[rechu]

Well, I guess this is an extension of the hating a full-time job thread, it might get long, but I really just need to vent.

Mid-last year I quit an awful job due to having a verbally abusive boss that piled more and more work on everyone. It got so bad that dealing with him gave me panic attacks. I was unemployed for about 6 months.

Then, I took a freelance job in November that turned into permanent work in February. At first the work environment was good, overall pretty relaxed. However, since then everything has gone downhill.

They brought in this efficiency expert that was supposed to develop systems for us to do our jobs better. Before that, we were expected to update around 70 projects a month, but less wasn’t a big deal. Projects vary, some things take a long time to resolve, others can be figured out with a short phone call, so I don’t know how well a statistic like that measures what you are doing, plus some sectors like mine require you to provide more information, so things take longer.

The new efficiency guy informed us of a new minimum of 80 updates monthly, halfway through the month, without talking to any of us beforehand introducing processes to make things more efficient. All he seemed to do is spend his time on making some system to assign projects and making threats to people that weren’t close to the target.
Fortunately, he ended up leaving after a few months, but the target of 80 stayed and since then we also have had to write new 12 projects, which you can imagine has taken the workload up another notch.

Then, our boss and a newly hired editor have been really nitpicky about everything of late. Things that were optional or not necessary suddenly became mandatory without us being informed. It’s hard to keep up with it all, and I really don’t feel like I can approach her to discuss it; she has kind of a weird personality. I think it will just end up making me look like I’m not doing my job well, but at the same time I am not a mind reader.

I have to stick it out for a while, I guess. It won’t look good to employers that I am job hunting so soon again. Plus the economy here is terrible. There are a lot of long-term unemployed out there. My husband and I also have some financial goals and me being unemployed will set us back. He has been better mentally now that I am contributing financially. The other thing is that at least I don’t have to commute, which I absolutely hate, and it seems like a lot of friends have the same complaints, so who knows if another job would be better.

Still, I am just feeling overwhelmed with all the expectations, and of course it is for the same money. I started crying this morning over it all. I had a four day weekend last weekend, which was great, but two days back and I don’t feel rested at all, just stressed.

[Yzen]

The efficiency expert set the new minimum but it sounds like nothing changed to help you make the new minimum. It doesn't sound like the expert was much of an expert on efficiency.

I wonder if others are stressed out about the new expectations. Maybe there is someone you could discuss this with at work. It's helped me when I have been stressed to find a coworker that is feeling the same way and talk about it. It might not change things, but it helps to hear how others are coping. And, when expectations are tough to meet, I try to just focus on doing the best I can and try not to worry about what they think about the results. That is all you really can do.

I hope it gets better for you!

[reb569]

Additionally, maybe you can form a working group within your team to brainstorm, share ideas and come up with a plan to meet the requirements as a team. Possibly, if you as a group determine that the new goals are not reachable, you can go to the management as a team and negotiate a change.

Good luck!

[rechu]

Thanks for reading guys. Definitely the efficiency expert was of no use. In fact he was involved in a project to create a new content management system, and it made things worse, adding extra steps to our work (making it slower to do things) with no benefit. He came from the banking industry and it was clear he had no understanding of editorial work, nor did he show an interest in learning about what we did. In the end, the new system was scrapped after us testing it for a while – it was that bad!

From what I hear, the whole idea of increasing our production stems from a promise the CFO made to clients. Our boss has been with the company for over 10 years and from the looks of it wants to retire there, so I don’t think she is going to contradict the CFO. She goes with the company line that it is reasonable. I think the 80 updates are not so bad, but 12 new projects on top of that gets to be a lot. New projects are more work, because instead of just updating what is currently happening, you have to go back and find news items, dates etc. for the whole history. I have been assigned a lot of things that go all the way back to 2011!

Since a lot of us work from home, it’s not so easy to organize, and since we have several new people that only know the new system, it is even more complicated. The environment isn’t very collaborative. I was pretty friendly with one woman when I was training and working from the office, and she was not too happy with the whole efficiency expert thing, but now we don’t talk so much since we don’t see each other every day.

Then there is this newer woman that my boss seems enamored of, because her numbers are supposedly so great. Out of curiosity, I took a glance at some of her stuff, just to see if it was as great as it was being made out to be. She may have the production statistics, but as far as quality, it doesn’t seem to be there. I saw that she had updated something I had been assigned when I started. I tried for weeks to get information, but there was nothing in the news, the agency website was completely out of date and no one answered the phone. So, I was curious as to how she was able to. It turns out she took information from a page on the agency’s website that had no date. I had seen that page 6 months ago, but since there was no date and the website was generally outdated, I didn’t use it. To do an update, you need some information with a clear date from the last 3 months. Obviously, I am not going to say anything about it. I think that would only cause more problems. If my boss is paying attention she will realize the problems with her work.

I am just going to try and keep doing quality research and hopefully the numbers will come. I am a slight bit behind on the new write-ups, so I am doing what I can to catch up.

[reb569]

It sounds to me like they are trying to do more without hiring. Ultimately, the end result is going to be lower quality because there is only so much that a person could do. If the management was smart they'd see that and hire in order to increase the output.

Very common these days. Hang in there.

[rechu]

Yes, reb569, you are very close. They have hired some new people, but at the same time they are phasing out the various freelancers who mainly focus on the new project write-ups. I don't think 2 new people can replace the number of freelancers, which is why we are having to do the new write-ups now.

But, on the other hand, if I had decided to not take the permanent job and stayed a freelancer I would probably be out of a job now. Being unemployed would have been worse.

[reb569]

Being unemployed would have been worse.

Agree totally. Hang in there!

[rechu]

Well things have gotten somewhat better. HR recently carried out a psychosocial risk survey and they said that due to the results, management is going to do more as far as employee appreciation. My team had a short-term goal to meet last week and they did a little party for us when we made it, and seemed very happy with us that we made it. Our boss made it easier to meet the goal by loosening up the use of this boilerplate language we use when we can't find any recent information. So, that helped us get our stats up quickly and this month shouldn't be a problem as far as meeting the goals.

Next week is a 4-day weekend for Independence Day, and they're letting us out at 1 the day before it starts and gave us a quite a nice bonus, more than my husband gets. I would have gotten more if I had started in 2016 (I signed my contact on Feb 1 this year). So, at least I am feeling like I am getting some appreciation for my work.

[reb569]

Originally Posted by rechu

Well things have gotten somewhat better. HR recently carried out a psychosocial risk survey and they said that due to the results, management is going to do more as far as employee appreciation. My team had a short-term goal to meet last week and they did a little party for us when we made it, and seemed very happy with us that we made it. Our boss made it easier to meet the goal by loosening up the use of this boilerplate language we use when we can't find any recent information. So, that helped us get our stats up quickly and this month shouldn't be a problem as far as meeting the goals.

Next week is a 4-day weekend for Independence Day, and they're letting us out at 1 the day before it starts and gave us a quite a nice bonus, more than my husband gets. I would have gotten more if I had started in 2016 (I signed my contact on Feb 1 this year). So, at least I am feeling like I am getting some appreciation for my work.

That's very promising! I hope it continues. It feels good to be appreciated and also to have management understand that they need to make changes from unrealistic goals.

[rechu]

^^ Yeah, I am encouraged and my attitude has been improved now that management seem to be making more of an effort towards us. There has been some turnover in the last few months, so that may be influencing the changes as well.

[Wunderland]

I really enjoyed reading this thread, Rechu. It goes to show you that positive rewards systems will ALWAYS prevail over negative reinforcement. Pavlov's dog theory is soooo true.

Glad to hear that things are working out with management understanding that employees need appreciation.

[rechu]

Well another update on this, after trying a lot of different systems, things have gone back to similar to they were when I started over a year ago. Now, instead of the 80 updates plus 12 new projects we switch between new projects one month with a minimum of 50 and updates with a minimum of 80, which is reasonable. Basically, every sector has two people, so this month I am doing updates and the other woman in my sector is dealing with new projects, next month it is the other way around. And, a few people didn't make the numbers last month, but there were no nasty threats, no one was fired.

Plus, we have back autonomy as far as if we find a news item about something we can choose to update a project even if it's not on the official list of things to do this month. When I started it was like that as well, and then that was gradually taken away.

Overall, I'm better off having stuck it out. Yeah, my boss is always going to be a bit hard to approach, but I'm at least trying to work on the best ways to deal with her and the annoying editor and it seems to be helping a bit.