Workplace Concerns: Other People's Mistakes Looking Bad on Me

[Camden]

I have been promoted at work and have been given much more responsibility. Almost all of my company's internal and external service providers and vendors report directly to me. I am an office coordinator who plans events, coordinates projects, does bookkeeping among many other "behind the scenes" administrative jobs.

With this new promotion comes a lot more interaction with others and keeping tabs on their job performance. I am not a naturally assertive or pushy person, so it pushes me out of my comfort zone to "follow up" with my reports, ask them for additional favors, or discuss problems with them.

I've had numerous issues with my service providers making mistakes and having delays from their ends the past few weeks. For example, one vendor told me that I had 5 invoices overdue and I owed money in order to continue their services. I immediately felt personally responsible despite my more experienced colleague "Jennie" reassuring me it's an ongoing issue with this specific provider. They apparently make frequent mistakes with sending us invoices in a timely and organized manner.

I'm terrified of making mistakes on the job and I'm becoming just as concerned about other people's incompetence reflecting poorly on me. I feel like I have to "babysit" some of these service providers because of all the aggravating mistakes they've made.

 

[Aries]

Document, document, document. That's what you have to do. And you have to be assertive sometimes. When I ran a cafe I dumped the cleaning company because they were nickel and diming us out of money. The guy who ran the storehouse should have done it but he complained that the process of complaining to them was too hard so he just let them cheat us. Eventually they lost a class action lawsuit and were forced to give customers free service for some things for a while.

 

[Camden]

Document, document, document. That's what you have to do. And you have to be assertive sometimes. When I ran a cafe I dumped the cleaning company because they were nickel and diming us out of money. The guy who ran the storehouse should have done it but he complained that the process of complaining to them was too hard so he just let them cheat us. Eventually they lost a class action lawsuit and were forced to give customers free service for some things for a while.

Thanks for the advice! It sounds like you’ve dealt with you’re fair share of subpar service too. I’m bad about taking things personally even if I rationally know they have nothing to do with me. It could things as minor as a shipping delay from an Amazon order I placed, or the maintenance guy who forgot to change a light bulb, etc. I take responsibility and feel bad when others responsible for said tasks don’t follow through. My workplace counts on me for just about all administrative and logistic work, so the pressure is on in my new position.

I have kept an “incident book” at my previous job to note when vendors didn’t do things to our satisfaction. That was back before my social anxiety had worsened and I didn’t feel like colleagues would attack me for poor quality work from someone else. I think it’s time to keep a professional incident book again, to cover my backside and keep tabs on these flighty services providers with objective and detailed records.

 

[Camden]

I need to vent about some stuff that happened last week.

I do event planning for my company and the planning for an upcoming social gathering been a nightmare, mostly due to colleagues.

I was to send out an invite that I made from scratch on Publisher to my local colleagues. I designed a tasteful invitation with information about the food and live music I booked. I included names of colleagues who had milestones to celebrate too. Anyway, a certain someone I work with completely ruined my efforts and went as far as to say “I don’t care.” about this project that I’m the leader of. What the heck?!

First off they sent me the wrong list of colleagues to include on the invite THREE times! I sent it out and then had to recall and resend it twice one afternoon last week. Not only that, they changed up the wording to make a play on the F-word within the invitation that’s going to 75 people. I was mortified...

I met privately with one colleague “Jennie” who I confide in more than anyone and she agreed with me that the invitation our colleague “modified” was inappropriate and bad-taste. With that, I sent out my version and was done with it. I’m sick of bozos at my work making a mockery of my responsibilities that I take so seriously.

This same person also almost made me send out a company announcement to non-employees (i.e. service providers and vendors). Thanks to their vagueness and carelessness, I had to recall another email. Wasn’t a big deal, but it’s the whole situation that some people just don’t care and want to take advantage of my good nature with stuff they don’t want to do. It’s so frustrating to feel taken advantage of! The writing on the wall is there and I think I’m really going to have to be careful and learn better assertiveness to stand up for myself. I know there’s no escaping annoying coworkers. I just need to focus on my quality work and not let others drag me down and discourage me.

Vent over

 

[Doug97]

I thought this talk was entertaining:

 

[Camden]

I thought this talk was entertaining:

Thanks for the video! Very relatable and indeed entertaining.

I’m definitely not at the point of planning an exit strategy, I love this job and it has definitely challenged me in mostly good ways. I am however doing the self assessment to get a better understanding of how much my colleagues’ demands and bad behavior truly bother me. I liked the section about being self aware and avoiding repressed emotions. My repressed fear and frustrations appear in my dreams...

Back to the social anxiety aspect of it all, it makes me very anxious to be transparent about anything that makes me annoyed or angry. It makes me uncomfortable to show vulnerability, especially in the workplace. I worry about “what’s going to go wrong today...” and “Will they blame me?” Why does being honest with others about my emotions and my needs make me so anxious?

 

[Aries]

You should be uncomfortable showing vulnerability in the workplace. It's dog eat dog. People are climbing over coworkers dead bodies to move up at mine. I have managed to cut down my ex-boss and isolate her. She's been spending more and more time in the atomic absorption lab where she can't do so much harm. It hasn't ben easy. I had to document 3 separate instances where she behaved unethically. I think she atuclly should have been frog marched out of the place in handcuffs, but the bosses don't want that apparently.

 

[blueberries]

You sound like a very conscientious worker and any company should be grateful to have someone like you working there. Back when I was working I was much like you, I took great pride in my work and put a lot of effort into everything I did. Unfortunately I expected others to live up to my "high standards" I found most people didn't give a hoot and those higher up didn't seem to care much either. A good part of my day was spent fixing errors others had made which I found very frustrating.

It's hard to be in a position where others report to you when you aren't naturally assertive. At one point in my career I was put into a "managerial" position and hated it. One of my best friends was under me - she was a great friend but not the most competent worker, which made things rather awkward. I was never so glad to get out of a job as I was there. Congratulations on your promotion, it's good that you are getting out of your comfort zone. This is where you learn and grow and prepare yourself for the next step.

 

[Camden]

You sound like a very conscientious worker and any company should be grateful to have someone like you working there. Back when I was working I was much like you, I took great pride in my work and put a lot of effort into everything I did. Unfortunately I expected others to live up to my "high standards" I found most people didn't give a hoot and those higher up didn't seem to care much either. A good part of my day was spent fixing errors others had made which I found very frustrating.

It's hard to be in a position where others report to you when you aren't naturally assertive. At one point in my career I was put into a "managerial" position and hated it. One of my best friends was under me - she was a great friend but not the most competent worker, which made things rather awkward. I was never so glad to get out of a job as I was there. Congratulations on your promotion, it's good that you are getting out of your comfort zone. This is where you learn and grow and prepare yourself for the next step.

Thank you for the kind and encouraging words! It's the sign that I'm in the right place with this job that I am growing as a person and developing people skills. I know pretty much all jobs require problem solving and mine is no different.

Thanks for your reassurance about my efforts to appear as a competent and caring individual. I care deeply (perhaps too much) about my work performance and I know I don't have any realistic control over getting my colleagues to do the same. I need to challenge myself to quit worrying about other people's job performance and their conduct while in the office. I have a feeling I'll achieve great peace by letting those things go and focusing more on myself.

 

[MATD]

I need to vent about some stuff that happened last week.

I do event planning for my company and the planning for an upcoming social gathering been a nightmare, mostly due to colleagues.

I was to send out an invite that I made from scratch on Publisher to my local colleagues. I designed a tasteful invitation with information about the food and live music I booked. I included names of colleagues who had milestones to celebrate too. Anyway, a certain someone I work with completely ruined my efforts and went as far as to say “I don’t care.” about this project that I’m the leader of. What the heck?!

First off they sent me the wrong list of colleagues to include on the invite THREE times! I sent it out and then had to recall and resend it twice one afternoon last week. Not only that, they changed up the wording to make a play on the F-word within the invitation that’s going to 75 people. I was mortified...

I met privately with one colleague “Jennie” who I confide in more than anyone and she agreed with me that the invitation our colleague “modified” was inappropriate and bad-taste. With that, I sent out my version and was done with it. I’m sick of bozos at my work making a mockery of my responsibilities that I take so seriously.

This same person also almost made me send out a company announcement to non-employees (i.e. service providers and vendors). Thanks to their vagueness and carelessness, I had to recall another email. Wasn’t a big deal, but it’s the whole situation that some people just don’t care and want to take advantage of my good nature with stuff they don’t want to do. It’s so frustrating to feel taken advantage of! The writing on the wall is there and I think I’m really going to have to be careful and learn better assertiveness to stand up for myself. I know there’s no escaping annoying coworkers. I just need to focus on my quality work and not let others drag me down and discourage me.

Vent over

You bet got a job to do, your employer expects it. You are being paid for your services. Your coworkers are not responsible for your job, you are. With this in mind, when someone tries to sabotage your efforts, keep in mind they do not pay your rent or house payment. Document all attempts to sabotage, etc., never send out anything you haven’t double checked for accuracy. Then let the chips fall where they may. Anyone who deliberately creates chaos is not a team player, they deserve to be sacked for the good of all.