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#Post#: 73052--------------------------------------------------
Endless questions
By: sms Date: January 15, 2022, 2:42 pm
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A bit of a work frustration that I'm finding a tough time
dealing with politely and professionally.
I recently took over supervising a team of about 20 people (
government ). Most of the employees are great except one who
just bombards me with endless questions. What I am struggling
with is that as a supervisor I am aware that answering questions
and providing guidance is a big part of my job.
But "Linda" is [b]exhausting[/b]. On one hand she takes pride
in being very conscientious and having a lot of initiative.
Agreed - she is a hard worker. But I am starting to dread
assigning her anything because everything is an endless back and
forth of "clarifications, confirmations, can you explain this,
can you give me the history of this policy, reference,
procedure" etc. For the simplest thing. Nobody else goes this
deep and this hard and it flat out isn't necessary.
Imagine something like this:
She needs some information from me for completing her assigned
task. I provide what she asks for and think that's the end of
it. For literally everyone else on the team it would be.
But I get some variation of :
Q Where did you get this? A. From "X" database - only
certain people have access. ( she should know this )
Q How do I get access? A. You don't, they can only give it to
certain positions.
Q Is there a written policy on granting access? A I don't
know - all I know is that upper management asked for more and
were denied.
Q Could you ask again and get the policy on it? A Our senior
manager would have to answer that and this isn't a priority at
the moment.
Q What else is in there? A. Nothing else- just what you have.
Q Do you have the history of when this database was started?
A. Not offhand and why??
Q Can you explain how they come up with XXXX? A. I explain
X, Y and Z and provide the references because if it don't!!!!
Q So just to confirm XXXX is based on this reference? Can you
provide an explanation of this reference?
I'm trying to be patient but I feel like she is just running me
around. She takes up so much time and effort that I am just
drained.
#Post#: 73053--------------------------------------------------
Re: Endless questions
By: STiG Date: January 15, 2022, 6:00 pm
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Would you be willing to sit down with her for an hour once a
week? Get her to keep all her questions, email them to you and
then answer/discuss them once a week.
Linda, please find, attached, the statistics you need to
complete ABC task. Note that you do not need to know where the
information came from or how it was gathered in order to
complete the task. Please compile any extraneous questions you
may have and we can go through them at our regular meeting on
Friday at 2 pm.
If she sends you a question, ask her 'Do you need this to
complete your task? If not, please save it for Friday's
meeting.' Or if you know that she doesn't need the info, just
the 'Please save this question for Friday's meeting.'
ETA: And the key to getting her 'trained' is to not answer any
extraneous question outside of the meeting, even if you know the
answer off the top of your head.
#Post#: 73056--------------------------------------------------
Re: Endless questions
By: pierrotlunaire0 Date: January 15, 2022, 10:04 pm
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No where near as bad as you have it, but I would field a lot of
what I considered pointless questions, but like you, I didn't
want to shoot down questioning needlessly. If I could answer, I
would. If someone was questioning the XXX of a policy, and where
it said that, and why it said that, "Well, Denise (my own
special Linda), that seems like something perfect for your memo
reading time!" (All employees were assigned a set hour every two
weeks to review departmental memos and policy changes). If this
is something Denise really wanted to understand, she had between
10 am and 11 am every two weeks, plus all the manuals, and the
departmental website, and a direct line to the analysts
department in the capital. Have at it.
And if she wanted to debate things with me, my bottom line was:
We have too much to get accomplished in the day. You have your
memo hour and all these resources. But do not encroach on my
time. I don't have enough of it as it is.
Now, I did answer a ton of questions, and was very open and
welcoming to questions, so when I said No, I don't know and I am
not pursuing it, even Denise learned to back down.
#Post#: 73067--------------------------------------------------
Re: Endless questions
By: NFPwife Date: January 16, 2022, 5:56 pm
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I've had a similar experience but it was about wanting the
rationale for every. single. thing. Sometimes the most innocuous
things. The person was in hot water for it with their direct
supervisor so I had a nice opportunity as a consultant on the
project to address it.
My strategy was to get out of the content and go to the process.
I said, "There's a pattern of you requesting the rationale for
things, can we look at why you're doing that?" I also asked the
person to consider the impact of rational requesting. My person
said they wanted to know the rationale because they might be
able to "build a better mousetrap" - they thought they'd
understand the situation and bring something better to the
table. I asked them to consider every time they'd gotten the
rationale and if, after understanding the rationale, they
thought the strategy was reasonable. (This was a solid company,
I knew the answer before I asked that question.)
I asked them to consider that their direct supervisor and I
didn't have time to explain the rationale every single time,
often we needed an answer or some piece of data so we could move
our work and projects forward and stopping to type out the
history and rationale was time wasting and their direct
supervisor was getting very frustrated. I also asked them to
consider that asking for rationale, to their supervisor, was
putting themselves on the same level as the supervisor. The same
level-ness combined with wasting her time typing out rationale
had the supervisor at her limit.
The person, largely, stopped. I pulled a pop culture reference
that was analogous to the situation and when they slipped and
asked for rationale and I just didn't have time for it, I'd
reply, "Just buy the Rubbermaid, Jesse."
(In Breaking Bad, Walt told Jesse to buy a Rubbermaid container
to dissolve a body in, Jesse decided to save $150 and just put
the body and and the sulfuric acid in the second floor bathtub.
The sulfuric acid ate through everything and the tub (and body)
crashed to the basement. Walt confronts Jesse about not buying
the Rubbermaid and Jesse says Walt didn't tell him why he had to
buy Rubbermaid and he thought he was doing a good thing by
saving the cash.)
So all that to say, I think getting out of the content and
saying "Why in the name of all that is good and holy are you
asking all these questions?" is the way to go. (You'll word it
more professionally, but when I read it, that's exactly what I
thought.)
#Post#: 73070--------------------------------------------------
Re: Endless questions
By: sms Date: January 17, 2022, 3:49 pm
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Hi all! Thanks for the answers and commiseration. At least I
know it's not just me.
STiG - we do have dedicated one on one discussions on a regular
basis but yeah it might help if I tell her to "save them up". I
do wonder if she will try to rationalize getting an instant
answer but I can try nipping that in the bud. Maybe that will
just take time.
PVZ - you get it!! It's part of the job description to answer
questions but judas priest she is eating me alive!! It felt
like she was trying to trip me up or find holes in procedure or
policy? I have a pretty good relationship with her otherwise
but I always had the impression that she wanted to upstage
people a bit.
And more to the point she wants to try to change things up a
lot. We are supposed to welcome initiative but with every task
she wants to "make suggestions" or has "some ideas of how to
improve". As a rule I don't want to stifle initiative but her
ideas are so far out of scope for the tasks it isn't practical
or doable. I have patiently taken the time to explain in the
past but I'm officially over it now.
I think she's one of those people who thinks if one is good then
ten thousand must be better kwim? ::)
I told myself I was being paranoid until one of our senior
analysts told me she felt the same about her. So I want to be
professional, and kind, but I need her to know when to quit.
So I'm trying to find nice ways of saying stop wasting my time
with crap.
#Post#: 73079--------------------------------------------------
Re: Endless questions
By: holly firestorm Date: January 18, 2022, 2:26 am
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I wonder if Linda has been in a situation where she was
discouraged from asking questions and then got into trouble for
not having the answers later on.
It doesn't sound like you're being like this, but, I had a
supervisor like that once. From the first day I started working
there she expected me to know things I had never been trained
on, penalize me when I didn't, was vague in her instructions and
then if I asked for clarification 99% of the time she'd refuse
to answer any questions with a brusque, "I'm busy doing
something important!" And the rest of the office saw it and
agreed that she was unnecessarily unhelpful and . And then, if
someone else tried to help me she would blame me for taking up
too much of their time. She also tried to blame me for other
people's mistakes (including her own) even when she was given
proof that it wasn't my mistake. She would still come back with,
"you made X mistake before" after she'd be shown it wasn't my
doing at all.
I think putting a little time aside every week to discuss these
non-essentials with Linda is a great idea. But, please don't be
short with her when she asks something that really is helpful
for her to do her job. You never know, she might end up asking a
question or two that you never even thought about before and you
both might learn something interesting...or even useful.
#Post#: 73082--------------------------------------------------
Re: Endless questions
By: sms Date: January 18, 2022, 7:29 am
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[quote author=holly firestorm link=topic=2257.msg73079#msg73079
date=1642494405]
I wonder if Linda has been in a situation where she was
discouraged from asking questions and then got into trouble for
not having the answers later on.
It doesn't sound like you're being like this, but, I had a
supervisor like that once. From the first day I started working
there she expected me to know things I had never been trained
on, penalize me when I didn't, was vague in her instructions and
then if I asked for clarification 99% of the time she'd refuse
to answer any questions with a brusque, "I'm busy doing
something important!" And the rest of the office saw it and
agreed that she was unnecessarily unhelpful and . And then, if
someone else tried to help me she would blame me for taking up
too much of their time. She also tried to blame me for other
people's mistakes (including her own) even when she was given
proof that it wasn't my mistake. She would still come back with,
"you made X mistake before" after she'd be shown it wasn't my
doing at all.
That's fair to consider and it's why I'm struggling with this.
My job is to answer questions, clarify and provide guidance so
employees can do their job effectively.
I promise - I am not short or impatient with her but it is
REALLY starting to feel like the tail wagging the dog. If eve
I think putting a little time aside every week to discuss these
non-essentials with Linda is a great idea. But, please don't be
short with her when she asks something that really is helpful
for her to do her job. You never know, she might end up asking a
question or two that you never even thought about before and you
both might learn something interesting...or even useful.
[/quote]
That fair to consider and it's why I'm struggling here. It is
my job to answer questions and provide clarity and guidance. I
promise I am not short with her and I answer her questions as
best I can.
But I feel like the tail is wagging the dog here - she is
running me ragged. Truly - a lot of the questions are
irrelevant to her tasks. It is NOT something she needs to be
able to do her work and it is not something that if she doesn't
know she is lacking in training. A lot of stuff I don't know
and the senior managers don't know because, well, we don't need
to.
Her tasks are an issue too - she wants to make everything
"bigger". If I assign her X she wants to do X, Y, and Z. Trust
me - this isn't helpful. It's inefficient and she draws other
people into it. I've had to have this discussion with her
several times as did the previous supervisor. But it's
exhausting to always have to explain why and be the gatekeeper.
I think it's personality thing - she is very literal and she
seems to suffer from a kind of analysis paralysis.
#Post#: 73088--------------------------------------------------
Re: Endless questions
By: IWish Date: January 18, 2022, 8:34 am
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How exhausting! Can you turn it back on her? Maybe ask "Why do
you want to know that?" or "Why do you ask?" after every single
unnecessary question. Put it on repeat. Make her justify her
questions.
#Post#: 73089--------------------------------------------------
Re: Endless questions
By: Hmmm Date: January 18, 2022, 8:35 am
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I think all the above options are very good.
I've dealt with this type of person in the past. Their
assignments are tasked based but they are very analytical.
I'd be up front. "Ann, a lot of the questions you ask relating
to a task I assign are not pertinent to completing the task.
They end up eating a lot of my time and yours. I'm happy you
want to improve work processes. But I need you to change the
methods you are using. When I assign a task, work independently
to complete it. If you come to a point that you cannot complete
it because of lack of information, come to me then. Upon
completion of the task, you can then come to me with suggestions
for changes or improvements. Or if you would like more info
about a specific area because you are interested in increasing
your knowledge, then make a note and we can discuss during our 1
on 1 sessions and bounce around your ideas then. But I think
you'll find many of your questions will be answered as your
working through a task."
I had to point out to more junior staff that while my job as a
manager is to provide guidance, it is not my only job. And being
self aware of time you are taking up of me or other team members
is key to being an excellent employee. That when doing work, we
all try to reduce the amount of resources needed. An employee
time is a resource that they need to try to optimize too.
#Post#: 73289--------------------------------------------------
Re: Endless questions
By: TootsNYC Date: January 25, 2022, 3:59 pm
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"Is there a reason you need the answers to these questions?"
And things like "how can I get access?" are immediate triggers
to just say, "Get started, we'll talk later after you've made
some progress" and walk away.
That's the question of someone whose focus is not on the task
but is on worming their way into some place they don't
belong--especially since you know they wouldn't get it, and you
suspect they know as well.
I do like to explain reasons and processes that are above
someone's work assignment, because that's how people grow. But
there's a time and place.
It's perfectly OK to say, "I can't answer questions about this
now; get started on this, and if you have a question about this
specifically, we can talk later."
"I don't have time to field these questions right now; you have
everything you need to get started. Right now I need you to
focus on this specific task."
it's OK to refuse to engage. Not every question deserves to be
answered, and certainly not immediately when other things are
more pressing. You just need to believe that, and to have some
scripts to hand.
And then you can have a talk later, if you're the supervisor
about how she asks too many irrelevant questions and eats up
your time and slows down the task.
You could, if you were invested in training and expanding her
knowledge, set up a time for you to "data dump" certain
processes, and make a note as you go along about which to cover
in your next biweekly data dump.
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