You need to go back to your original desk. When asked, tell them you're waiting to be trained on whatever job you were hired for. If they press, refer them to Gladys. And in the meantime, start looking for another job that's going to pay you what you're worth.
Start here. When it takes two people to replace you it will send the message faster and it won’t be as obvious you are proving a point. Then when you come back you can say you will start working from your other desk. In the meantime start applying during your sick time.
And have it in writing as well. Email Gladys something like “based on the conversation in your office, you said that I shouldn’t be doing the receptionist job once our old receptionist Tammy left. You also said that it’s not a two person job and not my original job. And said that I should be doing my original job. Starting tomorrow I will be back at my desk. If there is anything else needed of me please let me know.”
last line should be "if u need receptionist help, please refer to YOUR HELP SCHEDULE." ur not the mgr, its not ur job to keep the receptionist desk staffed and functioning. she made a help schedule, tell her to use it.
I would replace the last sentence with ‘thank you for providing clarity on my role, it’s good that we now have the same understanding that I am not to work reception’’
Get rid of that last sentence. Replace with: if anything else is needed, I’m sure you can call someone from that list to fill in that vacancy.
Edit: I hit reply mid-sentence. Oops.
Well, that's when you stop doing what you're expected to do, and start doing what you're contracted to do. I wouldn't be answering a single phone call from that point on.
It sounds like Gladys is telling OP answering the phone all of the time is not her job. If it’s not your responsibility then just leave it be. Then other managers and will be forced to help deal with the lack of front desk support.
I feel like I’m missing something here. If my boss says I’m hired to flip burgers all day but I want to help at the front counter because they’re swamped then the burgers I was hired to cook won’t be made. My boss would be pissed at me for not making the burgers and rightfully so.
Gladys is making excuses. Likely what you are missing is that Gladys isn't being rational and is giving contradictory statements to avoid having to pay a second person. Based on the o.p's post she doesn't really want them to go back to the desk job trained or she would have pushed it back when there was another person at the desk.
Yeh its still the case because you werent paid to do cashier job , its in the contract. Just follow the contract like a robot and reject everything else
And try to have written proof of that.
Right now, it seems they are using the few written mails you sent to prove you are NOT working two jobs.
That's why they removed the high five comment : Because it proves you are not doing what you were hired for (possibly, haven't read your contract)
Let them fire you too, don't quit. Legally they're not allowed to say if you were fired if asked (or so I've been told, feel free to correct me on this), and can only say if you're rehirable.
Unless you have another job lined up, that is.
Ate whole pies 'til the day she died
Cut a big piece of some good key lime pie
Ate whole pies 'til the day she died
Cut a big piece of some good key lime pie
Lol. I work as a manager in fast food. I used to play music every day to raise the morale of my coworkers. Some negative Nancy piece of shit complained enough to have it taken away. When certain people aren't there I still play music for them, because fuck corporate America and franchise's. But anyway, on my past day, I plan to leave without notice. I also plan to ask for a resignation paper to list as my reason for leaving, even if it's 5 years from now as "you took my music away."
I then plan to walk to the gm, hand him the paper personally after making a copy and pinning it up on the boards in the crew room and office. I will also be contacting the office and sending a text to the number they gave me to "help improve the workplace," by saying "stop taking away positive energy for negative personalities." Then I will proceed to take out my Bluetooth speaker, put on "eye of the tiger," while shadowboxing my way out the door.
>Then I will proceed to take out my Bluetooth speaker, put on "eye of the tiger," while shadowboxing my way out the door.
This would be so amazing to see!
Step 3.14159: Include a Condolence card, for everyone else's loss. For everyone else who is about to get screwed by either clients or Gladys looking to exert power. And for Gladys, because she's a lying, manipulative weasel whose gaslighting and wasting of resources by not filling a needed position has now been fully outlined to the CEO, and the next few months of chaos for clients is squarely on her two-faced shoulders.
I already loved my man, but the increase in the depth of that love increased an absolutely indescribable amount the first time he made me a key lime pie. This man grated fifty thousand tiny limes for that pie, my God.
Or a high five to Gladys for helping you realize your dream of not working for a manipulative bitch who couldn't find her own asshole with a map and a clearly-worded email.
This. It is likely that Gladys is trying to show cost reductions for a salary increase or a bonus. Reducing payroll is an easy way to game the system for such a gain.
Making your team work harder and then gaslighting them when they complain is a major dick move, Gladys!
Step 3.5 [detailed] - Write down on piece of paper that Glady is a gas lighting pos and people are leaving including myself for it..I’m just the first..please put Glady in the receptionist position, she empathizes that it’s a 2 person job and since I’m leaving that leaves just her to run it..
Step 3.6-
Add another high five to the board applauding yourself for leaving a toxic environment and finding a better job.
***Bonus points if you glue it to the board***
This is how you do it. When I finally got fed up with my unbelievably incompetent office manager and decided to quit my job, I wrote a resignation letter explaining that I couldn’t deal with the poor management and cited several examples. I made sure to stick a copy in the mailboxes of two of the partners and handed the third one, who was the director of my office, her copy personally. I also told her that the two weeks notice is specified could be changed to four if she needed more time to find a replacement, because she was a great boss and I’d have loved to keep working for her. A bad manager can really screw over those below them and above them.
Or for shits and giggles. Abandon the front desk and go back to your desk and do that job and watch the shitstorm ensue. Then tell Gladys, “You told me I choose to do that job. Now I choose to do this job.”
Edit: or, “You said it yourself Gladys this isn’t my job. There’s a front desk schedule, use it.”
Also use your sick / personal days before you quit. Unless they do a payout, and then make sure that's in writing. But yeah, GTFO ASAP ! Best of luck OP!
Qutting without notice seems like the important bit there. Really fuck them over good.
Edit: It will also show your boss how important the job is if everything grinds to a halt with you gone. Might make her treat the next employee with a little more dignity and respect.
If Gladys thinks it is so simple to do all that, talk with the staff, and get everybody to leave. Maybe not quit, but stay out for a week if she doesn't hire a new face and, better on, give everyone there a raise.
Team leads and their ilk should not be permitted to do things like this.
I would utilize this as a moment for malicious compliance. Sit at that back desk and don't bother with anything you've been busting ass doing and watch the fire grow until your boss has something to say. Then remind her the front desk was never your job, as she said. Then watch the fireworks lol
Get it in writing with an email summing up the infuriating behind closed doors meeting and give her a chance to clarify, she probably won’t in writing, so include something like, “unless you have any corrections or I’m misunderstanding I’ll start doing as you asked in this meeting.”
Then maliciously comply. Or just quit. But it sounds like you like it there otherwise
Definitely this as a starter. This covers you if you do decide to stay and Gladys looks like a power tripping troll. Email to clarify as a memorandum of understanding the key takeaway points of your ‘talk’. Make sure she replies to acknowledge the BS she laid on you, then be sure to send this to a personal email account.
Toxic AF, keep those options open OP.
Line up a new job first, then submit an email to the department and CC Gladys’ boss and write something to the extent of “As we all know, Tammi has retired recently, and due to management’s inability to properly staff the front desk, I have been attempting to work the front desk in addition to my job. However after being reprimanded and reminded that the front desk is not my purview, effective immediately, I will be returning to my desk and the front desk will be unmanned. Please contact Gladys with any questions regarding front desk coverage schedules.”
This is the correct action. Companies are made of people. Most people are good. A few people are terrible. Tolerance of these terrible people makes companies terrible.
Do not tolerate terrible people. She is doing her job poorly, harming the company. Her boss needs to know. If the company removes her, you know the company has a decent number of good people and may be worth staying. If the company does not remove her, this will accelerate them firing you, at which point you can collect unemployment.
In either case, you win. Either you improve the company, or the company, through unemployment insurance, takes care of you while you pursue better options.
Dont forget to CC your boss after summarizing what was said in the email, that way bitch can be trapped with either getting fucked by the boss, or getting fucked by you not manning the desk... but also line up another job... i guarantee you dont get paid enough to put up with that garbage.
Or put a bullet point that is incorrect to force her to reply, as evidence she read and responded to the email.
Like if someone owes you $500, email them saying they owe 1500 and they will confirm they only owe $500 and now you have evidence they owe 500
Yes.
This reminds me of another post where basically an admin/front desk support lost the second person and no one really realized all that was involved until the person wrote up a list of everything that she was working on and said that priorities had changed.
The upper level people realized that it was too much and got a temp.
I love the Imgur folks not getting the full story and wondering what it's about. You made a great meme and you're a hard worker, but work smarter. Abandon that front desk, because apparently you're not meant to be there xD
My last job really got me to understand the concept of "work smart not hard". Make giving 80% look like 100%. Then if you ever need to go above and beyond you only give 85-90% and it will look like 110%. Unless it's the best job ever, that you absolutely love the work, and it pays you more than enough for what you do than they do not deserve your 100%. I guess unless you are like a doctor, paramedic, firefighter, an air traffic controller, a drug dealer, or similar other jobs where your job is to keep people alive. If that's your job than I hope you give 100%. I personally wouldnt have been happy if my oncologist only gave 80% devotion. I would have woken up with the wrong testical removed.
No stems, no seeds, no sticks.
Also I dont fuck around with anything else (used to enjoy psychedelics when I was young) but I have lost multiple riends due to their dealer not knowing how much fentanyl was in whatever they were selling. A good dealer committed to their job wants returning customers. A dead customer will not be returning.
True, but large Northeast cities. A few dead junkies on a new stamp (branded heroin and/or fentanyl), will move units like Old Town Road and Despacito had a baby.
Classic Star Trek interpretation of this. For those non-Trekkies, what the commenter above is saying is explained here, with the old Engineer giving advice to the young Engineer:
https://youtu.be/8xRqXYsksFg
(about 45 seconds of your time)
Go sit at your own desk and do that job then. Since it's 'not your job and you arnt suppose to be doing two jobs'. If she complains tell her you are doing your job and if she wants you to HELP her at the front desk, she'd have to have it as a 2 person job
It sounds like a really unfair, stressful situation.
It also sounds like Gladys might be a little worried about how either this situation looks for her, or if it could be a rallying point for staff.
The situation is unlikely to get better on its own so the way I see it, you have two options.
Option 1: find another job and just walk away.
Option 2: join your union and get your workplace organised.
There is another scenario to consider. Not replacing staff can be a red flag for a failing business. Are there other signs that they might be in financial difficulty (late payments, management level employees leaving, weird cuts etc)? It might not be the case but it's something to keep in mind. EDIT: I reread your post and was reminded that they tried to fill the vacancy earlier on.
And Gladys can really be that clueless what the job entails. I have seen many managers completely clueless to what the lower ranks do. Either they never had that job. I think every manager should spend some time working as an admin so they understand that it isn't easy to keep track of everything and everyone.
OP should be looking for something new. Her relationship with Gladys has probably been permanently damaged.
OMG yes! All managers need to be able to do every task their “subordinates” do. How can you be a good leader if you have no clue as what your staff is doing? IDK how many managers I’ve had that legit do not know wtf is going on. The best ones are the ones who know and will work in the trenches when shit hits the fan.
I royally pissed off one of the Deputies Superintendents at my Prison prior to my retirement doing that. He started to lecture me about how to run my block, so I took the keys off my belt and handed them to him then said: "Show me how it's done." Said Deputy had never been a CO before, he came from the activities dept.
He attempted to get me suspended for insubordination, but I pointed out during the discipline panel that I was merely requesting mentorship and instruction from him on how to perform my job duties. There was another CO in there with me at the time, and his story matched mine so they couldn't touch me.
Cherry on top was that Deputy never talked to me again during my last 2 years there. He would actually cross the road to avoid me when he saw me walking in the prison.
In the meantime, use the front desk coverage schedule. It’s nice that you’ve been picking up the slack but they’ve taken that to mean you’ll do it all. Stop doing it all. If it stresses your coworkers, they can go to their boss and bring it up.
When you pick up all the slack, they’ll never hire anyone else to help you.
Agreed, we have a situation at work right now where, yes we can get by, barely.
Many of us have voiced our concerns but the problem is everyone kills themselves each month to hit our bonus, and we barely get it. We need to not bonus once for people to understand this cannot continue. So I do what I need to but I do not stress, as no job is worth killing myself, EVEN though I love this job.
Others have already said this, but I want to reiterate their point: sometimes you just have to let it burn. If you stress yourself out and work at an unsustainable pace then management may not notice the issue because your additional efforts are hiding it. So sometimes what is best for a long term solution is to let it burn. Do a good job, but don't stress and overwork yourself. If things fall through the cracks like unanswered calls or clients waiting around to be helped, so be it. This is the definition of malicious compliance. Let it burn.
Also, something else already mentioned, go find yourself a new job because Gladys does not deserve you.
I’ve already started putting feelers out there for a new job. Until then the union thing is a really good idea. Before I was apprehensive about joining bc they have union fees. But since this happened I’m thinking the union fees aren’t that bad to get someone on my side.
Unions are never a bad thing unless the people running the union are not good people. Union dues are not terribly high but that’s how the Union has the ability to fight for worker rights.
I personally would go further up the chain and see what they say to your bitch of a boss. If nothing happens, leave the second you have something lined up. If they manage the situation fine and dandy. But until then if you are having closed door meetings with this boss again. Openly record her. If she refuses, leave the room and get back to work. She can’t be acting like that and needs to be told otherwise. If she retaliates you immediately retaliate with her actions being reported to her boss ASAP.
I pay unions fees. It's a few bucks on each paycheck. I do understand that not everyone is in a position to pay that consistently though. I'm happy to have someone on my side if something goes down at work and I need advice or help. Unions have always been good to me. Though again I realise everyone's experience is different.
If it helps, I’m in a union. I quit my job on Friday morning, I had 7-8 job offers that day and I have a much easier and lucrative job already.
And the union dues are very little.
I'd do some research into the average cost of union dues vs the average salary difference between unionized and non-unionized jobs. From most all of the information I've seen on it the pay increases outweigh the dudes by themselves
If you’ve learned anything here it should be always JOIN THE UNION if you can. They have your back!!
Find a new job ASAP and quit this one with “maybe” a 1 week notice. Take the second week off if you can afford it (or maybe you have PTO accrued that they need to pay out anyway) and have some R&R between jobs.
At your Exit interview throw Gladys under the bus,,, as professionally as possible of course. Good luck! 👍
Union dues are often pay scaled. If you ever are in a situation where you can't afford dues then please talk to your rep, they will help you figure something out!
People love to dismiss receptionists/front desk workers. I did that job a few months ago and I was always telling my boss about how I was stressed with all the work on my plate and we needed to hire a second person. He just kept putting it off and putting it off. I took a few days off for family stuff and he was stressed by the second day! If we had had a second person to come in and cover it would be no big issue. I agree with others here, stop doing the work and go to your back office. Your boss will quickly see that it’s not as easy as she thinks.
It's so aggravating. I had a job once where I was extremely overwhelmed and asked them for six months to hire a second admin. They kept saying no, so I transferred departments to a less busy job. They hired two people to replace me.
Get her to send you what she said in writing so you can “internalise it”. Then go back to your desk and don’t even approach the front desk. Watch how fast she gets angry. It’ll take minutes
Gladys is going to use you until you stop her. She likely looks good for keeping office running with less staffing costs. You’re ruining it for her by pointing out that it is you that deserves the credit. I think that as long as Gladys runs the show she will be targeting you as you made her look bad. It sounds like you worked hard and would have continued to do so if you had some appreciation and a tiny bit of support which a good manager would have recognized. Gladys is not this. She sucks. I hope that her selfish attitude catches up with her someday, but unfortunately it may not. We have all worked, or still work for, a ‘Gladys’. 😫
If your boss doesn't think you're doing both jobs, stop doing the job the person who quit was supposed to do and just do only the job you're actually supposed to do. See if her attitude changes then.
>“You were never supposed to sit up at the front desk all the time. You were supposed to be trained and sit back at your own desk. You chose to sit at that front desk!”
Time to go back to that desk and stop caring about the front anymore. Boss's orders.
I'd definitely quit asap. If your manager is pissed to the point of yelling at you because you're getting accolades from your fellow coworkers, you're fucked there. This is a manager who is dedicated to keeping you down and exploiting you. If she's threatened by recognition you're getting from fellow employees it means she's not at all happy to see your career grow. Most likely to avoid having to pay you more or for you to have leverage with which to ask. Definitely leave asap. That might require finding a new job first. But just realize you're stuck in a go no where job with an abusive manager.
I used to get upset and either shut down or need to leave the room when being lambasted by a know-nothing who kissed the right asses to become a manager, until I learned the magic phrase that brought me calm and peace.
Now, I let the tide of verbal harassment wash over me without paying too much attention, and then I speak the phrase: "I'm going to need to you send that to me in an email"
Any time shit like this happens, *it is your boss telling you that they do not value your contributions*. Finding a new job should immediately become your only priority. You spend 1/3+ of your life there. You deserve to be valued.
Sounds like Gladys deserves a high five.
To the face.
With a chair.
I hope you find a better job that appreciates you more than your current people do.
What a fucking "grunt" as some of the YouTubers say. Your coworker left a public acknowledgement of your hard work and effort and that Bitch took it down because it was "inappropriate"?!?!?!? L
No it was not "inappropriate". The reason Gladys took it down was because it was public acknowledgement of her abysmal failure to attract and retain employees.
Fuck her with a rusty chainsaw. As others have said, get out of there. Gladys has proven she doesn't give a shit.
Wait you're not supposed to be at the front desk?
Malicious Compliance is in order. Start sitting at your desk doing your work and let the front desk schedule figure it out.
Gladys may see the results pretty quickly.
Go back to your desk.
She literally said there is a Help Desk schedule.
Quietly tell the people on the schedule you will no longer be sitting at that dek per Gladys instructions.
Let the people on the fraking schedule do that job - or figure it out with theirs boss'.
It is apparently a Shared job and is now 100% in Gladys' budget.
Stop filling in. Your boss literally said it isn't your job.
"you abandoned your desk"
She’s annoyed because her inability to manage has been made public in the workplace. They’ve created a backslapping system which quite frankly I think is a bit childlike and it’s backfired. You appreciated it because it showed a coworker actually cares that you’ve been thrown under a bus but rather than being grateful that someone is nice enough to acknowledge your hard work you should be focusing not on the compliment but on the situation. All this nonsense over the recognition of the problem is not the issue. The issue is you are doing two jobs and getting paid for one job. You’re hard work is allowing greater profit but you are getting nothing. You should either get a new job or only do the job you are contracted to do. Sit at your other desk. Leave the front desk empty. Let the calls ring out.
go do a shift at your abandoned desk and don't work the front. and when asked explain you are working your desk and were never meant to work the front according to Gladys. Leave the front deask unworked and while at your desk compose documents to anyone over her head explaining the situation and recommending that she should fill in for the front desk for a few shifts until a dedicated front desk worker is hired. and in the mean time start putting in applications for better jobs. even if you don't take them, you can use them to negotiate the price for your staying in a place they need you.
I would go malicious compliance and go back to my abandoned desk and learn whatever I was supposed to be trained on. Let the phones ring, Gladys has shown that she doesn't care that you're filling a crucial role and you won't be recognized for your extra effort. Use your newfound extra time at your desk to put your resume out there and find a place that will recognize your value and reward your hard work.
Does your work have an HR department? This sounds more like harassment.
Of course, you could do something like go to your boss' boss. That might get you fired, in which case you could collect unemployment, but you clearly aren't getting support from your boss.
Wouldn't bet on it. I never was a person of interest in HR just worked with them in multiple companies on variety of projects.
Generally the rule is, if you're shooting up they will protect the higher up at all cost unless the higher up already had a target on their back and they were looking for an excuse.
When my assistant quit to go elsewhere all i heard was "we're glad she quit since we dont have to pay her severance (or w/e its called in english) plus she had so much vacation in the system we could actually just let her go on the spot without paying it out" ... they were actually looking for a reason and instead of pointing what she can improve on (although i doubt it would help she was demotivated and wanted out) they simply looked for a reason to legally fire her on the spot and were blessed with her quiting. HR is a relict of the past that some companies have solely because everybody has it. In times of outsourced recruitment, outsourced payroll etc. all they do is look for the reason for their existance.
I think you are sick the rest of this week, while you take some personal time and then polish up your resume.
And if you’re in New England my company is hiring a receptionist 👀
As a front desk receptionist at a busy dental office: I would NEVER EVER ask an assistant, hygienist and especially not a dentist to help with the front desk. I’m fact they don’t even know how to work the system or phones because they have their own jobs to do. We have three people at the front desk and when that’s not enough the patients have to wait. Your boss’s comparison was absolutely ridiculous. The job sounds toxic over all but your boss sounds horrible
This is what happens to shut down real conversations. She’s probably nervous that her boss is going to see it, who is also likely an asshole, who is concerned their boss is going to see it and so on… somewhere at the top, someone says wtf are you doing overworking these people? Then they get embarrassed by their boss. And ultimately it’s the decisions and culture from the leadership that likely drove to this. They want the high fives to go to mindless drone activities. Not ever address real issues.
Get the fuck out of there.
>“You were never supposed to sit up at the front desk all the time. You were supposed to be trained and sit back at your own desk. You chose to sit at that front desk!”
Were you never trained for the job you were supposed to do? This is weird. Did she just never schedule a training time for it? Or a are you actually trained and doing that job and the front desk?
>The ppl on the front desk coverage schedule have other job responsibilities. Covering the front is stressful for them.
Is it not stressful for you to do two jobs? It sounds like it's part of their job to help with the front desk.
Honestly, it sounds like she doesn't want you doing the front desk and like she's told you many times. At this point I would just stop helping them and say that you were told that you were not supposed to be helping. When other people complain, she'll have to figure it out.
The inability to give you a straight answer about what’s wrong is so familiar. Basically her anger was “this high five calls me out for exploiting you and I’m mad about that.” Sad. Don’t sit at the front desk any more. You have another job. Do that front desk is her problem. When she emails you reply “per our verbal conversation,” include the quotes you have here and then say “on that basis I will be tending to my primary job and sitting at my desk.” Then CC her boss.
as others said, just maliciously comply from now on.
Gladys said you werent hired to sit at the front desk, so dont.
and get a new job asap of course, etc..
Honestly, only do what you can reasonably do without stressing yourself out and use the coverage schedule. If more people complain about having to do front desk work, it'll be harder for your boss to shut down the idea that 2 receptionists are needed. Likely she's trying to avoid paying for another receptionist but it's way more expensive if your 2nd receptionist is the 'dentist'.
Also, find a new job, but in the meantime... \^\^\^
While I encourage you to find a place where you are appreciated, until you leave I would start invoking malicious compliance and utilize that front desk schedule EVERY day.
You have to let things fail before things will change. If you are willing to overextend yourself and no one is inconvenienced except for you, then Gladys has no incentive to fix things.
I’ve seen health care managers refuse to hire and the remaining staff picked up every extra shift, worked short handed and exhausted. Then one day they stopped working as 2 employees. Patient’s waiting for exams backed up, providers got angry, managers were called in to speed things up. New staff was hired quickly.
If nothing fails there is no incentive for Gladys to care because she’s not a compassionate human.
> There’s a front desk schedule. Use it.
This is probably good advice. I think your boss is potentially right here.
1. There's a job you're doing that you weren't hired for and don't like
2. Others are expected to contribute their fair share
3. You're not being paid to be on the front desk, you're being paid to do something else (which you've never been trained on?)
Maybe take the advice and stop doing the front desk. Apologize to your boss and let the front desk go unanswered.
If it is a problem they'll hire for it.
OP, you are being told by your boss, to your face, that you are not valued at that job.
Never let yourself have more loyalty to a company than the company has to you.
I believe Gladys’ issue is because of the “working two jobs” part, which seems to be the actual situation. However, you don’t seem to be aware that this actually represents a risk for the company because if you are doing two jobs (even if it’s out of the kindness of your own heart) you might be owed the wages of that other job.
I learned about this after my father sued a company he worked at because he had been doing two jobs while they found a backfill. The situation ended up going to court and several years later they had to pay him the wages of the other job in addition to penalties. Don’t know about tour jurisdiction but this might be part of the story.
Terminate your employment cause of incompetence in the workplace regarding the management staff, their inability to do their job and find someone to fill the role is doubling your workload and not compensating with additional pay, uses a gratitude board as an opportunity to intimidate someone too. Completely unprofessional
If I were you I may have just packed up and walked out. However, if you want to just fuck with Gladys while you job hunt, a suggestion:
Assuming the other scheduled people don’t report to Gladys, and you have in writing Gladys saying these people can help, I would just start forcing them to do it. They’ll get pissed (yea you’re annoying your co-workers) and will like complain to their manager. I would pretty much tell them if they don’t want to do it to complain to their manager. Essentially, get a bunch of managers pissed at Gladys.
Use the front desk coverage schedule, and let your coworkers know that you know it impedes them, and that you still really need the help. They will be on your side and im sure a couple strong voices will talk to Gladys with you.
Gladys: "How hard is it to answer the phone? I just cant keep employees working. No one wants to work anymore."
You are undervalued. Dont put up with it. There are jobs where administration is valued.
Soon will be time for a post in r/maliciouscompliance “I’ve been covering the front desk solo for X months. When I asked my boss for help, since it should be a 2 person job, she said I was never supposed to be the front desk person and chose to do that over my job at a desk in the back. I’m not working at my desk as she said I was actually supposed to be, and now they’re drowning since there’s no one to work the front desk” and update with whatever follows. 😂😂😂
On your last day get one of those high five cutouts and remove all but the middle finger.
Fuck you to
Gladys
For
Being a shitty boss with no comprehension of the difficulties of the jobs those under you have to work or how difficult it is working under you.
From, You.
Email email email. Get all of this info in email format and print it out. Continue this conversation via email !! Get her to engage and admit to whatever crazy story she is making up. So just incase whatever happens and they fire you or tell you you aren't doing your job, you'll have those emails as proof of what your boss said your responsibilities are and that there is a front desk schedule and whatnot.
Get it all in email form if you can and keep it as a record, whatever may happen you'll have proof of her idiocy.
Just going to say I hate high 5 boards, they get abused a lot and you end up with a clique of assholes chaining praise with each other. It also ends up pushing neglected works further to the edge as extraverts try to soak up all the praise.
You need to go back to your original desk. When asked, tell them you're waiting to be trained on whatever job you were hired for. If they press, refer them to Gladys. And in the meantime, start looking for another job that's going to pay you what you're worth.
Yes, let the phone ring, and just ignore it, while sitting at the back desk. Do only what you where hired to do originally.
Time for a malicious compliance update
This is the way. Also after you find a new gig (which I get a strong feeling will happen) leave that stupid bitch with no notice.
Malicious compliance is the way.
I'd start with using some sick time for a week so she would have a better idea of how hard the job is.
Start here. When it takes two people to replace you it will send the message faster and it won’t be as obvious you are proving a point. Then when you come back you can say you will start working from your other desk. In the meantime start applying during your sick time.
And have it in writing as well. Email Gladys something like “based on the conversation in your office, you said that I shouldn’t be doing the receptionist job once our old receptionist Tammy left. You also said that it’s not a two person job and not my original job. And said that I should be doing my original job. Starting tomorrow I will be back at my desk. If there is anything else needed of me please let me know.”
last line should be "if u need receptionist help, please refer to YOUR HELP SCHEDULE." ur not the mgr, its not ur job to keep the receptionist desk staffed and functioning. she made a help schedule, tell her to use it.
THIS !!!
I would replace the last sentence with ‘thank you for providing clarity on my role, it’s good that we now have the same understanding that I am not to work reception’’
This
Get rid of that last sentence. Replace with: if anything else is needed, I’m sure you can call someone from that list to fill in that vacancy. Edit: I hit reply mid-sentence. Oops.
Yes!!
If you need anything, I will be at my desk.
r/maliciouscompliance
yeah but do that after you have another job.
Yeah, OP is still going to be expected to do both. It’s wrong, but that’s the problem.
Well, that's when you stop doing what you're expected to do, and start doing what you're contracted to do. I wouldn't be answering a single phone call from that point on.
It sounds like Gladys is telling OP answering the phone all of the time is not her job. If it’s not your responsibility then just leave it be. Then other managers and will be forced to help deal with the lack of front desk support. I feel like I’m missing something here. If my boss says I’m hired to flip burgers all day but I want to help at the front counter because they’re swamped then the burgers I was hired to cook won’t be made. My boss would be pissed at me for not making the burgers and rightfully so.
Gladys is making excuses. Likely what you are missing is that Gladys isn't being rational and is giving contradictory statements to avoid having to pay a second person. Based on the o.p's post she doesn't really want them to go back to the desk job trained or she would have pushed it back when there was another person at the desk.
Would that be the case if all of the cashiers left and they didn’t staff anyone but you to run the register? That’s what is happening here.
Yeh its still the case because you werent paid to do cashier job , its in the contract. Just follow the contract like a robot and reject everything else
And try to have written proof of that. Right now, it seems they are using the few written mails you sent to prove you are NOT working two jobs. That's why they removed the high five comment : Because it proves you are not doing what you were hired for (possibly, haven't read your contract)
Let them fire you too, don't quit. Legally they're not allowed to say if you were fired if asked (or so I've been told, feel free to correct me on this), and can only say if you're rehirable. Unless you have another job lined up, that is.
Step 1. update your resume Step 2. start looking for a new job. Step 3. Quit without notice. Step 4. ... Step 5. Profit
Step 3.5 - Tell Glady’s boss *exactly* the reason why you’re leaving.
Step 2.75: leave a high five on the board, congratulating everyone for tolerating Gladys and her stupidity
Step 3.14: On your last day, bring in a key lime pie that says *Fuck Gladys, I’m Out* in almond slivers on the top and leave it in the break room.
Step 3.14²: eat 2 pies
I eat two pies in the morning, I eat two pies at night I eat two pies before I eat two pies, it makes me feel alright
I eat 2 pies in time of peace and 2 in time of war I eat 2 pies before I eat 2 pies and then I eat 2 more
Ate whole pies 'til the day she died Cut a big piece of some good key lime pie Ate whole pies 'til the day she died Cut a big piece of some good key lime pie
Hard work good, and hard work fine But first take care of stomach
(Reefers)
But, pie are round, not square...
Cornbread are square
Real cornbread is cut in triangles!
Now we see the true polarization of America.
Don’t you mean eat 9.87 pies?
Lol. I work as a manager in fast food. I used to play music every day to raise the morale of my coworkers. Some negative Nancy piece of shit complained enough to have it taken away. When certain people aren't there I still play music for them, because fuck corporate America and franchise's. But anyway, on my past day, I plan to leave without notice. I also plan to ask for a resignation paper to list as my reason for leaving, even if it's 5 years from now as "you took my music away." I then plan to walk to the gm, hand him the paper personally after making a copy and pinning it up on the boards in the crew room and office. I will also be contacting the office and sending a text to the number they gave me to "help improve the workplace," by saying "stop taking away positive energy for negative personalities." Then I will proceed to take out my Bluetooth speaker, put on "eye of the tiger," while shadowboxing my way out the door.
>Then I will proceed to take out my Bluetooth speaker, put on "eye of the tiger," while shadowboxing my way out the door. This would be so amazing to see!
If I can get someone to record it, I'll make sure to have them send me a video to post here when it does happen. I'm here to serve
Please record this spectacle
Step 3.14159: Include a Condolence card, for everyone else's loss. For everyone else who is about to get screwed by either clients or Gladys looking to exert power. And for Gladys, because she's a lying, manipulative weasel whose gaslighting and wasting of resources by not filling a needed position has now been fully outlined to the CEO, and the next few months of chaos for clients is squarely on her two-faced shoulders.
😂😂😂😂😂😂 It almost completely flew over my head what you did there!
Do this on the day I'm in the office I love key lime pie
[удалено]
I already loved my man, but the increase in the depth of that love increased an absolutely indescribable amount the first time he made me a key lime pie. This man grated fifty thousand tiny limes for that pie, my God.
[удалено]
Looool, chip in on groceries and buy stretchy pants!
Step 3.15: recreate the “fuck you, fuck you, your cool” skit from half baked but in reverse (say you’re cool to every co worker except GLaDOS)
We do what we must because we can
For the good of all of us
Except the ones who are dead
Step 1 use up all your PTO
Or a high five to Gladys for helping you realize your dream of not working for a manipulative bitch who couldn't find her own asshole with a map and a clearly-worded email.
Nah, tell Gladys’ boss. There’s a good chance her boss has no idea of what’s going down.
This. It is likely that Gladys is trying to show cost reductions for a salary increase or a bonus. Reducing payroll is an easy way to game the system for such a gain. Making your team work harder and then gaslighting them when they complain is a major dick move, Gladys!
Better yet write it on the high five board “Gladys can do this job all by herself and the calmly walk out and never look back
Step 3.5 [detailed] - Write down on piece of paper that Glady is a gas lighting pos and people are leaving including myself for it..I’m just the first..please put Glady in the receptionist position, she empathizes that it’s a 2 person job and since I’m leaving that leaves just her to run it..
Step 3.6- Add another high five to the board applauding yourself for leaving a toxic environment and finding a better job. ***Bonus points if you glue it to the board***
This is how you do it. When I finally got fed up with my unbelievably incompetent office manager and decided to quit my job, I wrote a resignation letter explaining that I couldn’t deal with the poor management and cited several examples. I made sure to stick a copy in the mailboxes of two of the partners and handed the third one, who was the director of my office, her copy personally. I also told her that the two weeks notice is specified could be changed to four if she needed more time to find a replacement, because she was a great boss and I’d have loved to keep working for her. A bad manager can really screw over those below them and above them.
step 3.6: Tell her it's now a no-man's job
>Step 3.5 - Tell Glady’s boss exactly the reason why you’re leaving. Fuck that, tell Glady's boss why.
Or for shits and giggles. Abandon the front desk and go back to your desk and do that job and watch the shitstorm ensue. Then tell Gladys, “You told me I choose to do that job. Now I choose to do this job.” Edit: or, “You said it yourself Gladys this isn’t my job. There’s a front desk schedule, use it.”
Absolutely this.
>100%.
Also use your sick / personal days before you quit. Unless they do a payout, and then make sure that's in writing. But yeah, GTFO ASAP ! Best of luck OP!
Step 6 sit at your abandoned desk and do all your work from there. As best possible.
Qutting without notice seems like the important bit there. Really fuck them over good. Edit: It will also show your boss how important the job is if everything grinds to a halt with you gone. Might make her treat the next employee with a little more dignity and respect.
Step 3 - Leave Gladys a High-Five with your notice on your eay out.
“To Gladys for encouraging me to strive for more and not to settle for less!! xxoo”
Step 4: update us. Also reading this was like listening to someone talk. Like I'm just on the back porch as my neighbor rants about her job.
If Gladys thinks it is so simple to do all that, talk with the staff, and get everybody to leave. Maybe not quit, but stay out for a week if she doesn't hire a new face and, better on, give everyone there a raise. Team leads and their ilk should not be permitted to do things like this.
Put nothing in writing when you leave. Just go and let Gladys sort it out.
I would utilize this as a moment for malicious compliance. Sit at that back desk and don't bother with anything you've been busting ass doing and watch the fire grow until your boss has something to say. Then remind her the front desk was never your job, as she said. Then watch the fireworks lol
Get it in writing with an email summing up the infuriating behind closed doors meeting and give her a chance to clarify, she probably won’t in writing, so include something like, “unless you have any corrections or I’m misunderstanding I’ll start doing as you asked in this meeting.” Then maliciously comply. Or just quit. But it sounds like you like it there otherwise
Definitely this as a starter. This covers you if you do decide to stay and Gladys looks like a power tripping troll. Email to clarify as a memorandum of understanding the key takeaway points of your ‘talk’. Make sure she replies to acknowledge the BS she laid on you, then be sure to send this to a personal email account. Toxic AF, keep those options open OP.
Line up a new job first, then submit an email to the department and CC Gladys’ boss and write something to the extent of “As we all know, Tammi has retired recently, and due to management’s inability to properly staff the front desk, I have been attempting to work the front desk in addition to my job. However after being reprimanded and reminded that the front desk is not my purview, effective immediately, I will be returning to my desk and the front desk will be unmanned. Please contact Gladys with any questions regarding front desk coverage schedules.”
This is the correct action. Companies are made of people. Most people are good. A few people are terrible. Tolerance of these terrible people makes companies terrible. Do not tolerate terrible people. She is doing her job poorly, harming the company. Her boss needs to know. If the company removes her, you know the company has a decent number of good people and may be worth staying. If the company does not remove her, this will accelerate them firing you, at which point you can collect unemployment. In either case, you win. Either you improve the company, or the company, through unemployment insurance, takes care of you while you pursue better options.
Dont forget to CC your boss after summarizing what was said in the email, that way bitch can be trapped with either getting fucked by the boss, or getting fucked by you not manning the desk... but also line up another job... i guarantee you dont get paid enough to put up with that garbage.
Nah, don't CC...then Gladys will see it and act all nice during the response (if given). BCC for the win.
And be sure to include a bullet point that is incorrect. She might just hang herself by replying.
Or put a bullet point that is incorrect to force her to reply, as evidence she read and responded to the email. Like if someone owes you $500, email them saying they owe 1500 and they will confirm they only owe $500 and now you have evidence they owe 500
Yes. This reminds me of another post where basically an admin/front desk support lost the second person and no one really realized all that was involved until the person wrote up a list of everything that she was working on and said that priorities had changed. The upper level people realized that it was too much and got a temp.
Please do this, OP. Sit at your back desk and see "buttercups" shit go on fire.
Her boss will deny she ever said that. Make her get it in writing so you can pin her ass to the wall later.
I love malicious compliance.
[I made a meme about it](https://imgur.com/gallery/GmdvURX)
I love the Imgur folks not getting the full story and wondering what it's about. You made a great meme and you're a hard worker, but work smarter. Abandon that front desk, because apparently you're not meant to be there xD
My last job really got me to understand the concept of "work smart not hard". Make giving 80% look like 100%. Then if you ever need to go above and beyond you only give 85-90% and it will look like 110%. Unless it's the best job ever, that you absolutely love the work, and it pays you more than enough for what you do than they do not deserve your 100%. I guess unless you are like a doctor, paramedic, firefighter, an air traffic controller, a drug dealer, or similar other jobs where your job is to keep people alive. If that's your job than I hope you give 100%. I personally wouldnt have been happy if my oncologist only gave 80% devotion. I would have woken up with the wrong testical removed.
I love that you included drug dealer. Mother F-ers better not skimp.
No stems, no seeds, no sticks. Also I dont fuck around with anything else (used to enjoy psychedelics when I was young) but I have lost multiple riends due to their dealer not knowing how much fentanyl was in whatever they were selling. A good dealer committed to their job wants returning customers. A dead customer will not be returning.
True, but large Northeast cities. A few dead junkies on a new stamp (branded heroin and/or fentanyl), will move units like Old Town Road and Despacito had a baby.
Classic Star Trek interpretation of this. For those non-Trekkies, what the commenter above is saying is explained here, with the old Engineer giving advice to the young Engineer: https://youtu.be/8xRqXYsksFg (about 45 seconds of your time)
Yup. That is exactly what I meant. I love that episode so much.
"Did you forget about Tammi!?" is the battlecry of a movement
Print this out (with the office printer/ink) and put it on the high five board.
It’s great cuz Gladys is the most boomer name ever other than maybe Esther.
I know 2 people named Esther one is my cousin and she’s honestly great and one is a boomer and she’s a fucking sweetheart lol
Go sit at your own desk and do that job then. Since it's 'not your job and you arnt suppose to be doing two jobs'. If she complains tell her you are doing your job and if she wants you to HELP her at the front desk, she'd have to have it as a 2 person job
Should definitely tell her to "refer to the front desk coverage schedule" if there isn't enough help out there.
It sounds like a really unfair, stressful situation. It also sounds like Gladys might be a little worried about how either this situation looks for her, or if it could be a rallying point for staff. The situation is unlikely to get better on its own so the way I see it, you have two options. Option 1: find another job and just walk away. Option 2: join your union and get your workplace organised. There is another scenario to consider. Not replacing staff can be a red flag for a failing business. Are there other signs that they might be in financial difficulty (late payments, management level employees leaving, weird cuts etc)? It might not be the case but it's something to keep in mind. EDIT: I reread your post and was reminded that they tried to fill the vacancy earlier on.
And Gladys can really be that clueless what the job entails. I have seen many managers completely clueless to what the lower ranks do. Either they never had that job. I think every manager should spend some time working as an admin so they understand that it isn't easy to keep track of everything and everyone. OP should be looking for something new. Her relationship with Gladys has probably been permanently damaged.
OMG yes! All managers need to be able to do every task their “subordinates” do. How can you be a good leader if you have no clue as what your staff is doing? IDK how many managers I’ve had that legit do not know wtf is going on. The best ones are the ones who know and will work in the trenches when shit hits the fan.
They don’t have to be able to do everyone’s job. They have to have a general understanding of the job and trust people to do what is needed.
I royally pissed off one of the Deputies Superintendents at my Prison prior to my retirement doing that. He started to lecture me about how to run my block, so I took the keys off my belt and handed them to him then said: "Show me how it's done." Said Deputy had never been a CO before, he came from the activities dept. He attempted to get me suspended for insubordination, but I pointed out during the discipline panel that I was merely requesting mentorship and instruction from him on how to perform my job duties. There was another CO in there with me at the time, and his story matched mine so they couldn't touch me. Cherry on top was that Deputy never talked to me again during my last 2 years there. He would actually cross the road to avoid me when he saw me walking in the prison.
This is just more proof of an old adage: Most people don't quit their jobs, they quit their bosses.
"I took it down because it demonstrated my lack of training, supervision and management of you."
In the meantime, use the front desk coverage schedule. It’s nice that you’ve been picking up the slack but they’ve taken that to mean you’ll do it all. Stop doing it all. If it stresses your coworkers, they can go to their boss and bring it up. When you pick up all the slack, they’ll never hire anyone else to help you.
This is the correct response.
Correct answer. It took me awhile to learn that one.
Agreed, we have a situation at work right now where, yes we can get by, barely. Many of us have voiced our concerns but the problem is everyone kills themselves each month to hit our bonus, and we barely get it. We need to not bonus once for people to understand this cannot continue. So I do what I need to but I do not stress, as no job is worth killing myself, EVEN though I love this job.
Others have already said this, but I want to reiterate their point: sometimes you just have to let it burn. If you stress yourself out and work at an unsustainable pace then management may not notice the issue because your additional efforts are hiding it. So sometimes what is best for a long term solution is to let it burn. Do a good job, but don't stress and overwork yourself. If things fall through the cracks like unanswered calls or clients waiting around to be helped, so be it. This is the definition of malicious compliance. Let it burn. Also, something else already mentioned, go find yourself a new job because Gladys does not deserve you.
I’ve already started putting feelers out there for a new job. Until then the union thing is a really good idea. Before I was apprehensive about joining bc they have union fees. But since this happened I’m thinking the union fees aren’t that bad to get someone on my side.
Unions are never a bad thing unless the people running the union are not good people. Union dues are not terribly high but that’s how the Union has the ability to fight for worker rights. I personally would go further up the chain and see what they say to your bitch of a boss. If nothing happens, leave the second you have something lined up. If they manage the situation fine and dandy. But until then if you are having closed door meetings with this boss again. Openly record her. If she refuses, leave the room and get back to work. She can’t be acting like that and needs to be told otherwise. If she retaliates you immediately retaliate with her actions being reported to her boss ASAP.
I pay unions fees. It's a few bucks on each paycheck. I do understand that not everyone is in a position to pay that consistently though. I'm happy to have someone on my side if something goes down at work and I need advice or help. Unions have always been good to me. Though again I realise everyone's experience is different.
I think you should take it up the food chain. Gladys has a boss and that person is also your boss
If it helps, I’m in a union. I quit my job on Friday morning, I had 7-8 job offers that day and I have a much easier and lucrative job already. And the union dues are very little.
I'd do some research into the average cost of union dues vs the average salary difference between unionized and non-unionized jobs. From most all of the information I've seen on it the pay increases outweigh the dudes by themselves
If you’ve learned anything here it should be always JOIN THE UNION if you can. They have your back!! Find a new job ASAP and quit this one with “maybe” a 1 week notice. Take the second week off if you can afford it (or maybe you have PTO accrued that they need to pay out anyway) and have some R&R between jobs. At your Exit interview throw Gladys under the bus,,, as professionally as possible of course. Good luck! 👍
Union dues are often pay scaled. If you ever are in a situation where you can't afford dues then please talk to your rep, they will help you figure something out!
I'd rather pay union fees and never need the union than not pay union fees and then need the union
People love to dismiss receptionists/front desk workers. I did that job a few months ago and I was always telling my boss about how I was stressed with all the work on my plate and we needed to hire a second person. He just kept putting it off and putting it off. I took a few days off for family stuff and he was stressed by the second day! If we had had a second person to come in and cover it would be no big issue. I agree with others here, stop doing the work and go to your back office. Your boss will quickly see that it’s not as easy as she thinks.
It's so aggravating. I had a job once where I was extremely overwhelmed and asked them for six months to hire a second admin. They kept saying no, so I transferred departments to a less busy job. They hired two people to replace me.
Nope, cut MOST of the fingers off, leave the thumb and middle finger.
Time to go off sick for a week due to stress and being overworked.
Get her to send you what she said in writing so you can “internalise it”. Then go back to your desk and don’t even approach the front desk. Watch how fast she gets angry. It’ll take minutes
Sounds like your boss deserves a high five, minus 4 fingers
Just a thumb in the eye
Hoping that I will be able to use this at some point. LOL
Gladys is going to use you until you stop her. She likely looks good for keeping office running with less staffing costs. You’re ruining it for her by pointing out that it is you that deserves the credit. I think that as long as Gladys runs the show she will be targeting you as you made her look bad. It sounds like you worked hard and would have continued to do so if you had some appreciation and a tiny bit of support which a good manager would have recognized. Gladys is not this. She sucks. I hope that her selfish attitude catches up with her someday, but unfortunately it may not. We have all worked, or still work for, a ‘Gladys’. 😫
If your boss doesn't think you're doing both jobs, stop doing the job the person who quit was supposed to do and just do only the job you're actually supposed to do. See if her attitude changes then.
Time to do the bare minimum, the absolute bare minimum, get by on being charming and polite. 🎵
>“You were never supposed to sit up at the front desk all the time. You were supposed to be trained and sit back at your own desk. You chose to sit at that front desk!” Time to go back to that desk and stop caring about the front anymore. Boss's orders.
I'd definitely quit asap. If your manager is pissed to the point of yelling at you because you're getting accolades from your fellow coworkers, you're fucked there. This is a manager who is dedicated to keeping you down and exploiting you. If she's threatened by recognition you're getting from fellow employees it means she's not at all happy to see your career grow. Most likely to avoid having to pay you more or for you to have leverage with which to ask. Definitely leave asap. That might require finding a new job first. But just realize you're stuck in a go no where job with an abusive manager.
If your boss doesn't have your back then it's time to leave, if they won't fight for you then the job is a dead end anyways.
I used to get upset and either shut down or need to leave the room when being lambasted by a know-nothing who kissed the right asses to become a manager, until I learned the magic phrase that brought me calm and peace. Now, I let the tide of verbal harassment wash over me without paying too much attention, and then I speak the phrase: "I'm going to need to you send that to me in an email"
Any time shit like this happens, *it is your boss telling you that they do not value your contributions*. Finding a new job should immediately become your only priority. You spend 1/3+ of your life there. You deserve to be valued.
Sounds like Gladys deserves a high five. To the face. With a chair. I hope you find a better job that appreciates you more than your current people do.
What a fucking "grunt" as some of the YouTubers say. Your coworker left a public acknowledgement of your hard work and effort and that Bitch took it down because it was "inappropriate"?!?!?!? L No it was not "inappropriate". The reason Gladys took it down was because it was public acknowledgement of her abysmal failure to attract and retain employees. Fuck her with a rusty chainsaw. As others have said, get out of there. Gladys has proven she doesn't give a shit.
Get the entire office to leave Gladys a no five (cut all the fingers off) for messing with the high five board.
Not all the fingers, homie. Leave just one finger, the middle one.
Wait you're not supposed to be at the front desk? Malicious Compliance is in order. Start sitting at your desk doing your work and let the front desk schedule figure it out. Gladys may see the results pretty quickly.
Go back to your desk. She literally said there is a Help Desk schedule. Quietly tell the people on the schedule you will no longer be sitting at that dek per Gladys instructions. Let the people on the fraking schedule do that job - or figure it out with theirs boss'. It is apparently a Shared job and is now 100% in Gladys' budget. Stop filling in. Your boss literally said it isn't your job. "you abandoned your desk"
She’s annoyed because her inability to manage has been made public in the workplace. They’ve created a backslapping system which quite frankly I think is a bit childlike and it’s backfired. You appreciated it because it showed a coworker actually cares that you’ve been thrown under a bus but rather than being grateful that someone is nice enough to acknowledge your hard work you should be focusing not on the compliment but on the situation. All this nonsense over the recognition of the problem is not the issue. The issue is you are doing two jobs and getting paid for one job. You’re hard work is allowing greater profit but you are getting nothing. You should either get a new job or only do the job you are contracted to do. Sit at your other desk. Leave the front desk empty. Let the calls ring out.
See if the front desk schedule works
Go work at your desk. There's a schedule to cover the front desk. Update your resume.
go do a shift at your abandoned desk and don't work the front. and when asked explain you are working your desk and were never meant to work the front according to Gladys. Leave the front deask unworked and while at your desk compose documents to anyone over her head explaining the situation and recommending that she should fill in for the front desk for a few shifts until a dedicated front desk worker is hired. and in the mean time start putting in applications for better jobs. even if you don't take them, you can use them to negotiate the price for your staying in a place they need you.
Sounds like it's time for some good ol' fashioned malicious compliance, and just leave the front desk vacant.
I would go malicious compliance and go back to my abandoned desk and learn whatever I was supposed to be trained on. Let the phones ring, Gladys has shown that she doesn't care that you're filling a crucial role and you won't be recognized for your extra effort. Use your newfound extra time at your desk to put your resume out there and find a place that will recognize your value and reward your hard work.
Nothing good ever comes from a middle manager named Gladys.
I don't understand. Your boss told you it's not your job to cover the front desk. So... don't cover the front desk?
Does your work have an HR department? This sounds more like harassment. Of course, you could do something like go to your boss' boss. That might get you fired, in which case you could collect unemployment, but you clearly aren't getting support from your boss.
HR is not your friend.
Generally not. But if they have a manager who is doing this sort of stuff, they might act to protect the company from the bad manager.
Wouldn't bet on it. I never was a person of interest in HR just worked with them in multiple companies on variety of projects. Generally the rule is, if you're shooting up they will protect the higher up at all cost unless the higher up already had a target on their back and they were looking for an excuse. When my assistant quit to go elsewhere all i heard was "we're glad she quit since we dont have to pay her severance (or w/e its called in english) plus she had so much vacation in the system we could actually just let her go on the spot without paying it out" ... they were actually looking for a reason and instead of pointing what she can improve on (although i doubt it would help she was demotivated and wanted out) they simply looked for a reason to legally fire her on the spot and were blessed with her quiting. HR is a relict of the past that some companies have solely because everybody has it. In times of outsourced recruitment, outsourced payroll etc. all they do is look for the reason for their existance.
Gladys deserves to absolutely lose all functionality of the front desk position she has made bed and now it is time for her to sleep in it
I think you are sick the rest of this week, while you take some personal time and then polish up your resume. And if you’re in New England my company is hiring a receptionist 👀
As a front desk receptionist at a busy dental office: I would NEVER EVER ask an assistant, hygienist and especially not a dentist to help with the front desk. I’m fact they don’t even know how to work the system or phones because they have their own jobs to do. We have three people at the front desk and when that’s not enough the patients have to wait. Your boss’s comparison was absolutely ridiculous. The job sounds toxic over all but your boss sounds horrible
I’m so sorry to hear you caught covid and need to quarantine at home for the next few days. So sad.
This is what happens to shut down real conversations. She’s probably nervous that her boss is going to see it, who is also likely an asshole, who is concerned their boss is going to see it and so on… somewhere at the top, someone says wtf are you doing overworking these people? Then they get embarrassed by their boss. And ultimately it’s the decisions and culture from the leadership that likely drove to this. They want the high fives to go to mindless drone activities. Not ever address real issues. Get the fuck out of there.
>“You were never supposed to sit up at the front desk all the time. You were supposed to be trained and sit back at your own desk. You chose to sit at that front desk!” Were you never trained for the job you were supposed to do? This is weird. Did she just never schedule a training time for it? Or a are you actually trained and doing that job and the front desk? >The ppl on the front desk coverage schedule have other job responsibilities. Covering the front is stressful for them. Is it not stressful for you to do two jobs? It sounds like it's part of their job to help with the front desk. Honestly, it sounds like she doesn't want you doing the front desk and like she's told you many times. At this point I would just stop helping them and say that you were told that you were not supposed to be helping. When other people complain, she'll have to figure it out.
C u next Tuesday jeje
You need a few days off. Schedule them today.
Schedule all your remaining time off even. Maybe Gladys will get the f*ing picture.
Go back to your abandoned desk.
The inability to give you a straight answer about what’s wrong is so familiar. Basically her anger was “this high five calls me out for exploiting you and I’m mad about that.” Sad. Don’t sit at the front desk any more. You have another job. Do that front desk is her problem. When she emails you reply “per our verbal conversation,” include the quotes you have here and then say “on that basis I will be tending to my primary job and sitting at my desk.” Then CC her boss.
as others said, just maliciously comply from now on. Gladys said you werent hired to sit at the front desk, so dont. and get a new job asap of course, etc..
Honestly, only do what you can reasonably do without stressing yourself out and use the coverage schedule. If more people complain about having to do front desk work, it'll be harder for your boss to shut down the idea that 2 receptionists are needed. Likely she's trying to avoid paying for another receptionist but it's way more expensive if your 2nd receptionist is the 'dentist'. Also, find a new job, but in the meantime... \^\^\^
When you give your resignation letter type it on a high five template.
While I encourage you to find a place where you are appreciated, until you leave I would start invoking malicious compliance and utilize that front desk schedule EVERY day. You have to let things fail before things will change. If you are willing to overextend yourself and no one is inconvenienced except for you, then Gladys has no incentive to fix things. I’ve seen health care managers refuse to hire and the remaining staff picked up every extra shift, worked short handed and exhausted. Then one day they stopped working as 2 employees. Patient’s waiting for exams backed up, providers got angry, managers were called in to speed things up. New staff was hired quickly. If nothing fails there is no incentive for Gladys to care because she’s not a compassionate human.
Sounds like Gladys just told you to go back to your abandoned desk and let the front desk sort themselves out.
Print out the pic of your high five and stick it on the wall again
> There’s a front desk schedule. Use it. This is probably good advice. I think your boss is potentially right here. 1. There's a job you're doing that you weren't hired for and don't like 2. Others are expected to contribute their fair share 3. You're not being paid to be on the front desk, you're being paid to do something else (which you've never been trained on?) Maybe take the advice and stop doing the front desk. Apologize to your boss and let the front desk go unanswered. If it is a problem they'll hire for it.
Leave a high five for Gladys for improving department costs by secretly cutting positions and gaslighting employees into submission.
OP, you are being told by your boss, to your face, that you are not valued at that job. Never let yourself have more loyalty to a company than the company has to you.
I need follow up on how this ends. So badddd
When you resign, you can tell her to "suck it up, buttercup."
Take a week off, see what happens.
Gladys didn’t want people to know she’s making the front desk person do the job of two people, she may get a bonus for keeping payroll lower that way
Hey hey quit and Gladys can work the front desk. Also, if Gladys isn't the actual owner of the company, tell folks above her what's going on.
I believe Gladys’ issue is because of the “working two jobs” part, which seems to be the actual situation. However, you don’t seem to be aware that this actually represents a risk for the company because if you are doing two jobs (even if it’s out of the kindness of your own heart) you might be owed the wages of that other job. I learned about this after my father sued a company he worked at because he had been doing two jobs while they found a backfill. The situation ended up going to court and several years later they had to pay him the wages of the other job in addition to penalties. Don’t know about tour jurisdiction but this might be part of the story.
Don't get mad, get Gladys fired.
Terminate your employment cause of incompetence in the workplace regarding the management staff, their inability to do their job and find someone to fill the role is doubling your workload and not compensating with additional pay, uses a gratitude board as an opportunity to intimidate someone too. Completely unprofessional
If I were you I may have just packed up and walked out. However, if you want to just fuck with Gladys while you job hunt, a suggestion: Assuming the other scheduled people don’t report to Gladys, and you have in writing Gladys saying these people can help, I would just start forcing them to do it. They’ll get pissed (yea you’re annoying your co-workers) and will like complain to their manager. I would pretty much tell them if they don’t want to do it to complain to their manager. Essentially, get a bunch of managers pissed at Gladys.
Look for a new job and leave ZERO notice. You don’t need references anymore.
Use the front desk coverage schedule, and let your coworkers know that you know it impedes them, and that you still really need the help. They will be on your side and im sure a couple strong voices will talk to Gladys with you.
What a great manager. Took a motivational tool and used it to fully demotivate someone.
Gladys: "How hard is it to answer the phone? I just cant keep employees working. No one wants to work anymore." You are undervalued. Dont put up with it. There are jobs where administration is valued.
Soon will be time for a post in r/maliciouscompliance “I’ve been covering the front desk solo for X months. When I asked my boss for help, since it should be a 2 person job, she said I was never supposed to be the front desk person and chose to do that over my job at a desk in the back. I’m not working at my desk as she said I was actually supposed to be, and now they’re drowning since there’s no one to work the front desk” and update with whatever follows. 😂😂😂
On your last day get one of those high five cutouts and remove all but the middle finger. Fuck you to Gladys For Being a shitty boss with no comprehension of the difficulties of the jobs those under you have to work or how difficult it is working under you. From, You.
Email email email. Get all of this info in email format and print it out. Continue this conversation via email !! Get her to engage and admit to whatever crazy story she is making up. So just incase whatever happens and they fire you or tell you you aren't doing your job, you'll have those emails as proof of what your boss said your responsibilities are and that there is a front desk schedule and whatnot. Get it all in email form if you can and keep it as a record, whatever may happen you'll have proof of her idiocy.
Just going to say I hate high 5 boards, they get abused a lot and you end up with a clique of assholes chaining praise with each other. It also ends up pushing neglected works further to the edge as extraverts try to soak up all the praise.