Posted by noa on December 16, 2003, at 18:57:36
In reply to Screwing up at work, posted by Susan J on December 16, 2003, at 10:33:35
>But does anyone have any suggestions on how to make myself fire-proof? :-)
>LOL. When you figure that out, let us know the secret!
So much of that kind of stuff I think is idiosyncratic to the culture of where one works.
I myself was starting to have an anniversary reaction because last year at this time was when the picky memos were starting to come out and it was obvious they were trying to create paper trails and it was last year next week when I confronted my boss and asked if they were just trying to get rid of people and she let it out that yes, there would be job cuts, and so began a horrible, miserable half year or so.
And I think my work is ok this year, but with the increased work loads due to staff cutbacks, I am not able to keep up with things as well as I'd like. I've just been saying this matter of factly, not in a complaining way, because it is just obviously true. But I know that I need to actually ask to sit down and assess with the boss/es what I see as going well and not. I need it to be on the table that the realities are making it hard to get all the job done as before, but that I think I'm actually doing a pretty darn good job nonetheless.
I am feeling fairly reassured that there won't be a repeat of last year, because one of the immediate bosses just told me and my team-mate that she is taking us out for lunch next week because she feels our team has done well together. The truth is I really don't want to go out to lunch with her, but I do recognize this is her gesture of good will after what happened last year and a gesture to express that she likes our work. But she is only one of my bosses. I straddle two teams and then there are the higher up bosses anyway. And after last year I know that decisions get made in other corners of the organization. I still don't fully trust. I know that this boss (lunch treater) is trying to get me positioned on her team full time next year, but how much they care to accommodate her is very questionable.
In previous years, I know I was often quite dysfunctional because of my depression. When I look back at then from where I am now, I sometimes really don't know how I got away with some of the major performance gaps!
Is there an ally you can confer with who knows the politics and culture of your organization? First of all, to get a reality check on just how much of a problem this little lapse was? Are you seeing it in realistic proportions? Are you being too self-critical? Is it seeming big because it involves someone being angry at you (that is a familiar issue for me, too)? Or, maybe you are assessing it realistically. I don't know. But I think you need someone else to share their more objective thoughts about it with you.
Can you work with your boss to ask for help correcting the problem and preventing it from happening again? I guess what I'm getting at is would it help if you are proactive?
poster:noa
thread:290497
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20031207/msgs/290726.html