Would be grateful for any input...
I have an office manager who in my opinion is being unnecessarily nit picking about what I do. In the past week there have been 3 incidences. To put it in context I have been in the company for 7 years in a part time admin role. She has been with the company 2 years but has been the office manager for about 8 months. I have no desire to have a management role as I consider myself to have a job not a career.
So ... the recent issues.. I had booked a meeting in the calendar very quickly as I was leaving for the day - the meeting was the next week, but a combination of speed to get out of the door, slow pc and a partial copy and paste fail meant the calendar entry didn’t make sense, however I was in the following day and was going to correct the detail and email confirmation to the client first thing. Almost Immediately office manager emailed me to complain about the diary entry, and my response to her the following day was apologies for partial meeting info but I wanted to get it in th e diary so the slot wouldn’t be taken by another appointment.
Incident 2 - a web enquiry needed to be followed up which I was going to do and she emailed me about an hour later asking was I going to action enquiry as she could see the enquiry hadn’t been opened. The guideline is to follow up enquires within a reasonable timescale and I had planned to contact the person after lunch.
Incident 3 - for whatever reason I forgot to was up my my cup and plate when I finished for the day. I can’t remember never washing up before and when I do wash up, I tend to was up all that happens to be on the side at the time be it client or staff - I don’t differentiate. This is the issue that has bought it all to a head. She sent me an email reprimanding me for leaving my cup and plate and it is not her job to do my washing up. I replied (and I was infuriated by her email) that it was forgetfulness not deliberate and stating that I do washup every day and I wash up everything. She has counter replied that actually it is my job to wash up client stuff but it isn’t - it’s a small office and we all pitch in together.
She cc’d boss into initial email,which to my mind was her being petty, and a simple ‘oh lexcat you didn’t do your cup etc when you left the office’ to me on Monday morning would have sufficed and I would have said thank you to her or whoever had washed the damn crockery.
I have asked for a discussion with her and boss tomorrow - in my head I want to call her all the names under the sun and pull her up on her pettiness but ultimately she is office manager and I am the employee - how can I handle the meeting without losing the plot..
Thanks