I've had enough.
I'm so sick of being nice.
I can no longer cope with the fact that the office support staff can take their 15 minute morning tea breaks, their full lunch hour and 15 minute afternoon tea breaks EVERY DAY, whilst I barely have time to blink my eyes for fear of losing one precious minute. I will no longer tolerate slack-arsed workers who think they're too busy if they can't check their hotmail account every 45 minutes. And "Can I do that later?" will no longer be an acceptable response.
That's right folks, I'm going to put my foot down. Starting Monday.
Actually, I've slowly started working my way to becoming assertive. Firm, but assertive.
Even Gary, the managing partner, has noticed a change in the last couple of days. When I was talking to Gary a couple of days ago, he briefly commented that lately, he has "noticed a certain air of confidence" about me. I didn't want to correct him, but the "air of confidence" is actually a shot of "I don't have time for 'no'. Just do what I say". Which is the attitude that I've started to adopt in the most recent of days.
For example, I told Delia to post a real estate agent's commission cheque to the agent's office via registered post at the beginning of the week. Surprise surprise - the cheque wasn't posted off until Thursday. Whilst I thought she had attended to the task, I received a rather nasty phone call from the agent asking where his commission cheque was. When I checked the file, I found out the truth, and I had to profusely apologize to the agent for what happened. The agent was extremely unhappy and wrote me a very rude fax outlining his inner-most hatred for the situation. (Note the use of the word "hatred" - you should've seriously heard the agent's sarcastic remarks whilst I was trying to explain what happened. He then ranted on for ten minutes about how he was going to have to explain why he wouldn't be able to pay his staff for another week).
Once I received the agent's fax, I put it on Delia's desk with the following note:
"This is what happens when you don't deal with cheques quickly."
Short and sweet. When I got back from lunch, the fax was on my desk with a new post-it note and the word "sorry" scribbled on the paper.
I marched straight up to Delia and told her that whenever I give her something to do with money, it must be done straight away. I explained that when it comes to money, people get "antsy".
I seriously didn't think she took it all in, until I gave her another agent's cheque to deliver that afternoon. In ten minutes, the cheque was sent off for delivery.
Actually, I'm quite surprised that Delia hasn't quit work yet. In my previous post, I expressed great concern over her ability to cope with her workload (ahem, workload?). Yet she is still working at the firm, and to my astonishment, she is actually trying harder to manage her tasks.
A fairy clap for Delia.
Hopefully the rest of the support staff will respond in the same way to my assertive-ness.
Only time will tell.
Friday, March 30, 2007
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Need some Assistants over here...!
After five weeks of working as a conveyancer, my fellow office-mate Cathy decided that conveyancing was too stressful for her. Without even batting an eyelid, Cathy marched up to the firm's managing partner and the office manager, and she told them that she didn't want to be a conveyancer anymore.
Lucky for Cathy, the managing partner and the office manager were quite understanding, so they didn't fire her on the spot. Unlucky for me because, until the firm found a suitable replacement conveyancer, I got dumped with half of Cathy's workload. Another 2 solicitors shared the rest of Cathy's work.
Cathy still works in the firm but in a general administrative capacity. She now has time to make her coffee at 9.00am and 3.30pm, and still get home to her fiance by 5.15pm every day. I, on the other hand, barely have time to scratch my arse, let alone make coffee or take a five-minute breather.
Whilst I am happy that Cathy can "relax" and relish the fact that she is no longer "stressed" at work, I am equally annoyed that her inconsiderate actions and her inability to try to cope with the conveyancing workload has turned the firm into a complete chaotic madhouse, doubling everybody's workload in the space of 24 hours.
We were actually told that a new conveyancer would be hired quickly, and that the distribution of conveyancing work was only "temporary". Three weeks later, and I am still running conveyancing files. Aggh.
During the first week that Cathy "quit" the conveyancing cell, one new contract was dumped on my desk every 5 hours (or so it seemed). In that first week alone, I opened at least 16 new files. I nearly went insane trying to keep up with the work.
The second week was even worse. I came home crying from all the stress, and even tennis, computer games and smoking didn't help. There just wasn't enough time to finish all the work that needed to be done. During the second week, I worked 14-hour days without taking any coffee or arse-scratching breaks - a harsh contrast to the less-stressful life that Cathy leads now.
And my assistant was no help at all. Being a young lass of 19 years, Delia would rather gossip with other support staff, rather than help me out. I understand that she is young and gets paid pittance, however I don't think this is an excuse for her attitude problem that she occassionally displays towards others, including me.
I don't care if Delia gossips about the guy who works down the road and who eats his hair with honey, so long as she finishes all the work I give her. Unfortunately, my work never seems to get done and in more instances than I care to remember, I end up having to do the delegated work myself.
This week (the third week after Cathy "quit"), Delia decided that I was giving her too much work (even after I'd explained to her that EVERYBODY (excluding Cathy) was also feeling the same way). Delia cried twice this week because she said the workload was "a bit overwhelming". After her second sob, I was on the verge of screaming at her - "What the HELL do you know about stress, you lazy fool?! Just because you can't gossip as much anymore, doesn't mean you have an 'overwhelming' workload! You don't work 14-hour days and come home starving because you don't get to eat during work hours, do you? So shut up and DO THE WORK I'VE GIVEN YOU!" - Of course, I didn't say this, but, like I said, I was on the verge. Very close to.
Lucky for Cathy, the managing partner and the office manager were quite understanding, so they didn't fire her on the spot. Unlucky for me because, until the firm found a suitable replacement conveyancer, I got dumped with half of Cathy's workload. Another 2 solicitors shared the rest of Cathy's work.
Cathy still works in the firm but in a general administrative capacity. She now has time to make her coffee at 9.00am and 3.30pm, and still get home to her fiance by 5.15pm every day. I, on the other hand, barely have time to scratch my arse, let alone make coffee or take a five-minute breather.
Whilst I am happy that Cathy can "relax" and relish the fact that she is no longer "stressed" at work, I am equally annoyed that her inconsiderate actions and her inability to try to cope with the conveyancing workload has turned the firm into a complete chaotic madhouse, doubling everybody's workload in the space of 24 hours.
We were actually told that a new conveyancer would be hired quickly, and that the distribution of conveyancing work was only "temporary". Three weeks later, and I am still running conveyancing files. Aggh.
During the first week that Cathy "quit" the conveyancing cell, one new contract was dumped on my desk every 5 hours (or so it seemed). In that first week alone, I opened at least 16 new files. I nearly went insane trying to keep up with the work.
The second week was even worse. I came home crying from all the stress, and even tennis, computer games and smoking didn't help. There just wasn't enough time to finish all the work that needed to be done. During the second week, I worked 14-hour days without taking any coffee or arse-scratching breaks - a harsh contrast to the less-stressful life that Cathy leads now.
And my assistant was no help at all. Being a young lass of 19 years, Delia would rather gossip with other support staff, rather than help me out. I understand that she is young and gets paid pittance, however I don't think this is an excuse for her attitude problem that she occassionally displays towards others, including me.
I don't care if Delia gossips about the guy who works down the road and who eats his hair with honey, so long as she finishes all the work I give her. Unfortunately, my work never seems to get done and in more instances than I care to remember, I end up having to do the delegated work myself.
This week (the third week after Cathy "quit"), Delia decided that I was giving her too much work (even after I'd explained to her that EVERYBODY (excluding Cathy) was also feeling the same way). Delia cried twice this week because she said the workload was "a bit overwhelming". After her second sob, I was on the verge of screaming at her - "What the HELL do you know about stress, you lazy fool?! Just because you can't gossip as much anymore, doesn't mean you have an 'overwhelming' workload! You don't work 14-hour days and come home starving because you don't get to eat during work hours, do you? So shut up and DO THE WORK I'VE GIVEN YOU!" - Of course, I didn't say this, but, like I said, I was on the verge. Very close to.
I wouldn't be surprised if Delia quit work next week, following Cathy's footsteps.
Cowards.
I guess some people just don't know how to take it for the team.
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