was set up. It is not unreasonable to do this if other people seem to be coping better than you are, but I would expect that to be thoroughly explored with you first with the rationale for setting up the shadowing session given.

You’re clearly not happy @avenueaspirr - your lashing out at other posters seems like a projection of your anger with yourself. But you have to ask yourself how productive being angry is for you. Does it make you feel better or does it just make you feel more shit?

If it’s a system error have you escalated this via your manager to IT support? I know how impotently raging some corporate systems can be (don’t get me started on MS Appointment and Calendar apps).

But there’s clearly a problem if your manager is asking you about productivity. She’s doing her job, as tough as that is for you. If it’s a new system maybe you need some more training?

However, by refusing to participate in a screen sharing you are rather colluding with the view -as erroneous as you say it is- that you are not working as effectively as you might. Whatever the truth of the matter (and it’s likely that neither you nor she is either completely wrong or completely right) by refusing to participate you’re backing yourself into a corner.

Your reaction has the potential simply to cement the view your manager has of your productivity and - more importantly - to entrench your self-image of yourself as shit.

Your self-flagellating post is quite disturbing - you’re catastrophic if and thinking in really black and white terms. It sounds very damaging.

Maybe you could approach this whole thing differently? What’s really at stake here is the way you think about yourself. So if you feel you’re in a shit job, doing it badly, are there other things in your life which give you a sense of accomplishment or satisfaction or even joy? What could you do to maximise that part of your life and look after yourself?

No need to answer these questions but you seem in a pretty bad place, and I suspect it’s not just caused by this situation at work. That seems to be a symptom rather than a cause.

So if there isn’t enough work to do and you are very productive, despite system issues and lack of work, but this is not In your opinion impacting your performance, why do you think your manager is singling you out of the team ?
Are you saying she has an issue with you ?

@comebacksunshines

So if there isn’t enough work to do and you are very productive, despite system issues and lack of work, but this is not In your opinion impacting your performance, why do you think your manager is singling you out of the team ? Are you saying she has an issue with you ?

Well firstly as I already said she doesn’t manage the entire team. So potentially others (I wouldn’t know) have productivity issues and their own manager is dealing with it. It’s not my business.

I also wouldn’t know if she’s singling me out of who she does manage. As again it’s not my business.

My performance is actually good. But I never said I was “very productive” - am as productive as I can be in the circumstances.

Classic mumsnet pile on.
Whether or not you are crap at your job - your manager is crap at hers.
Who would suddenly send a meeting invite for a screen share with no context?
Also from reading the first I thought you were meant to observing colleague to comment on THEIR performance. Was genuinely confused that the insinuation was that you weren’t very good

Also to add - instead of being offended why didn’t you ask your manager as to what the screenshare was for?

OP I'm beyond curious, do you work in insurance? Sounds so much like my job it's untrue 😂.

If they are asking people to take days off work, please watch out OP that you aren’t the candidate being selected to being “let go” based on “your productivity”

My performance is actually good. But I never said I was “very productive” - am as productive as I can be in the circumstances.
So it's not personal, your manager is basically trying to do her job and address the productivity issues. The screen sharing is an opportunity for you to highlight the system errors you are experiencing, so they can resolve them and you won't cooperate?
You clearly don't like the job, but that isn't the fault of your employer. Presumably you are working because you need to eat and pay bills, like the rest of us. I hope you get your new job, but I wouldn't be too quick to burn your bridges.

High Productivity when you work on cases would make me suspicious that others are cherry picking easy cases (thus showing high productivity) or ignoring essential admin while you are doing your entire job.

Op by all means go for other jobs - but please don't do what one young man I worked with did (& I am sure you won't!) & give your notice before you get confirmation & contract for your new one.
Think carefully about what else you would really like to do -& if it needs further training or qualifications to get there consider how you could do this.
& a word to the wise - go on glassdoor.co.uk & check reviews of company & (particularly these days! do a company check for their financial situation & don't tell the company you have done this - another thread mentioned this!)
But however angry or upset you are with new boss - bite your tongue & be polite - she might be the one who has to give you a reference

CastawayQueen she booked the meeting and then she sent me an IM to say what it was for. Genuinely before then when I saw the invite I was

ForeverSausages .., definitely not ... but maybe could be that I work in insurance

Gh0stontoast it’s a bit bizarre as they advertise it as “wow this is up for grabs! You’re so lucky!” .. when really it’s just you using your own annual leave.
It would have to go through a lot a few stages first of being officially documented if they wanted to get rid of you. One person in my team kept not showing up for work, was on 50% reduced work and they are still here.

You don’t sound covered in glory (your reaction is a bit OTT) but neither does she.
If a performance issue has been identified as pp have mentioned a proper manager has to explicitly mention this. E.g by what metric performance has dropped. They then need to inform you that they will be taking steps to address this - what the steps are, and what objectives you’ll have to meet.
Also if you don’t know ‘what exactly’ you’re supposed to be learning how will a screenshare benefit you?
Sounds chaotic all around

@Ozanj

High Productivity when you work on cases would make me suspicious that others are cherry picking easy cases (thus showing high productivity) or ignoring essential admin while you are doing your entire job.

Unfortunately I do suspect this. Even the person she wanted me to watch, there was a difficult piece of work in her name originally that she abandoned and then the system assigned to me.

I have only seen that with her once though so could have been a mistake. But others in the team it happens quite often.

I’ve also seen it where two similar contacts from the same customer where instead of answering it they will close it down as a duplicate and then I’ll be assigned the one work item still open which could take an hour BUT we both closed down an item so it would look like we did the same amount of work.

It’s very difficult as I’d just spend my day effectively snitching on my peers if I kept reporting it.

@avenueaspirr Trust me the manager knows. I’m guessing she wants you to call it out so she can take action.

High Productivity is always a red flag for casework. The target for most companies is around the high 80 percent for that reason. You need to call this out

OP I don’t understand why people are piling onto you. It’s not hard to imagine that there are jobs that work differently to your own and there may be a limited amount of work if it’s generated by customers. Like you couldn’t sell products in a shop if there are no customers there to sell to. And your attitude isn’t a problem, it’s evident that you’re just frustrated by some posters who seem to want to attack you and accuse you of being lazy for no reason.

I think having a chat with her about why she feels it’s necessary for you watch someone is probably helpful. She may not have understood what you mean about the system errors and think you’re getting them further into the work?

Either way, if you don’t like the job then carry on looking for a new one. It sounds like you’ve outgrown the role anyway.