To want colleagues to put it in friendly format rather than make me re-do their work needlessly

[WorkDuplicate]

I don’t know how to phrase this without it being outing. Some of the details may be slightly different but not mateiral to make it not-outing.

I work in an office in Reading. My boss also works in Reading. Under him are also 3 other employees who work in Newcastle. We communicate via email and Zoom.

We 4 employees have a fairly routine job. We are given 1000 different elements; we have to allocate each of these 1000 elements into 50 different categories. We have limits and parameters on how many elements can be in a category and so on but it is our job to view the various possible combinations. We have to try and find the optimum combination but it is not an easy mathematical formula job.

We work with a program which helps us to visualise the elements and the categories. Once we have completed each combination, which takes about 90 minutes, we can export it one of two ways:

1. Into a file which can be emailed to another person and then that person can upload it to the program at their end; or
2. Into an Excel file which, although useful, does not help it being visualised. If you receive an Excel file you have to upload it into the program in a fairly tedious way which is in essence duplication of the work the other person has already done.

My Newcastle colleagues, rather than sending my boss version 1) which can be immediately uploaded, have started to send him version 2) the Excel spreadsheet. He then sends them to me and asks “Can you put this in the program”, wanting me to help him visualise it.

With version 2), I have to go back into the program and essentially use the Excel file to re-do the work my Newcastle colleagues have already done – 90 minutes – whereas if they sent version 1 I could immediately upload it and there would be no work on my part.

My Newcastle colleagues will have spent 90 minutes themselves on their work – sending the Excel file only means I have to spend 90 minutes re-doing their work. It does not save them any time, it just costs me time.

AIBU to complain and to insist Newcastle send version 2) which cuts out unnecessary work for me?

No of course yanbu, politely tell them to send the file in the other format.

yWNBU to suggest it's done in a particular way, but frame it as an idea to be more efficient and effective, not a complaint.

YANBU, absolutely complain.

Speak to your boss and say this change is making more work for you.

Does your boss know that you are having to spend so much time reprocessing their work? Surely they must know - as it must impact on your own productivity.

You would definitely not be unreasonable to have a conversation explaining this to your boss. And suggesting that you work with Newcastle colleagues to streamline the process - at boss' request.

It would be unreasonable to complain directly to Newcastle colleagues (who may be unaware you are having to redo much of their work) or to complain about them not pulling their weight to your boss. Frame it as a positive thing that you can all improve productivity if you do things this way- suggest trialling it to see if it works.

Yes, tell your boss, this is wasting a silly amount of work time.

Raise it as a team issue - you need, as a team, to standardise your approach for efficiency, otherwise you have pointless duplication, which slows you down and costs money. Raise it with the whole team and discuss it together. Don't make it about complaining and other people doing it wrong.

Ask your boss to send out an instruction that everything must be sent as version 1 going forward(you are wasting so much time on this). If anything is then sent incorrectly it should be sent back to the original sender stating as per e-Mail instruction on x date only version 1 is acceptable and they must re-send in the correct format. A week of that should resolve it.

I agree with the poster who said that you shouldn't frame this as a complaint but as a suggestion. And don't insist that your colleagues do anything unless you're in a position to provide them with management instructions. You can request, and you can ask your manager to back up your request, but ultimately, you need to do the job in the way that you're asked to do it.

Hopefully, they will respond positively to your suggestion because it will improve overall efficiency, but it might turn out that there is a very valid reason for them doing it in the way that they do now.

I suggest you say

Howay like ladz and lassez can yez send optoon 1 like as this is tekkin me agez and makes nee sensz like alreet

I think you might be overthinking this. When your boss emails you the file, can you not just ping their person who sent it to him for the easier version and upload that?

@mynameiscalypso

I think you might be overthinking this. When your boss emails you the file, can you not just ping their person who sent it to him for the easier version and upload that?

But the person who sent it isn't creating the easier version anymore.

Surely you just contact your colleagues and say "Hey guys, when you send the info to Boss, can you send it as instead of an Excel file as the Excel file is requiring more formatting before it is usable whereas the exportable file is usable as soon as it is received. Thanks!"

@takehomepay It's an export so they can just export it it in a different format - I'm assuming it's something like Tableau

Surely you just message them and say "hi guys, boss keeps asking me to put the Excel files you're sending him back into (program). Don't think he realises that's duplicating a load of work haha. Would you be ok to export them as X files going forward please so that I can just reupload them for him! Thanks!"

Talk to your manager. There’s no poing in him having a whole team in Newcastle (who I presume are cheaper per head than reading) if reading staff have to redo their work.

Of course 2 is the obvious answer, speak to your boss or speak to them directly.

Just talk to your colleagues? Presumably it’s a not-knowing issue rather than a deliberately-obstructive issue.

Forward email from Boss to person who sent it to him originally- “Hey, X, can you send me the Y file instead of Excel? Thanks.’

Separately, make sure your Boss knows how to upload to the system to view his own stuff. Sounds like he doesn’t understand how it works as he’s not batting it back to the Newcastle team, which is surely what he should be doing rather than treating you as his PA. Unless you are his PA?