I have worked in various finance and admin positions in my time and always seem to end up in the same position of being disrespected by colleagues.
Gripes include:
- making clear the procedure for doing something to have them ignored. Example - return expense claim form via email and send me a photo of receipts. To find an email with claim form attached and being told receipts are on my desk. Yes it takes me 2 secs to take a photo of them, but it also takes that person 2 secs and I have made it clear that's the process. I'm not always in the office every week and a bundle of loose receipts can easily go missing.
- again, making clear the procedure for something then being asked to do it within a shorter timescale, or with incomplete information provided.
- not being told about events that require admin input until the last second
- being asked to raise an invoice for something that has been in their inbox for weeks and has suddenly become urgent and expecting me to drop everything to get it out that day.
- me asking for information ahead of time in order to allow us to plan work and cash flow and being told that the other team doesn't have time to provide that to us.
I could go on. The general theme is lack of respect for our team. Except it isn't just this workplace, it has been everywhere. What am I doing wrong? Or what are we doing wrong cos it isn't just me?
I've made clear countless times the correct procedures for things. Then there's the annoying thing of it taking the same amount of time for me to fix it as it would for me to reply and ask them to do it properly. Is that just enabling them? Do I/we need to toughen up? Except in my current job some of the things asked of us include helping vulnerable people and I know no one our team would want to see anyone out of pocket due to digging our heels in to prove a point.