|
Dennis's
Fatal Attraction and Hating To Work
by Dr. Lynne
Curry
Question:
When I finally fired "Dennis," everyone on staff rejoiced.
Unfortunately, he won't go away. Dennis sends every employee weekly
emails full of glowing statements about how well he's doing and
predicting doom for our company.
Because
most of our employees grew sick of Dennis' arrogance when he worked
here, they read his first message and now treat the continuing emails
as spam. Still, because the emails created a weekly distraction,
I hired a computer security firm to try and figure out how to block
them. Unfortunately, they can't block them unless we decide to go
through a service provider like American Online or Hotmail. Do you
have any other suggestions?
Answer:
Sure. In Microsoft Outlook you can write a "rule" in Outlook
Client to dump Dennis' s emails into each employees' deleted folder
as they receive them. Further, you can purchase software that contains
certain words, addresses or domain names.
Or,
you can pursue legal redress. When a disgruntled former employee
sent six emails during a two-year period to Intel's 35,000 employees,
the company convinced a California judge to issue injunction barring
the employee from sending more emails. According to the court ruling,
the ex-employee's unwanted emails constituted a trespass on company
property. If you take this legal route, you might also look into
suing for damages to cover your legal costs and the money you spent
with the computer security firm.
Question:
Our former boss retired and the new one is hell on wheels. She comes
into my office first thing every morning, before I've even taken
my coat off, gives me two to three new assignments, and then emails
me constantly throughout the day with fresh assignments. I was swamped
within the first week. I've tried to tell her yesterday that I hadn't
yet gotten to some of the stuff she'd given me the first week but
she said "no problem, just work as quickly as you can."
Well, even if I work as quickly as I can, there's no way I can get
what she's already given me completed and still keep up with the
flood of new assignments coming my way. I'm taken to avoiding her
and sitting in my office with the door closed. Is my instinct right,
that my best bet is just working as hard and fast as possible?
I'm
two years from vesting in the pension plan but this woman is starting
to make me think about leaving because I can't take the stress.
Help!
Answer:
You can't succeed with a new boss, particularly one snowing you
with an assignment avalanche, by holing up in your office. Instead,
you need to get a dialogue going before the avalanche fully buries
you and you miss a crucial deadline or establish a reputation with
her as someone chronically late on projects.
So,
ask your new boss to meet with you. During the meeting, explain
you want to meet her expectations and to do everything you can to
be a great employee. Ask that she give you guidance concerning her
deadlines for the recent projects she's given you so you can meet
them...
If
she asks you "what's up?," let her know that you have
more on your platter than you can anticipate accomplishing promptly
and you don't want to let any crucial project slip behind.
If
she says, "I simply expect you to get everything done,"
tell her you will and don't mind working some overtime, but that
you'd like to keep her updated with a listing of the significant
projects and the priority order you've given them so she can redirect
you as needed. Once she sees your laundry list of the major undone
assignments, she may either tell you to pick up your pace or realize
how swamped you are and back off on the volume of new assignments,
allowing you to catch up.
If she tells you to pick up the pace, listen to her. You and your
former supervisor may have gotten into a comfortable cruise control
tempo in which you accustomed yourself to working at 42 and not
55 miles an hour.
If
your boss realizes when she sees the list of what you've left undone
that she's swamped you and backs off, thank her and continue working
as hard and fast as possible. Employees who obviously work hard
yet send up a white "swamped" flag cam successfully educate
bosses who don't initially realize that many projects take longer
to complete than the boss initially assumed. If, however, you learn
you now work for an extreme workaholic with totally unrealistic
expectations, take another look at moving on to a new employer.
When you work for someone who unmercifully piles it on, two years
can become an eternity.
Note:
Last week's column about the supervisor visiting porn sites generated
a lot of reader letters, most asking that the company discipline
the "snooping" employee who sat down at the supervisor's
company computer used at home. The company wasn't able to discipline
the employee, given his status as a "whistleblower" in
reporting wrongdoing.
|
