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Thread: Dilemma in the workplace

  1. #1
    Only african to own a PC! Cider's Avatar
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    Dilemma in the workplace

    Hi there

    Seeing as though I am working in the IT field I thought I would get your views.

    I was employed for "technical support" as my primary role but obviously they put a clause in the contract that management can ask you to do other roles.

    So now they started pumping me with "sales" work.

    However there is this one lady in the office whom is sales hoever she keeps pumping me with her work.

    She does this infront of the boss which he says nothing so I assume he sees nothing wrong with it.

    When I speak to my boss and explain that I have alot of technical stuff to do and if I do this sales rubbish I will not give the clients that need help my full attention.

    His response was that I must manage time better.

    What to do ?

    I also feel that if I neglect that clients it isnt right. I dont want to. But this lady keeps pumping me with work.

    Confront her? Bomb her pc ?
    The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.
    Albert Einstein

  2. #2
    0_o Mastermind keezel's Avatar
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    Confront her? Bomb her pc ?
    I know it sounds backwards, but try to "make friends" with her. I once had a b*tchy woman pushing me around in the workplace, so I acted really nice to her, listened to her when she jabbered on about stuff, and believe it or not she found somebody else to dump on. In the mean time, try shooting your resume out to every link on Careerbuilder and Monster.com within decent driving range. If things get unbearable maybe you'll have a means of escape?

  3. #3
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    Do you have appraisals by your manager? That's the way for him/her to address your attributes and shortcomings formally but also the way that you bring up matters concerning your working practice. If you're advised to manage your time better, maybe they should offer you a time management course?

    Another option is to fail some task (no-one likes to do that), preferably one of the sales tasks and, when there's a "post mortem" to investigate why, then you show them documentary evidence of what you've been doing, time taken etc. compared with your job specification.

    If they insist on using you in this way, I suppose there's always an option of invoking a Union (I don't know if you have such a body to take up such a grievance) or you could move on elsewhere.

  4. #4
    THE Bastard Sys***** dinowuff's Avatar
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    One word QUIT!

    The basic underlying rule of all IT Related functions: K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Stupid.

    Of course, get another job before you quit your current one. Now in my position, I would just laugh and tell em to F**k off.

    I have seen many IT people try to hold two positions in a company. One tech the other non tech. The all failed at both tasks. If your Boss /Company can't realize that - Quit. You cannot change their minds and you will burn out in no time trying to do both jobs.
    09:F9:11:02:9D:74:E3:5B8:41:56:C5:63:56:88:C0

  5. #5
    Only african to own a PC! Cider's Avatar
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    I will look around for something better. It is quite a good paying job so I dont know.

    Also I havent got any certs behind me.
    The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.
    Albert Einstein

  6. #6
    Priapistic Monk KorpDeath's Avatar
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    The dudeist in me says kill her with kindness. Then again, you can always have your boss prioritize your projects. Just list everything out and ask him to prioritize it, most bosses will be more than happy to help you if will make them look better. If that doesn't work then consider everything priority one... which means everything is equally unimportant.
    Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it.
    - Samuel Johnson

  7. #7
    Senior Member JPnyc's Avatar
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    I would just make sure the support work is finished before approaching anything else that she's giving you to do. I can't see how they could logically complain about that , since that is your job. And if they do, you can always say " there wasn't time to do both" .

  8. #8
    Senior Member Ouroboros's Avatar
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    Two words: TIME STUDY.

    We use them where I work to determine budgeted hours per department. (I work in a manufacturing plant where I am the lead in a particular department). Basically, you would just have to put together a spreadsheet of your tasks in the IT area and the time it takes to complete such tasks (server maintenence, hardware support, support tasks, etc.) Add up the total time for your IT responsibilities, and subtract that time from the hours that you are expected to work each day (8-10 hours, I suppose). Do this few times to establish a variance on the necessary time for your primary responsibilities, and present your findings to your supervisor. Whatever time is left over, is time that you could spend in other departments. (Don't forget to include your break times in the calculations). Hopefully, your boss will see that your "free time" is so sporadic and inconsistent that it would be useless to try to force you to take on sales tasks as well.

    Make any sense? Hope it helps or at least gives you something to ponder.

    O
    "entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem"

    "entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity."

    -Occam's Razor


  9. #9
    0_o Mastermind keezel's Avatar
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    And if all else fails, just go with
    Bomb her pc
    That seems like a good option too.

  10. #10
    Only african to own a PC! Cider's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JPnyc
    I would just make sure the support work is finished before approaching anything else that she's giving you to do. I can't see how they could logically complain about that , since that is your job. And if they do, you can always say " there wasn't time to do both" .
    I agree with you however when i mentioned this in the meeting I was told to manage my time better. And this was from my manager so he clearly has no problem with this @ss pushing work onto me.

    To:Ouroboros - I could do that but there are so many variables.

    Ive found a few Jobs to mail my CV too so I will do that and take your guys advise.

    Will the grass be on the greener side?
    The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.
    Albert Einstein

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