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I have to agree with the others... you should definitely find other jobs that better suit you. If you have had this many issues in just 6 months and it's just a 1-year contract position, I don't see them moving forward with you.
Keep all of your rants and complaints to yourself and start job searching. Focus your energy on doing your work and looking for a new place of employment.
This place sounds like too much drama and you're just a contractor.
You're right, I should try to tune out the drama, possibly start wearing earphones with music like this 1 guy who told me how fed up he is of the shouting and outbursts by young women who act like they're in high school and look for another job. But I want to try to salvage relationships before jumping ship and I need to find ways to get management to see me as the courteous effective worker they praised me for in the past. I would like to implement the manager's suggestions on how to work faster, write less (she suggested using bulleted lists instead of writing full sentences) and be more positive. Who can I ask for a reference and at what point should I approach them? While my contract ends in Feb 2019, there is a clause that they can terminate it prematurely for cause and without cause, they need to give 2 weeks notice or pay in lieu thereof.
By the way, how am I supposed to act friendly with that teammate who complained about me the next time I see her? While I take responsibility for perhaps not being as open to her criticism of me as I could have, it's partially thanks to her complaint that I'm in hot water with the manager. One more thing I forgot to add. The teammate found me on LinkedIn a few weeks ago and sent me a random invite without telling me in advance. I ignored it. I received a follow up reminder, same thing, ignored it. Why? Because she has a well deserved reputation of sticking her nose in everyone's business. I also don't want her to have access to all the recruiters and past classmates I have in my network. I wonder if me ignoring her LI invite was a contributing factor to her current curt attitude with me. I noticed her "tone" via email has also gotten noticeably colder.
Last edited by sedonaverde; 10-09-2018 at 08:17 AM..
Different managers expect different things. What do you need to do to change so that you're doing what's expected now?
Regarding your teammate, "kill them with kindness" comes to mind here. You ask how you can act friendly? Be the adult, just be friendly. It's not more complicated than that. If I were you, I would try to go to lunch with your teammate and get to know that person. Apologize for anything you did to upset them and move on. Get to know the person, and work on repairing that relationship over the next few months. That's a pretty standard response to any coworker I don't get along with.
Getting to know people on some sort of personal level and getting them to trust you personally goes a very, very long way.
A lot of your interaction is via emails. Perhaps you need to change your writing style, or pick up the phone more. Countless times things can be mis-communicated, causing angst. Definitely look at your actions to see if there is anything that can be improved.
The last time the manager called me into her office to give feedback which she said she loves to give, and then pulled out a list of so called grievances against me, I was tired, hungry and wasn't ready to answer her complaints...and oops, I did lose my cool. As the pressure mounted, I got upset and actually accused her of attacking me. She responded with, whooah sedona! with a surprised look on her face.
Anyway there was a recent incident where the younger teammate emailed me on her day off giving me directives, half of which were incorrect. I took issue with it because it was not her place to be directing me as we're on the same level, and especially not on her day off. I could've and actually did handle the tasks myself once my shift started. I mentioned it to the manager during our pow wow and the manager actually defended the colleague's actions in some sense. The manager asked me: but was it something important? To which I replied yes, but the teammate didn't have to email me on her day off, I had a handle on it.
These two incidents stand out to me. On the second one, instead of looking at your teammate's email as important communication about joint responsibilities and just replying with a "thank you, got it", you get defensive about her helping the company on her day off. She is the responsible one!
On the first one, no one really cares if you're hungry or tired, that is no excuse to lose your cool with anyone, and accusing someone of attacking you? You are now a liability to the company that needs to be monitored more closely to keep you on track.
Keep all of your rants and complaints to yourself and start job searching. Focus your energy on doing your work and looking for a new place of employment.
This place sounds like too much drama and you're just a contractor.
Agreed. Less ranting, more searching for a new job.
On the first one, no one really cares if you're hungry or tired, that is no excuse to lose your cool with anyone, and accusing someone of attacking you? You are now a liability to the company that needs to be monitored more closely to keep you on track.
On the second one, instead of looking at your teammate's email as important communication about joint responsibilities and just replying with a "thank you, got it", you get defensive about her helping the company on her day off. She is the responsible one!
I've reversed the order of your comments above to the proper sequence. I agree with you, feeling worn out is no excuse for lashing out at my boss. I got very defensive and looked unprofessional. If such a situation is ever repeated, can I ask them for a break, tell them I need to eat something, let's continue this meeting a different time or just walk out and go back to my desk?
For the second one, I get that my teammate was trying to help by reminding me to do certain tasks she thought were important but even my supervisor agreed that it was unwelcome. In fact the teammate's advice was half wrong. Frankly I don't need reminders to do stuff but I guess she felt I did after the incident in which she accused me of dropping the ball on projects and her becoming overloaded at the beginning of last week when I was off.
Last edited by sedonaverde; 10-09-2018 at 10:19 AM..
How you responded to the feedback (#4) is why you are being micromanaged and reinforced the manager’s perception of your negative attitude. Your manager brought you situations which you should have owned, not argued or blamed others. Even if something catches you off guard you say, “that’s the first I’ve heard that but I’m glad I know now”. Honestly your manager sounds pretty great giving you suggestions and (hopefully) a chance to improve.
Yes you need to prepare to search for a job or your contract not getting renewed, but also need to earnestly improve and work on your ‘poker face’ when frustrated. It does sound like your manager wants to give you a chance. Getting rid of contractors is easy - she could have just canned you if she was at that point.
I've reversed the order of your comments above to the proper sequence. I agree with you, feeling worn out is no excuse for lashing out at my boss. I got very defensive and looked unprofessional. If such a situation is ever repeated, can I ask them for a break, tell them I need to eat something, let's continue this meeting a different time or just walk out and go back to my desk?
For the second one, I get that my teammate was trying to help by reminding me to do certain tasks she thought were important but even my supervisor agreed that it was unwelcome. In fact the teammate's advice was half wrong. Frankly I don't need reminders to do stuff but I guess she felt I did after the incident in which she accused me of dropping the ball on projects and her becoming overloaded at the beginning of last week when I was off.
I don't agree with any of this.
Is your lack of sleep due to them working you long hours to make up for the other buffoons? Were you hungry because there's no time for a lunch break?
Please take a look at your working conditions relative to others before blaming yourself for your outbursts. Employees have taken enough in general and it's time to start fighting back. You are only human and being confronted by people who are dullards and only have half the story deserve to be corrected and put in their place when they clearly don't have all the facts.
I can't be the only one who understood it as : You covered for your co-worker and handled fire drills when she was out - When it came time for her to do the same she threw a hissy fit. F*** that.
You need to change your orientation, there are far too many bad apples out there the mentality for a contract role should be jump ship first and ask questions later. And make sure to get an FT the next go around so at least you have SOME protections. With the way you describe how these ninnies act I'm surprised they haven't tried to get rid of you already and use you as a scapegoat for their incompetence once you are gone.
If they let you go before the end of the contract would they have to pay you for the remaining time period or no?
You're right, I should try to tune out the drama, possibly start wearing earphones with music like this 1 guy who told me how fed up he is of the shouting and outbursts by young women who act like they're in high school and look for another job. But I want to try to salvage relationships before jumping ship and I need to find ways to get management to see me as the courteous effective worker they praised me for in the past. I would like to implement the manager's suggestions on how to work faster, write less (she suggested using bulleted lists instead of writing full sentences) and be more positive. Who can I ask for a reference and at what point should I approach them? While my contract ends in Feb 2019, there is a clause that they can terminate it prematurely for cause and without cause, they need to give 2 weeks notice or pay in lieu thereof.
By the way, how am I supposed to act friendly with that teammate who complained about me the next time I see her? While I take responsibility for perhaps not being as open to her criticism of me as I could have, it's partially thanks to her complaint that I'm in hot water with the manager. One more thing I forgot to add. The teammate found me on LinkedIn a few weeks ago and sent me a random invite without telling me in advance. I ignored it. I received a follow up reminder, same thing, ignored it. Why? Because she has a well deserved reputation of sticking her nose in everyone's business. I also don't want her to have access to all the recruiters and past classmates I have in my network. I wonder if me ignoring her LI invite was a contributing factor to her current curt attitude with me. I noticed her "tone" via email has also gotten noticeably colder.
You act as the professional you are supposed to be, suck it up and be nice to her. That is what people do in workplaces. I have had to do it countless times. One clerk in the facility I spoke about hated me on sight for some reason, and was mean and rude to me constantly. I still smiled and said "hi" when I passed her, and didn't let it affect me. Eventually she warmed up and was nice to me.
Btw, I get "Linked in" invites all the time and I know the person didn't send it. I think the system does it on it's own or something. Sometimes it's a person I haven't spoken to in years.
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