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geminigirlI'm irritated at the moment...about a conversation I just had with S.
Yesterday, as I was leaving (gee she's into catching me when I'm on my way out the door, no?) S. shows me the long distance phone bill and says that tomorrow I need to go through it and log all my calls. That the phone bill is too high, and so she needs to know which calls are mine. This in and of itself isn't an issue; I am in general, not on the phone at work to anyone that isn't local, and rarely on the phone for any extended period of time even locally, unless it's a work related call. So I'm thinking, "no biggie...I'll go through it in the AM, there are maybe half a dozen calls total that will be mine."
I get the bill from her, log the calls (a total of eight) add up the cost (the most expensive call was thirty-six cents) and give it back to her. She then gives the bill to IB when he comes in to pick up his check. I figure, other than letting me know who to make my check out to for the $1.28, that's the end of it, at least as it applies to me. Right? No. Of course not.
Later in the afternoon, she calls me into her office. And proceeds to lecture me about how the phone bill is too high, and how it looks bad for us as a team and so on and so on. And how I'm abusing trust by using the phone to make long distance calls. (My eight calls in two months for a total of $1.28) And how she's going to have to be over our shoulder about everything now and so on.
I have no problem taking responsibility for my calls. I did it back in February when I knew I made a lot of calls because I was in the middle of moving.
But she closes the conversation telling me how she's not going to write a warning letter for my personnel file about this, even though she did for IB. And I'm sitting there, internally fuming. Both of them made far more calls than I did. (As did a third person who would have been possibly calling New York, which is where they were concerned about the calls going to.) This is work. My work phone is not for personal calls other than when absolutely necessary.
So, when the boss takes part in a negative behavior to a greater extent than the employee, why is it that the employee should find a letter in his/her personnel file?
Yesterday, as I was leaving (gee she's into catching me when I'm on my way out the door, no?) S. shows me the long distance phone bill and says that tomorrow I need to go through it and log all my calls. That the phone bill is too high, and so she needs to know which calls are mine. This in and of itself isn't an issue; I am in general, not on the phone at work to anyone that isn't local, and rarely on the phone for any extended period of time even locally, unless it's a work related call. So I'm thinking, "no biggie...I'll go through it in the AM, there are maybe half a dozen calls total that will be mine."
I get the bill from her, log the calls (a total of eight) add up the cost (the most expensive call was thirty-six cents) and give it back to her. She then gives the bill to IB when he comes in to pick up his check. I figure, other than letting me know who to make my check out to for the $1.28, that's the end of it, at least as it applies to me. Right? No. Of course not.
Later in the afternoon, she calls me into her office. And proceeds to lecture me about how the phone bill is too high, and how it looks bad for us as a team and so on and so on. And how I'm abusing trust by using the phone to make long distance calls. (My eight calls in two months for a total of $1.28) And how she's going to have to be over our shoulder about everything now and so on.
I have no problem taking responsibility for my calls. I did it back in February when I knew I made a lot of calls because I was in the middle of moving.
But she closes the conversation telling me how she's not going to write a warning letter for my personnel file about this, even though she did for IB. And I'm sitting there, internally fuming. Both of them made far more calls than I did. (As did a third person who would have been possibly calling New York, which is where they were concerned about the calls going to.) This is work. My work phone is not for personal calls other than when absolutely necessary.
So, when the boss takes part in a negative behavior to a greater extent than the employee, why is it that the employee should find a letter in his/her personnel file?
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What an idiot.
Date: 2002-08-15 12:38 pm (UTC)Obviously, that management training course didn't really help much...
Re: What an idiot.
Date: 2002-08-15 12:49 pm (UTC)What actually bugs me is that she's chewing me out at all about the phone issue. Because I'm least responsible for it in this case, and clearly aware of the issue...especially since I took responsibility for it in the past.
Hrmph. Management?
no subject
Date: 2002-08-15 12:46 pm (UTC)lisa, the truly evil
no subject
Date: 2002-08-15 12:53 pm (UTC)If I'd demonstrated no clue, I might have more patience. But I've taken responsibility when it's come up before.
And you know something...even then, my $6 and change in personal calls when I was moving, amounted to far less than what she or IB had accumulated in the last two months of bills.
no subject
Date: 2002-08-15 12:50 pm (UTC)$1.28????
Tell her you have no problem with a note being put in your file, as long as in clearly states exactly what you did wrong. It should state that you used the phone for personal phone calls which accumulated a balance of $1.28. Make sure it also says that you have offered to pay this amount.
*Do Not* accept any vaguely written claims from your boss. Go to your human resources person and reiterate that if you are going to have a warning letter placed in your file, you want it to be specific.
Next, find out in writing what the official policy is for personal calls.
If she's going to be an idiot, at least make sure that she's brought down in the flames with you...
no subject
Date: 2002-08-15 01:09 pm (UTC)We don't have an HR person...HR is sort of handled by the office manager and executive director.
no subject
Date: 2002-08-15 04:46 pm (UTC)The fact that S. has made more calls than you tells me there's something bigger going on here - I suspect that *her* supervisor has called her on phone use issues, so now S. is calling her entire team on it.
That's the only way I see that this could make sense. When a manager starts making a big deal out of something so trivial, there's almost always something more going on, usually involving someone above them.
I'm sorry you're putting up with such complete and utter bullshit. That's the last thing you need, such unnecessary stress!
no subject
Date: 2002-08-16 10:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-08-19 06:26 am (UTC)Cover your ass, though, and use a calling card for every single call from now on. Check out www.bigzoo.com for really low rates.
no subject
Date: 2002-08-19 09:06 am (UTC)