I'm sure every supervisor would love to have a staff of employees that get to work on time, do their job effectively and efficiently (see previous post regarding personal responsibility, take note this is the second reference to that post in as many entries). Unfortunately, I doubt any supervisor has a staff like that. However if an employee has a question about how the supervisor would like their job performed, you would think that question would be readily answered. Now I can hear the questions pouring in all ready, "but what about the employee that 'just doesn't get it'?" I understand there are people like that, you can even buy them a clue, and gift wrap it with big silver bow, give it to them and say, I just thought you'd like this, and they'll still "just not get it". However I believe these people are only 1 per office at the most (I would like to think). Hopefully, if you're reading this, you don't fall into that category, instead you fit the group that seems every time they need to talk to their supervisor, regardless the reason, there always seems to be someone else in there discussing what little Johnny did last night or how cute your new family puppy is. Now while personally I don't have a problem with having a working relationship with a supervisor, there is a line that needs to be kept. While at work, work comes first, personal stuff second unless you're at lunch, on break, or it's not during 'on the clock' hours. I'm not saying no personal time at all while at work, because if you go off the absolute, I'm guilty of doing personal things, texts, e-mail, etc. but I don't let it negatively effect my work output. And my personal things I do at work don't hinder other's ability to do their job either. In fact, I'm willing to bet most of my co-workers couldn't tell you how often or how much I text at work, because, well they just don't care cause they don't notice it effecting my work or theirs (mainly theirs though).
In my opinion (which I'm entitled to by the way in case anyone was going to be certain to tell me otherwise), if you let your personal activities negatively effect your work performance, you're stupid because you know it'll get you fired. But when you effect someone else's job performance, that's a line that just shouldn't be crossed, cause now you're making me look incompetent. For the past little while I've been needing to inform my supervisor of my current progress on a project and the possibility of meeting a deadline on it. Sure enough, every time I think about it, I look over and either there's someone in there, chit-chatting away or they're not there. *shakes head in disbelief* I'm sure at least one of you out there in cyber-land can sympathize and know exactly of what I speak.
In case any of you are wondering, yes I finally got a hold of my supervisor, and we discussed everything that needs to be done (all on the same date nonetheless), and my supervisor inquired what I need to do to complete a certain task as they were under the impression all I had to do anymore was click a button and the new system would take care of everything. Now I wished I had been told of such a button as that would have taken a load off my mind as I was dreading that task all week cause I know it's a bear to deal with, especially with all the information that gets accumulated in a month. I told my supervisor I knew management was discussing the possibility of this "button" working, maybe, but I hadn't been told it was going to work at all, and was under the assumption I should just keep doing everything as it has been done before to ensure the data is available.
I'm not one to bash or criticize management all the time, but management does need to communicate with their employees to ensure they're fully informed of all current proceedings, especially with so many companies "downsizing" or "consolidating" due to the economy. I'm one of these employees you just don't worry about. I come in, I know what I have to do that day, and I do it, then I leave. No one bothers me, no one questions my job, or my ability to do my job. But when time from my days are taken due to training on how to send an e-mail (not a joke, I spent 3 hours learning how to e-mail, paid by the company and people wonder why the company doesn't have money), and the systems locking up, that ultimately backs my work up, because that's time out of my day I can't work on my job. I expect to be able to meet with my supervisor in a timely manner and and give him a heads-up, that hey, due to these circumstances I may not meet this deadline for these projects; what priority do you want me to have? Sounds reasonable right? Yeah, but apparently little Johnny's t-ball game still gets preference to my job performance.
Okay, so what's the purpose of this "rant" you're asking, right? Well, either that or you think I'm just another disgruntled employee. I'll let you know, I wouldn't use the word "disgruntled", I'd say, "stunned." Why stunned you ask? Stunned this can go on, stunned a supervisor would allow such a vast waste of their and another employee's time. And finally stunned that a supervisor wouldn't notice someone he doesn't have much interaction with is walking by a lot and peeking around the corner to see if they're busy or not, and not making a point to see what's up.
Yeah, that's my post for tonight.
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