DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
Bad Manners and Brimstone
HTML https://badmanners.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: The Work Day
*****************************************************
#Post#: 35621--------------------------------------------------
Re: Dealing with a Big-Wig Director . . .
By: Hanna Date: July 30, 2019, 7:33 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
jpcher I always admire your grace.
I wonder if this director is confused about the logistics of
printing your PDFs. perhaps she and her admin don’t understand
that either of them could print it?
#Post#: 35627--------------------------------------------------
Re: Dealing with a Big-Wig Director . . .
By: TootsNYC Date: July 30, 2019, 8:19 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Hanna link=topic=1245.msg35621#msg35621
date=1564533224]
jpcher I always admire your grace.
[/quote]
Ditto!
[quote]
I wonder if this director is confused about the logistics of
printing your PDFs. perhaps she and her admin don’t understand
that either of them could print it?
[/quote]
and ditto--I wonder if they think they need your specialized
software or something?
#Post#: 35630--------------------------------------------------
Re: Dealing with a Big-Wig Director . . .
By: Runningstar Date: July 30, 2019, 8:52 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
jpcher, I worked a long time ago for an incredible BFD (Big f-g
Deal - in his own mind anyway). He was horrid, impossible, and
your post reminds me of him. One day after one of his tirades,
over a post it note that had lost it's stickiness - somehow my
fault (?!!), I ended up in the women's bathroom in tears of
frustration. His secretary came in to find me, because the BFD
wasn't done with his tantrum yet, and was irate that I wasn't at
my desk. She had good advice (I thought back then) - which was
to just do the deed of the moment (or in this situation, get the
BFD a new post it note and copy down whatever was written on
it). Do whatever needed done to shorten the time spent with
him.
If you had asked about this back then, I'd have said for you to
just print the paper and move on!! Get him satisfied and out!!
But now? I would actually let his admin. know that he cannot
print a pdf, and that you would be sending pdf's to them
(him/her?) for printing. Hopefully they act professionally and
will have no issue with this. And, if they aren't knowledgeable
about how to print a pdf, I'd be very surprised, but it might be
worth your while to teach them. I say this because as
non-technically savvy as I am - I learned it pretty easily once
someone showed me. Then the next time this happens, say to the
big wig director "oh - yes!! let me call your admin. right now!!
We must get this fixed for you!!" Call the admin., tell them
of this absolute crisis (I guess I'm still a little bit
bitter....) and tell BWD that his admin has the golden tablet
waiting for him. Eventually he might learn how to actually ask
the admin himself. Then again, maybe not.
#Post#: 35634--------------------------------------------------
Re: Dealing with a Big-Wig Director . . .
By: Aleko Date: July 31, 2019, 1:42 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Jpcher, I think the first thing you need to do is get into a
huddle with his admin, who is quite likely as frustrated as you
are when BWD tasks anybody-but-them with routine jobs that could
and should be done by them, so that they constantly have grumpy
people turning up in their office with a 'Why me? Why didn't you
do this for BWD yourself?' vibe. See if you two can't decide on
a consistent strategy for dealing with him when he pulls stunts
like this.
Even if you (plural) can't train him out of it, you'll have
minimised the chance of any aggravation or misunderstanding
between you, which otherwise could easily be created by this
kind of misdirected command.
#Post#: 35656--------------------------------------------------
Re: Dealing with a Big-Wig Director . . .
By: Hanna Date: July 31, 2019, 7:42 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=TootsNYC link=topic=1245.msg35627#msg35627
date=1564535973]
[quote author=Hanna link=topic=1245.msg35621#msg35621
date=1564533224]
jpcher I always admire your grace.
[/quote]
Ditto!
[quote]
I wonder if this director is confused about the logistics of
printing your PDFs. perhaps she and her admin don’t understand
that either of them could print it?
[/quote]
and ditto--I wonder if they think they need your specialized
software or something?
[/quote]
Or their printer is not set up right.
You know the situation best but I’d consider sending IT over to
the admin “It sounds like BWD and Admin are having trouble
printing my pdf files. Can you check to see if they have an
issue with their print drivers?”
#Post#: 35659--------------------------------------------------
Re: Dealing with a Big-Wig Director . . .
By: Jem Date: July 31, 2019, 8:06 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=jpcher link=topic=1245.msg35619#msg35619
date=1564530361]
Truth be told, from your's and other's responses, I need to say
that I am in no way direct- nor dotted-lined connected to BWD on
the Org Chart. BWD and her group are my customers. So printing
.pdfs for BWD is not in no way part of my job description.
[/quote]
I am still confused about the bolded. So BWD is not part of your
organization? Do YOU have an admin? It does seem weird that BWD
is asking someone who is not an admin to do administrative jobs,
but I wonder if she thinks you are best able to print a PDF you
created, especially if BWD is a customer instead of a colleague
within your organization. I would maybe ask your boss how he/she
wants you to handle requests from customers. I think it matters
that this is a CUSTOMER rather than just a rude or ill-informed
co-worker. I think it makes a difference if BWD is not part of
your organization and doesn't have access to a printer
personally at your location.
I still think the advice of PPs is appropriate though, assuming
BWD's admin is right there and can print and hand the physical
PDF to BWD. If not, I think BWD is probably asking you to print
it because you are nearby and you have it.
#Post#: 35665--------------------------------------------------
Re: Dealing with a Big-Wig Director . . .
By: DaDancingPsych Date: July 31, 2019, 8:43 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Aleko link=topic=1245.msg35634#msg35634
date=1564555322]
Jpcher, I think the first thing you need to do is get into a
huddle with his admin, who is quite likely as frustrated as you
are when BWD tasks anybody-but-them with routine jobs that could
and should be done by them, so that they constantly have grumpy
people turning up in their office with a 'Why me? Why didn't you
do this for BWD yourself?' vibe. See if you two can't decide on
a consistent strategy for dealing with him when he pulls stunts
like this.
Even if you (plural) can't train him out of it, you'll have
minimised the chance of any aggravation or misunderstanding
between you, which otherwise could easily be created by this
kind of misdirected command.
[/quote]
I like the plan of working with Admin. I know that you said that
you do not know him/her well, but I think that this is a great
opportunity to initiate a relationship and to gain a better
understanding of what is happening. I have seen situations where
the admin is getting frustrated because the boss is not
utilizing him/her properly. I have even seen where they are
worried about job security because others are doing their work
and boss is not giving the appropriate opportunities to prove
him/herself. And meanwhile, the ones doing the work are getting
upset because they are doing duties that are not theirs. Either
way, getting a better understanding of the situation will allow
you to know how to better handle BWD in the future.
#Post#: 35669--------------------------------------------------
Re: Dealing with a Big-Wig Director . . .
By: syfygeek Date: July 31, 2019, 9:16 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Hanna link=topic=1245.msg35656#msg35656
date=1564576925]
[quote author=TootsNYC link=topic=1245.msg35627#msg35627
date=1564535973]
[quote author=Hanna link=topic=1245.msg35621#msg35621
date=1564533224]
jpcher I always admire your grace.
[/quote]
Ditto!
[quote]
I wonder if this director is confused about the logistics of
printing your PDFs. perhaps she and her admin don’t understand
that either of them could print it?
[/quote]
and ditto--I wonder if they think they need your specialized
software or something?
[/quote]
Or their printer is not set up right.
You know the situation best but I’d consider sending IT over to
the admin “It sounds like BWD and Admin are having trouble
printing my pdf files. Can you check to see if they have an
issue with their print drivers?”
[/quote]
I completely agree with this. It could be that "that one time
before, Jpcher printed this for us, we must ask her to keep
doing that until the end of time". Or for some reason, BWD's
admin has a computer glitch and doesn't even realize it.
#Post#: 35670--------------------------------------------------
Re: Dealing with a Big-Wig Director . . .
By: lowspark Date: July 31, 2019, 9:19 am
---------------------------------------------------------
JEM, he might be an internal customer.
I have a lot of internal customers and I often get asked to do
(what I consider) menial tasks that they *could* do themselves
but they just haven't taken the time to learn how. Just happened
to me this morning.
I did the task and then asked them if they would like to be
trained on how to do it. And that's pretty much how I handle
these kinds of things every time. It might take just once of me
asking them and then I do a training session or it might take
several times. Or I might train them and they still ask me. At
that point, instead of doing it for them, I offer to walk them
through doing it themselves.
They are my customers so I'm not going to chastise them or say
anything like "not my job" but on the other hand I want to
communicate to them that they can and should be doing it
themselves. I repeatedly offer to help them or teach them or do
whatever it takes for them to be able to do it themselves.
Sooner or later, they all catch on.
#Post#: 35697--------------------------------------------------
Re: Dealing with a Big-Wig Director . . .
By: bopper Date: July 31, 2019, 2:18 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
The other thing to keep in mind is that in any company, you want
to push a task down to the lowest level person that could handle
it.
So if the OP is a lead software developer, sure, they could
print out a pdf...but do you want someone at $50/hour or
someone at $20 an hour to do it?
If you can you always pick the $20 an hour person and let the
$50/hr person do the more difficult things.
*****************************************************
DIR Next Page