More Drama at work!

Thursday morning, I was informed by my supervisor that she had to put me on verbal warning for not meeting my production goals even though they aren�t counting all of the work that I do. Sure she�s been looking into an alternative way of counting things, but that wouldn�t take effect until this month and by corporate guidelines, she has to give me this warning. I was given an opportunity to disagree and I basically said that the current counting method didn�t account for all of the work I do and I listed examples of two days during the month when they didn�t count 170 pieces of work that I had done. If they had counted all of my work, I would have exceeded my goal by almost 40% for the month. I was okay with this since it�s a corporate edict and everyone in a similar situation would have been treated the same and they are working on an alternative.

Thursday afternoon, I found out that another member of my team who should have been giving a warning for his quality was not. You have to be in the high 90s to pass quality. He only got audited twice that month and an error was found on one of those audits resulting in him getting a 50% for that month.

Armed with this knowledge, I confronted my supervisor and was angrily told that was confidential information and that we shouldn�t be discussing it. Besides, quality is a rolling three months and production is a monthly metric. I was very upset and not thinking or I would have immediately hit upon the fact that if for the remaining two months my coworker had gotten 100%, he still would have failed because when you divide 250 by 3 the answer you get is nowhere near the high 90s. My supervisor told me that she would go and talk to the director and see what could be done. I have no confidence whatsoever that anything would have been done or that it was even discussed with the director.

I went back to my desk and the more I sat there, the madder I got. This woman who pretended to be my friend and referred to me as her �star,� had just written me up for not meeting my production goals when she was not counting all of my work and for a month in which my mother had spent a week in the hospital. My heart was racing and I felt sick. My supervisor was not at her desk so I left her a message that I wasn�t feeling well and I left an hour early.

Friday morning we had a meeting that included all of the groups within our team. This meeting was to formally introduce us all to our new manager and for our supervisor to address some issues that were brought up in a meeting the team had with the director in which she was not included. Things like not getting feedback in a timely manner and not being told that the goals had changed were some of the issues raised in that meeting. Our supervisor was incensed that she had to get everyone�s file together for review by the manager as a result of the meeting. She should really be glad she hadn�t given me the warning before we had the meeting with the director.

During the meeting with the new manager, he went on at length about how our reviews and performance management measures are confidential information and we should not be discussing them with our coworkers. We should �vent up, not out.� He also went to great pains to say that this subject came up as a result of an incident in another group and had nothing to do with anyone present in the meeting. Whatever.

Friday afternoon, we had a meeting scheduled for the group in which I work. It included the people who will be leaving the team as well as those of us who will be staying. While we were waiting for the supervisor to join us, we were joined by one of the new supervisors and his assistant as well as their manager (soon to be our manager and not to be confused with the manager we met earlier in the day). I had heard rumors that our group would be going to another team but a different supervisor�s name was mentioned.

During the course of this meeting, I asked my now former supervisor if she had resolved the counting issue or if it was something that I was going to have to start all over with BigT.

*That�s right y�all, my new supervisor is a Sa-land reader. Details to follow if passwording should become necessary.*

Her response? �No.� It seems that they�ve had discussions but the solution that they proposed still involved counting only one aspect of my work or another. It became glaringly obvious in this meeting that she hadn�t been making the case for representing a fair and accurate account of the work my assistant and I do, but was trying to pigeon-hole us with groups who do things that are completely different. ~Sa: �That's why we are called the Specialty group. Because our work isn�t LIKE anyone else�s.�~ She tossed out a couple of figures that would be the goals if we counted this way or that. I was SO completely over her by now that I figured it was as good a time as any for the new guys to be exposed to the battle that I�d been fighting for time immemorial.

Sa--to the letch, who is considered to be a quite capable and experienced worker:

�Does that sound fair to you? You�ve helped out when we�ve needed help and you know what the work is like. Would you want to take over this position with that goal?�

Letch (emphatically): �No�

For every argument the former supervisor had, I had an opposing argument. I brought up the fact that when she had most of the team doing the work that my assistant and I doing that no one met the goal in the manner that she was now counting it. Also the fact that the buck stops at our desks, we are completely responsible for the work we get. We can�t send the hard stuff to another group. I was spirited and well reasoned but not overly emotional.

It soon became apparent to the new manager that, perhaps, I might not be a lazy slacker whining about not meeting attainable goals. I assured him that our only interest was in having our work accounted for in a way that was fair. So on Tuesday, a timing/counting lady will be sitting with us and getting a feel for our jobs and helping to figure out what we do, how long it should take and what would be a fair goal for us. She will also spend more than one day with us because we are not doing the same thing everyday all day long and we never know exactly what we will be doing until we look at what we have on our desks. The new manager went to great pains emphasize that counting lady wouldn�t be allowing for visiting and such. I do my share of visiting but I sure don�t expect them to include it in my goals.

After the meeting, Big T and his assistant met with the three of us that will be going to his team. He said he was completely appalled at the level of �crap� we had been dealing with, such as goals based on conjecture and opinion rather than facts. He assured us that he wanted to make it right and that the new manager was committed to doing the same.

I�ll keep you posted.

Sign me: Cautiously Optimistic with My Fingers Crossed

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