Shady office politics… what would you do?

[Naimee87]

Bit of a difficult one to describe without being too outing but here goes. Some may recognise details from previous threads anyway…and perhaps not the most riveting topic;

Started a new part time job in January just 20% 1 day a week. Over the moon. Totally new industry and a nice change to my office job Monday-Thursday. Always wanted to get into this industry as well.

After shadowing other colleagues doing tasks ‚A’ and ‚B’(more complex) there were discussions involving my direct boss about 3 months ago where I was promised I could begin doing tasks ‚A’ by myself and i’d have time to develop and learn/practice the skill involved and i‘d feedback regularly how things were progressing.

So far i‘ve been put on ‚B’ tasks with a ‚you‘ll cope‘ type approach. This is not something you can ‚just get on with‘. Think driving licenses/manual type job. I have an important test coming up which will mean ‚B’ tasks are something i‘d be able to slowly start taking on next year.

I have been told to simply tell the team in the office about the situation by my boss, but my emails get ignored. When i raised the concern in person to the boss in the office she simply said i need to improve

There are also two machines we use, one far more complex yet I keep being given this one. Time and time again i‘ve raised my concerns and i either get no reply or simply get told ‚you‘ll manage/cope or it‘ll be fine.‘ I‘m still very much in the learning phase and this was openly discussed when they hired me that as its a 20% position my progress would be slow going.

I really feel that the promises made in the beginning with the timelines we agreed for ‚A’ & ‚B’ have just been completely ignored. I feel like i‘m being put on ‚B’ tasks with a complex machine which is just setting me up for absolute failure. I feel the team in the office are hiding their sneaky behaviour behind my inexperience and i just appear totally incompetent and demanding.

The annoying thing is Do i just need to suck this up and get on with it or make a change?

Sorry if this is rambly. But a shift which should have ended by 11:30pm last night didn‘t end until 2:00am simply because of i was left to my own devices on a ‚B‘ task.

How much training do you need to be able to do B tasks confidently?

Sorry, but I'm struggling to understand what the "shady" and "sneaky" behaviour is? Or what you are talking about - I think you've succeeded in not being outing to the point of being obscure.

What I'm taking from this is that you've been in this job for 8+ months, you've been trained on both A and B, but you still can't do B. Genuine question, not a dig - why can't you do B after 8+ months? What is missing that would enable you to do B? If doing A and B are in your job, I'd expect you to have picked up both by now, so why haven't you (again, genuine question, not a dig)?

And what is "the change" that you refer to which is the alternative to sucking it up - leaving?

I'd have to say that I can see no benefit to anyone, your managers or colleagues, in setting you up to fail, so the "shady" and "sneaky" comments need explaining if that is what you think - why would they do that?

Just to add, since you said you'd posted about this before, I assume you did so under another user name because I can't find the previous threads you refer to, but I did find this comment from you on another thread: "In the office i eat at my desk and keep working to avoid awful surfacey wanky chat with colleagues."

Have you considered that if this is the attitude that you bring to work on the one day a week you are in work, that you are perceived as the problem by your colleagues? You might think you hiding your opinion of them, but most people are not that stupid and can read others, and you are hardly providing them with an incentive to be on side with you if this is what you think of them.

Thanks! Interesting reply!

So i‘m still training in doing task ,A‘ independently you shadow someone for a few months first. So far i‘ve only ever shadowed some of the others doing task ‚B‘ maybe two or three times, as i‘m only there 1 day a week. So i do agree its slow going from my side.

The sneakyness is that all the tasks are set by 3 managers in the office. They are well aware of my training/skill level. They’ve quite consistently handed over an ‚A’ task to someone whose been in the company years and could do ‚B’ tasks blindfolded, and on the same shift i’ll get handed a ‚B’ task. This is why i feel like i‘m being set up to fail. When i then try to tell them i‘m not up to it yet, they say ‚oh you‘ll be fine‘ … or ‚speak to your manager‘ who then just bounces me back to one of the office managers.

I was also forgotten a couple of times, got to work (50minute drive) and they told me i was on holiday as i had requested that date off, not true and this happened a fair few times as well. Holiday dates were sent and approved via email. I could hear laughing in the background when i got to the office to ask for my schedule that day…maybe unrelated but i took it to be about me.

I think i come across as demanding and useless which is definitely the opposite of what i am trying to be. But i feel its because i’m being handed tasks i can’t handle but was told i wouldn’t need to take them on until the next test has been taken. Once i’ve got this test passed, ‚B’ tasks will be in my job description but like with ‚A’ you shadow someone again for a while.

But i do see where you are coming from as it has been 8 months. Maybe its a case of 20% being too little time to develop the skills needed. So by making a change i meant look at other companies for a similar job or suck it up and try my best to work with what they give me…

Oh the wanky-chat comment is about my office job so totally different people. All the other shift workers i work with are great.

That's odd behaviour from them about the holiday dates if you hadn't asked for that time off and yet they were saying you had.

Rather than worry about the A/B jobs, I'd be asking in writing why they think you have a holiday when you haven't requested it.

Could it be that they are of a different culture or native language to you and there is some inappropriateness on their part about that?

Well could be a culture clash i‘m english living outside the UK but speak the local language at work…

I sent everything via email but working 1 day a week there were very few holiday ‚days‘ to take.

For ,B‘ tasks its the test, then shadowing a few others, then i should be able to run with those tasks too but we had agreed this would be next year. It just feels all very rushed and like this is personal.

Funnily enough most of the other shift workers would love not to have to do ‚A‘ tasks but its all new and fascinating i am more than happy running with ,A‘ tasks.

So does it sound like i‘m the issue and just overthinking all this and making it into a more personal issue than it is?

Perhaps you're focusing too much on the A/B thing.

As you're only there once a week and all the others are there for presumably the whole week, perhaps they see you as a bit of a novelty, especially as you enjoy doing the A jobs that they don't like.

It may also be that they're intrigued as to why a Brit would travel 50 mins to work for one day a week and be happy with what they see as the crappy jobs. This may be part of what you perceive to be them laughing about you behind your back, especially if there are some workplace practices like asking for time off which they think you don't "get".

Can I ask, OP - are you in a German speaking place?

I'm really curious what the tasks are?

Are you driving a dump truck?

Sounds like someone only coming in once a week is a pain for them as they are constantly teaching you because you aren't there enough to learn fully.

The sneakyness is that all the tasks are set by 3 managers in the office. They are well aware of my training/skill level. They’ve quite consistently handed over an ‚A’ task to someone whose been in the company years and could do ‚B’ tasks blindfolded, and on the same shift i’ll get handed a ‚B’ task. This is why i feel like i‘m being set up to fail. When i then try to tell them i‘m not up to it yet, they say ‚oh you‘ll be fine‘ … or ‚speak to your manager‘ who then just bounces me back to one of the office managers.

How do you expect to learn the task if you don't do it?

They are giving you the opportunity to learn it

I must admit, I’m struggling to get my head around this somewhat. What task could take you more than eight months to learn, then have a test, then have to shadow colleagues before you can do it alone?

I also think you’re making this far too personal and taking everything as a slight. The setup seems very odd to me - a 50 min commute to do a job for one day a week?

Sounds like i am being a bit oversensitive here...and taking things a bit too personally when they are just doing their jobs. The A/B split is perhaps not as clear as I thought it was going to be either, sounded a little clearer in my head. 😂

@RantyAnty You are not far off 😂HGV driver

@RSintes Yep i am. I dont mind the commute, i work from home Monday-Thursday with the odd day in the office. So the 50 minutes drive 1 day a week is no issue for me.

A Tasks - Driving routes i know (after shadowing other drivers for 3 months) with trucks i learned to drive in (basically what was agreed in the hiring discussion)

B Tasks - Driving routes i dont know with trucks that are different to the ones i learned in

The test will be to qualify to drive the trucks involved in Task B

So tasks A/B are very different and not really something you can just hope will go ok. The more i do A tasks alone the more confidence i build up to take on B tasks. But i feel i havent been given enough time on A tasks before they put me on B tasks... knowing what my skill level/training plan is....

Perhaps like a pp said, maybe i am more of an inconvenience than I realize to the rest of the team for planning/scheduling purposes. The 1 day a week was to trial this set up to see if it works and perhaps it just doesnt. I would like to increase to 2 days a week but the set up at the moment with family life and my other job doesnt allow for that quite yet.

Thanks for all your perspectives, interesting to read!