hello all,

Just wanted to update everyone on my situation and ask for more advice. 'Cause I'm about to scream

One of my co-workers and I had a meeting with our supervisor today in relation to the events that took place in my last post (EDIT: I can't link yet, but the thread was "My Type-A personality is ruining my Life"). The meeting was also about some of our general business--two of our co-workers were absent, one was on her honeymoon and the other was out with a sick child. The supervisor chose to meet with me and my other co-worker today because she is based out of another office and would not be in town again until the end of the month.

Basically, during the meeting my supervisor said that what happened to me (having to work 2 full weekend days without help) would NOT happen again, that it was not fair, and that we should figure out what to do if a similar situation happened in the future--because, due to the nature of our business, there was a 90% chance it would. She extended this situation to ALL of us; that none of us should have to be put in this position. Now, as I mentioned in my last post, I had suggested setting up some kind of plan, something that would be equal to everyone and would prevent any one person from being/feeling "dumped on". I wasn't sure what everyone wanted to do, though, and since I figured that I was under enough scrutiny anyway I had suggested that everyone discuss it in the meeting since all of us were originally supposed to be there and that we would be on an equal playing field. (the supervisor had already told us that she had planned on meeting with the co-worker that was on her honeymoon at a later time.)

Nevertheless, the supervisor agreed with this, and said that this would have been her thoughts even if I hadn't called her (and said that if she'd been in my shoes, she wouldn't have been happy to have done the whole weekend either!) So she offered some ideas. We could possibly...

1.) Set up "on call" weekends--that way, everyone would be on a rotation and know that they were responsible for a certain weekend, and could make their plans accordingly. (Of course, anyone's plans could change, and we would have a backup person in case of that).

2.) Work in shifts--if we have, say, an event lasting a whole day or more, one person would work a few hours, then someone else relieve that person and work a few hours. This way, no person would have to work more than about 3-4 hours at a time, and this would also cut down on the amount of time & people are out of the office (and not able to get their other duties done) because they're having to flex their overtime hours.

4.) Roll the dice, hope the past situation was a fluke, and not make a concrete plan. However, the supervisor stated that if we decided to do this we could not have one person do a large amount of hours alone. She also stressed again that not staffing an event was NOT an option, EVER.

I suggested that the on-call or shifts ideas could possibly work, but that we would need to talk to the other 2 people that weren't there to make a final decision. I stressed that I was frustrated at what happened earlier, and that a plan would help everyone feel like they were on fair ground. I also made suggestions to help everyone feel like no one person was favored for events (forwarding the e-mails to everyone about head office events, etc.)

My co-worker then looked at me, looked at my supervisor, and then said, "Oh, this is the first I'd heard that this whole thing upset Beyond77 so much, she could have told us she felt this way." Uh, EXCUSE ME???

I was biting my tongue so hard at this point it was about to bleed. If I had been able to tell her what I was really thinking, it would have been, "No, you all more or less forced me into doing those two days, and you weren't even willing to discuss any kind of compromise or plan. And to be frank, if someone hadn't done those events, we could have very likely lost our contract and all of us be out of a job."

The supervisor said that we still needed to take some stance--she didn't care which one, as long as we came to a decision. The co-worker then spoke to me and the supervisor about all her son's ballgames, and how the other co-workers had plans on the weekend with their families, how it would be hard for them to take time out on the weekends, etc., and said that the others believed that it would probably best to take option 3. Basically, the exact same stalemate we ran into the first time! I suggested that if we had a plan, we would at least be prepared and that I would not ask anyone else to work a large amount of hours on their own, either. But also that in any case we all needed to meet and talk about this some more, because everyone's time is valuable and that I didn't feel comfortable making this decision without the others present. It was irking me a bit that my co-worker seemed to get more and more annoyed the more either I or my supervisor even mentioned the idea of a plan, even when we said that this should be a group effort. When I tried to talk to her one-on-one later, she just shrugged and said, "it's ok, it is what it is", but I could tell she was seething.

So we're supposed to meet with one of the other co-workers tomorrow if her child is better and she returns to work, and then have a group meeting when the other co-worker comes back on Monday. But I've got a bad feeling that we're not going to get anywhere. I honestly don't know what to do now, and am trying to figure out a way to be a team player but also stand up for myself.

Thanks again for listening, and letting me vent.