Am I really being difficult...?

[Musteatcake]

I have been labelled by our dept boss as difficult and not on board with certain tasks, because I won't go against company policy. There are ways to complete the tasks without going against policy, which would take slightly longer, but these are in no way urgent tasks. I have explained this to no avail and my relatively new/unexperienced line manager is not supporting me with this either. This is the only thing I have ever drawn the line with I am trying really hard to carry on work wise but it does feel really difficult and tense at times. Any advice would be very much appreciated.

We have an internal committee you could review things like this with. It depends what it is. Sometimes efficiency is more important, sometimes compliance is, especially if there are legal reasons. It can be good to question things and be difficult, but it depends on what the likely outcome will be.

Is there a legal requirement to do things one way? Or is it a policy that doesn't really make sense and needs updating?

What type of rule/s are they asking you to break? I.e. if you were in retail you would not take off the security tag off an item until the item was just about to be or has been paid for. Is it something you could be disciplined for?

Or is it more like you must write up the order before you send it and they want you to send it then write up the order.

I have to work to a lot of internal policies - but if my boss was adamant to do something that broke the policy I would do it so long as I had a record that I had checked with them along the lines of: Dear Sure, can I please just check that whilst the policy says do x/y/z, you definitely want me to disregard that and do a/b/c instead? I'd be grateful if you could confirm.

There are some things I would not be willing to do, where our policy is based on legal requirements, but other things I would where it is just company policy.

Are these policies fit for purpose OP?

If your line manager or someone higher put it in writing they would take the responsibility in asking you to put aside these policies would you then be happy to do so?

it depends entirely on what the policy is and how important it is. if this is really about legal compliance, then stick to the policy. if the policy is something rather arbitrary that probably should be changed but no one has bothered, then you are being pedantic.

Thank you everyone for your responses, these are financial policies, and I guess part of it is I don't feel heard or supported in my role which in turn makes me feel that by going against company policy, I am putting myself in a position where I am at even more risk.

ask them to put it in writing what they would like you to do.

respond that you cannot for blah blah reasons.

then at least you have a record of it.

If it were me, I'd said a friendly email asking them to reply to confirm what they are asking me to do.

If their request breaches a serious financial policy that exists for legal reasons (such as AML), I would refuse to comply and would report the request to someone more senior.

If their request is not unlawful, but is a breach of normal company policy, and doesn't otherwise raise red flags (ie doesn't seem like theft or fraud etc) I'd reply to check they were aware it was against standard policy, confirming that you would comply with the request if they still want you to do so.

I just need to not let it get to me, I could understand it if it was an emergency situation or where my equivalents weren't following the same policies as me but I appreciate your replies, and useful suggestions.