Excuses, excuses ....

[tuxcat]

What are the excuses other posters have encountered for things not being done on time/at all?

I only ask this because a member of staff is under close scrutiny here.  She's responsible for issuing accounts, and it has come to light that a lot of accounts are erroneous, or where a credit card was proferred in payment, she's taken details but never done anything about it (NB: I don't think we're talking fraud here - at least, I hope not).  

She's being prodded (subtly) on a daily basis for information on her accounting, but is so far evading capture!  I'm just wondering how far fetched it's going to get .... "I took the accounts home to work on and my dog ate them".

Luckily I've got enough e-mails, etc, to back me up and prove that I did what I was supposed to, not to mention the backing of my boss (not in her line of management).  However, we've already had the "I don't know anything about (insert name of client here)" - well, how come I have an e-mail here from me to you asking you to deduct against their credit card?  Which you actually forwarded back to me when you put a reply on it?

It's so frustrating!  There are several people working on this (including a couple of senior staff, whose time is infinitely more expensive than the culprit's), and it all boils down to one person who can't be bothered to do their job properly.  It's not just this one project either - there are numerous other glitches.  I've only got dragged into it because of my involvement with the one project in recent months.

........... sigh ..................

[tuxcat]

Regrettably I'm not in a position to do that, but the powers that be (a step or two up from her in her chain of line management) are fully aware of the problem.  What amazes me is that nothing has been done about it before.  Her accounting (for services rendered by her department both externally and internally) goes back to our central Accounts office, and it seems that glitches have been noticed and no-one's done much about it.  Now a relatively new (albeit senior) member of the Accounting team is tearing their hair out about it.

I'm really just venting, having bored my boss, the Accounts staff and my SO witless!

[raindance]

It's the duty of managers to "manage".  My take on this would be: write a memo to your own manager, attaching all the evidence, and either ask for his/her advice as to how to proceed or word your memo on the basis that you would like to raise your concerns, particularly as your colleague's dereliction means you cannot do your job effectively.  

On the other hand, sometimes you have to resort to guerrilla tactics, however unpleasant and unprofessional that may seem to you.  You may have to just "not manage" this situation and let the glitches become so obvious that someone very senior notices - and, hopefully, takes action.

Raindance

[laurafmcdermott]

Sounds like Tuxcat has done all she can and is just waiting for management to figure out what they're going to do.  Glad you have evidence to cover yourself.  I was invovled with a "covert check" on another employee back in another position.  She was not completing background checks on new employees that went through her office; I had to verify that the checks were never completed.  Awkward position to be in, but luckily management did not bring me in any further than that (they just didn't have the knowledge of our system to check on specific employees).  Hopefully your management will take care of the problem employee soon.  Mine ended up being fired.

[Katie G]

Expanding on Raindance's "guerilla tactics" comment:

By nature, a good admin will do everything possible to avoid an administrative train wreck.  So the idea of just letting a situation disintegrate is highly unnatural to us.

That being sais, this sounds like one of those occasions where this person is simply going to have to "crash and burn" before anything is done.  The best you can do is keep super-detailed documentation of your actions and efforts, because you can be darn sure that when the C&B occurs, this person is going to start pointing fingers in a desperate attempt to save her own skin.  And too many of us know that as admins, we're often a favorite target of these types.

[tuxcat]

Thanks all.  I  can quite happily keep "hands off" now as the project that I was involved in is concluded.  We've already had the finger-pointing and blame-shifting which didn't work with the powers that be.  I've now been copied in on an e-mail where she admits to having overlooked one payment she should have taken, blaming stress and overwork.  She is, supposedly, going to talk to her line manager about her role when LM returns from hols.  Whilst I can sympathise with the stress thing (we've all been there), the cynic in me wonders whether it's just another stalling tactic.

So, to return to my original query ... who out there has had humdinger excuses for things not being done as they should?

[countrigal]

Ok, mine might not be the 'humdinger' of excuses, but it's the one that I've been hearing for 3 weeks now and I've just about had it with it.  I've been in charge of getting updates to a word document (from 14 different folks) and combining into 1 document, editing, formating, etc... so that one of the big wigs in the company could have it.  This was originally done back on September 13, when I submitted a draft to the big wig, who was very displeased with it, stated there were typos, misspelling, incomplete sentences, answers that didn't answer the questions, etc... and sent back to the original writers for corrections.  These updates were due to me by Oct 4, so that I could get a final product to her on Oct 5.  So I spend all this time sending e-mail reminders, calling, etc so that I can hear from everyone on any corrections to their portion of the document, and get most all of the responses by 4:00pm Oct 5.  (and yes, I was reporting problem children to the big wig so she could assist with lighting fires to get my responses).  So my new drop-dead due date for her is Oct 6 at 2:00pm, which is when she will be leaving on a business trip and will be gone the rest of the week.  She wants this to go with her.  So my 1 hold-out (Mr.G) gets calls, calls, e-mails, a hard-copy with corrections needed handed to his secretary, etc... and at 2:00pm I had to take the incomplete document to her and tell her that he refused to give me updates.  His excuse?  He didn't have time.  He had a lot of emergencies come up this week.  Oh, and the best... He couldn't edit his answers cause he has to review them with Mr. V, who provided other answers in that section, since Mr. V was the one who was going to be presenting this information.  Ummm... but you were the expert who had to provide the original answers and I'm just needing these 'sentences' completed... like add in a verb or something, so that it makes sense.  And I had told him for 3 weeks that he needed to answer one question that was left blank and he never reviewed it and just kept saying he had answered all of his questions and provided them to me back on September 9.  And Mr. V?  He went on 2 weeks leave, without assigning his review to anyone else to do in his absence, so his never even got reviewed except by me.  When I explained this to Ms. Big Wig, I also pointed out that since this was sent out on Sept 13, to all of them, that I didn't accept any of their excuses, including being out on leave, and that I did the best I could to provide her the most complete document possible.  I have a feeling Mr. V and Mr. G will be hearing from her.  The worst part?  These are upper level managers who would crucify any of us (including me, as they outrank me) if we provided them with any of these same excuses in not meeting our suspenses to them.

Oh yeah.... we're really taking suspenses seriously around here now.  No exceptions are to be accepted, especially for suspenses to the Director's office.  And yet our upper managers can't meet those same expectations.  Sheesh.  and they wonder why the rest of us are getting so stressed and jaded with their 'promises'.

CountriGal
Peer Moderator

[mlm668]

Like Did, its not in my nature to just sit back and let things go to pot, but sometimes you simply have to let that happen.  Just CYA and let the chips fall where they may.  If this has been going on for some time and is just now being dealt with, it is possible that she has done something improper, it was reported to the company and they are checking to make sure it hasn't happened several times over.  Not only would she be charged, but the company could be liable as well.  

I spent 15 minutes on the phone yesterday with the President of one of our subcontractors listening to her tell me why something wasn't done.  I had sent four faxes last week, couldn't get past the recording on their phone asking me to hold and all for one sheet of paper I should have received the first week of August.  I had sent a reminder in mid-July that this needed to be done and submitted plus her working for NCDOT, VDOT and other state DOT's all these years and it being a mandatory annual submittal (Federal requirement on all Federally funded highway projects), they shouldn't need to be reminded.  The reminder was a courtesy to all my subs.  She gave me excuses ranging from the faxes were coming in blurred, she just found one of them the night before on her desk, the form was her responsiblity but she'd been extremely busy to the phone system hadn't been working right.  I couldn't get mad with her because she is such a sweet lady and in my mind, if her admin had been worth anything, the fax would have been brought to her attention when it first came in (I informed her it in that her payments would be held until that one sheet of paper was received).  And since her company didn't even work on this particular job in July, the form could be completed in less than five minutes.  The most time consuming part would have been filling in the header with the correct project number.  

She wasn't the only one, but at least the others only needed on fax last week to get the message and one even sent me a very nice apology for not getting it done in August.  Thank goodness NCDOT was so understanding about it, they could have easily stopped paying us in September but gave us extra time to run the forms down since their Civil Rights Units failed to sent out the reminders properly this year.

Michelle

Edited by mlm668 on 07/10/04 03:00 PM.

[bethalize]

In my world, letting other people dig themselves into a hole or letting the chips fall where they may is called "knowing the limits of your responsibility".

Bethalize
Peer Moderator