Apparently I Work Too Quickly!

[LuckysDadsHat]

So I have been in my job for 6 years, in all my appraisals and 1-1s I have had great performance feedback, said I am the best admin manager they have had etc.....

Until 2 weeks ago when a more senior colleague (not my line manager but a higher grade than me in the team) has complained that I work too quickly and this causes them stress. I don't even know what to do with this feedback. The way I work is to prioritise team tasks over other longer ongoing work I have to do as and when they come in. So someone may email me for something while I am doing longer term work and I will prioritise the new work, get it done and send it back.

Apparently this makes them feel stressed that I am replying so quickly, or answering emails quickly etc..... It makes them feel like they shouldn't email me.

I honestly don't know where to go with it, and I am now thinking of looking elsewhere for a job even though I love my current role. I just can't change my way of working. I am diligent, get the job done quickly and efficiently and the team is in a lot better position from when I started.

Any advice?

I think your emoji acknowledges that's a you problem!

Just explain that you want to have your bit done, but they’re under no pressure to reply as quickly/do their bit until they’re comfortable doing so.

It’s really their problem, OP, so don’t worry about it! They’d certainly be complaining if they didn’t get responses from you quickly enough, so don’t pay any heed to this.

Anyway OP - hopefully your line manager will agree you should carry on working in the way that's efficient for you. You shouldn't have to use headspace thinking about deferred delivery to suit the other person.
It's up to the other person to manage their time. Sometimes I get a response to something sooner than anticipated- I don't have to open it till I'm ready to deal with it, or I can quickly scan and flag it to deal with later.

I think you need to have a coffee in person with the complainer. Explain to them that you work as you do, and they work as they do, and their “stress” is their own issue. I would lay down the law and say you can’t be expected to change your way of working to accommodate their preferences, and that you don’t appreciate their new tone in emails.

They just want you to be the bottle neck so that that can blame the end to end turnaround time on you. It’s inefficient at best, lazy and unprofessional at worst. You sound excellent, OP. Don’t drag yourself down to their level.

I would email the person and copy my line manager in, saying something along the following lines:

"I'm really sorry that the quick turnaround times for tasks are causing you stress. I had always assumed that an efficient turnaround would be preferable but I can certainly adjust things if needed. Could you let me know what sort of timescales would be ideal, and I can then schedule send my responses to suit you?"

Not long after I started in my current post, I was told by a colleague that my efficiency made others in the team look bad. I smiled politely & said I didn’t think being efficient was a bad thing but if they’d an issue they should speak to our lead - I didn’t really know what to say. For transparency, I reported this exchange to my boss, my colleague hadn’t. 9yrs later, I’m still part of the team. My colleague has since moved on.

It’s hard to know how you should respond without being in that situation. I like to deal with things fairly quickly, to get them done and move on to other tasks. However, our current team lead is like this on steroids. She has a high need for control and getting work done quickly. Decision making is very quick in the team and often not the best decisions are being made as time isn’t given to process and think things through properly. It’s disconcerting how quickly she responds to emails and pieces of work, especially when she clearly isn’t fully focusing on meetings. You can see her on teams calls responding to emails and teams messages. She’s created quite a frenetic and stressful environment on the team as her “way of working” seeps down to the rest of us. It would be great if instead she would deal with her anxiety / need for control or whatever in her own time and slow down a bit at work.

Reminds me of the time I was given feedback that my work was above and beyond but I didn't look busy enough!

TELL THIS STUPID PERSON TO ONLY EMAIL YOU WHEN THEY WANT AN ANSWER THEN.

Don't dumb yourself down or change your ways because someone can't cope. Please. The person needs to reflect on their reactions to your efficiency and work on themselves a bit.

This isn't a you problem or up to you to address it.

You are doing nothing wrong at all and if the other person has difficulties that's up to them to find a solution.

I've worked for a council where I found I worked too fast and too efficiently. It was awful. They actively did nothing after 4pm and waited out their time to make up Flexi.

I left.

Or maybe they're just lazy.

they could learn from you and do better ?

I work like you. If it will take me two mins then I get it out of my inbox and to do list to stop it slipping down the email box and getting forgotten about. Could the manager be ND but that is their problem not yours. Is there a communication policy that says emails have to dealt with in a certain time frame.

years ago, the office stationery place I worked had a policy that you dealt with stuff as it came in from calls in the same order. I literally couldn’t cope. I was working on a longer term problem but if a call came in and I could resolve it on the phone there and then rather than write it down and have to phone customer back later to ask for more details or report back etc then I would. I saved up my warehouse emails from the morning and went down there after lunch and solved all at once. Would then input into system etc and make call backs. Rather than make 5 trips down a day and make a call back after each one. Would get to 2pm and I clock watched until 5pm! I started asking supervisor for their enquiries etc. was not well liked 😂
all came to a head when customers called in and specifically asked for me!
i tried to explain my methods and I wasn’t deliberately showing up the other women there. But I left in the end as was so bored 😂

So 1-1 with manager today who has basically said carry on as I am, I do work quickly, but I am accurate and efficient and that when I had a week off it all went to shit as they couldn't believe how much slack I actually pick up. I don't have to change my way of working, anymore than colleague has to change their way of working. Reading between the lines I think colleague is going through a bad time personally and is over stressed.

What are they doing to ensure that you aren't the one picking up all the slack?

It's my job to pick up the slack! That's what my role is! I just think individually they didn't realise how much until I was off.

I have done "cheat sheets" for them, they just didn't look at them while I was away. I have no problem with picking up the slack as I am busy but not overwhelmed and I work better when busy.