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#Post#: 77662--------------------------------------------------
I never thought that being productive would be a bad thing.
By: jpcher Date: November 4, 2022, 3:16 pm
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BG: My manager (Boss) and her manager (BigBoss) left the
building at around the same time, about 2 months ago. Since
then, a replacement for BigBoss has on board for a little over a
month. Boss' replacement will start a week from next Monday.
I know, a bit confusing, but it means that upper management is
being refreshed with new people, new ideas, new changes and all
that. I get it. No problem, not like this hasn't happened to me
before. Go with the flow.
Digging in a bit deeper -- my company has locations all over the
world. The department at my site has been handling a lot of work
from all over. Through the last five years, this local
department has dwindled down to only me. I have been absorbed
into Xlocation's management.
Xlocation's management (the Boss who left the building) decided
not to mess with a good thing and everything went on as normal,
smoothly, and I was very happy with the situation.
I am very busy, which I love. I'd prefer to be busy rather than
have downtime. I've never missed a deadline and, if I get
overwhelmed, I pass some projects to Xlocation.
Xlocation has five people doing the same job that I do. They are
union. I am not. endBG
We have a weekly production meeting where everyone talks about
the projects on their plate. While I have 20 or so projects
(going through review, not quite finalized, wait time for
customer comments, etc.) with some projects taking up only 1/2
hour of time, Xlocation team has maybe five or less projects per
person on their plate. I wonder what they do with the rest of
their time!
I had a 1:1 with BigBoss today. Basically she told me that my
project list was problematic because I was doing more work than
the rest of the team. She asked if I would be willing to toss
some of my project requests, like the 1/2 hour jobs to
Xlocation.
I said I could, but I really don't like down-time. Plus I love
pleasing my clients with a quick turnaround for simple things.
BigBoss hinted at Union problems. Not having enough work for
Union employees, while I am constantly busy. I'm not sure how to
respond to this.
On a side note -- BigBoss told me that she put me through for a
bonus. She recognizes the quality work that I do and appreciates
my exceptional performance.
I know, a lot of changes going on. How to muddle through this
situation in the best way.
Thoughts?
#Post#: 77674--------------------------------------------------
Re: I never thought that being productive would be a bad thing.
By: Rain Date: November 6, 2022, 2:56 pm
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I applaud you, sounds like you have a good job/personality match
( you ever watch Tom Hanks in the movie Big there's a scene
where he shows up all the other workers)
#Post#: 77675--------------------------------------------------
Re: I never thought that being productive would be a bad thing.
By: DaDancingPsych Date: November 6, 2022, 3:39 pm
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I think that BigBoss is trying to spread the work around so that
everyone has enough work... or as close to a full plate as
possible. If I was your coworker twiddling my thumbs all day, I
would be rather annoyed that you had all the projects. I would
worry that my job was on the cutting block! I'm not sure what
kind of union pressure BigBoss is feeling, but I would imagine
that only complicates things.
If I was in your shoes, I would think about what work I enjoy
the most. What work I think that I do the best. And what work I
would sacrifice if needed. Fighting to keep your current
workload is probably not possible (although you know better than
I do), so I would at least fight to keep the work that I wanted.
I would make it clear to BigBoss that I was quite happy with the
current situation and that I like being busy, but then I would
make a case for which projects should remain on my plate.
#Post#: 77676--------------------------------------------------
Re: I never thought that being productive would be a bad thing.
By: oogyda Date: November 6, 2022, 4:20 pm
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I agree with DDP about thinking seriously about the projects you
want to keep as yours and offer others up for disbursement.
That paints you as being cooperative and a team player (ugh). I
would do it before someone else decides what jobs/projects you
get to keep and what gets taken away.
#Post#: 77680--------------------------------------------------
Re: I never thought that being productive would be a bad thing.
By: NyaChan Date: November 6, 2022, 8:24 pm
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Sometimes there are strategic reasons to do this. For example,
my manager kept asking me to give assignments, anything at all
to someone who was basically not qualified to do much more than
admin busy work which I didn’t need help with. It was
annoying since it felt like I’d have been done with the
tasks already in the time it took to set them up and train them
to do it…until I realized that by giving them work, he
could justify their jobs so that they wouldn’t be first in
line for layoffs. In general, unless it is really going to harm
your prospects, I’d take this as an opportunity to shed
any less interesting assignments off to the others and build
some goodwill with your boss. It’s a pretty easy
“yes” to bank for the future.
#Post#: 77683--------------------------------------------------
Re: I never thought that being productive would be a bad thing.
By: Hmmm Date: November 7, 2022, 8:04 am
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I agree that it is probably best for the department to spread
around the work. I applaud your new boss in how the issue was
approached and allowing you to select which projects to pass on
to other groups.
You've obviously been a great resource and you've built up good
working relationships with your internal customers and they are
comfortable coming to you. Spreading the work around gives
others a chance to build similar relationships. It also creates
some redundancy within the organization on giving people more
exposure to to a wider variety of projects. You ideas or work
processes may also be sparked by introducing someone new into
the equation. And let's face it, many of us on this board or
nearing retirement age and our companies need to be prepared for
that change especially for us that have been with the
organization for many decades.
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