One day, I was assigned the task of receiving and sorting carton boxes in the warehouse. I told him that I felt uncomfortable carrying out all these tedious yet time consuming jobs that were not within my job scopes. He just left without saying a word which showed his ignorance towards his subordinates.
The conflict occurred in a group meeting; a few of us from the engineering division were assigned to clean the factory floor. I was the youngest and the least experienced among the group; I did not understand why the others did not speak out what they really had in mind as they felt uncomfortable with the arrangement as well.
Therefore, I volunteered to be their representative and objected to Mr. Tan’s arrangement in front of everyone, pointing out that we were always assigned non-related jobs which violated the job scopes stated black and white in our contracts. I threatened him that I would report to the HR department for this issue if he still insisted on it. I won this argument since Mr. Tan assigned this job to another division instead. I felt I did nothing wrong since I thought I had the right to strike for what I deserved.
Thereafter, almost everything that I applied which required Mr. Tan’s signature was rejected. I failed to get my leaves approved, I failed to participate in training programmes for further advancement, I failed to be selected for overseas posting, etc. Therefore, I decided to leave the company right after my contract with the factory had expired.
This phenomenon is commonly seen in the workplace; once you have offended someone with a higher rank in an organization, your life is going to be difficult! There are many more examples on conflict-related issues that can be extracted from real workplace such as jealousy from your colleagues and sabotage among your colleagues.
Imagine if you were me in that situation. What would you do?
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Possible solution from me (added @ 2nd September 2008, 23:20pm):This story was my previous experience with 40% of hypothesis. When I first came to work, what was in my mind were remunerations, policies, contracts, rules and regulations. I omitted the human factor, I was so straightforward to fight for what I thought I deserved for.
If I were to know the consequences, I would have told Mr. Tan nicely to reflect on my concerns instead of pointing him out in the meeting which has embarrassed him. I should try to put myself in his position and say the right thing at the right time. I would have asked around my colleagues for advices and alternatives to solve my problems instead of just blindly complaint on how Mr. Tan treated me.
In an organization, it’s inevitable that someone will be assigned to carry out certain unrelated tasks which are not within his/her job scopes. Personally, I don’t prefer to keep quiet and just do whatever your superior assigned to you, because no one will be happy and perform well under this situation. However, I prefer to voice out my unfair and non-reasonable treatments to my superior directly or indirectly by reasonable reasons and valid points without offending my superior. I hope this will solve my problem, if it doesn’t, I may bring this issue to the next level of management in order to seek further clarifications and solutions. By doing this, you can’t prevent that some people may get hurt, however, in real situation, we can only do our best to minimize the offensive level to others, or else you yourself is the only one who cannot perform your tasks happily and satisfactory.
7 comments:
Hello Jacky, I think you are very straight forward. I do not mean it in a bad way, however, I think sometimes we should try to avoid being so direct.
I worked in the office before; I understand what it is like. Confronting your superior is really the very last thing you should do. Being paid to work, I guess we have to accept whatever the superior told you to do.
It is not wrong to fight for unfair treatment, but there is a nicer approach to do that. Probably you want to ask around the character of Mr Tan. You can also try to get closer to him. While building bridges with him, you are also gaining trust from him.
When your relationship with Mr Tan gets better, you probably can try to suggest some constructive feedbacks to him. As times goes he will see you with more importance and this would be the right time for you to feedback all the unhappiness you had.
Although this approach takes time, I think it’s worth it. While resolving unhappiness you had, you got closer to your superior. In addition, your colleague may thank you for voicing out for them too. Some workplace is for a lifetime; hence I think the time you spent to build the bridges is worth it.
Gwen :)
Hi Jacky, I'm here to give my two-cents' worth :P I think all of us have this idea of an ideal job, one in which we can apply the knowledge and skills we learn in school, and where we feel that we are making contributions to the company we are working in, without having to do all those menial jobs you mentioned in your post. Unfortunately, I believe in every job it is inevitable we will have to deal with such hassles like administative matters or doing some housekeeping once in a while. In fact, I think sometimes bosses tend to ask new employees to do more of these tasks, as some sort of "induction" into the company. However, from your post, I get the impression that even those with many years of experience are being made to clean floors.
If I were in your shoes, I think what I will do first is to talk to these senior employees. Is the manager always like this? If so, why haven't anyone spoke out or filed a complaint against him before? Or is it because there isn't any engineering-related jobs to do during that period (which may happened during periods of low demand I guess)? It could be that no one was speaking out because someone had actually done so before, and evetually was subjected to the same treatment as you were. In that case one would know that reasoning with him probably isn't going to be of much help. The solution will probably then be to either to send your complaint straight to higher hierachy, or just continue and try to make the best out of your remaining time by trying to get as much engineering-related jobs as possible or applying to go for more training programmes.
Yup that's my personal opinion. Of course, in your situation, I guess what you did is perfectly understandable, but I guess a happier ending could have resulted by controlling the frustation you felt and thinking things through more before acting against him (easier said than done of course haha).
Wei Chung
Sometimes in jobs, we have to endure, especially when one is newly inducted into it. As one gains more experiences and begins to build a rapport with those around oneself, one has more of a say in what one does.
If you were indeed the youngest and the least experienced, then it was irresponsible that your colleagues were using you to speak out for them. They have spent far longer time than you working there. They have more weight in their words, so to speak. They should have been the ones approaching the manager, not you.
I suspect the manager was furious that he was confronted about it in front of everyone by what he perceived to be a junior member of the team. If you want to bring up a complaint against said manager, you either bring him to the side and speak to him in private, or lodge a formal complaint directly. By threatening, you were challenging his position and authority. And by doing it in front of the others, you were embarrassing and undermining him.
The thing is, it is probably best if you do it in private. And even then, you should be presenting your concerns and not threats.
Different people have different ways of handling matters at hand, and all this boils down to our personality and how much 'nonsense' we can take. In your case, it appears that your sense of 'independence' is very strong. ie. you recognise your rights as an assistant engineer and refuse to allow anyone to tell you otherwise.
However, it is also important that we pay attention to the rights of others as well. Even though your rights as a 'black-&-white assistant engineer' have been compromised, confronting Mr. Tan and objecting his arrangement infront of everyone might not be the best option. (In fact, from his treatment towards you thereafer, it was definitely not the best option.)
A possible alternative could have been to ask around on why Mr. Tan was behaving as such. Had HR over/under-employed people in the wrong department? Was there budget constraints in employing additional workers to do the said tasks? Was there going to be a surprise spot-check from the authories on conditions at the factory?
If there was no obvious or reasonable explaination, the next possible solution would be to humbly approach Mr. Tan and ask him if you could help in specific tasks that you want to do. This is so that he will see that he stands to benefit if he stops asking you to do the 'ouut-of-scope' tasks, as you are busy helping him in other areas.
Threathening to report him is also not advisable as his position as a manager warrants him the upperhand. As much as we may be feel that we have been treated unjustly, putting aside our emotions before confronting a person is important. This is to prevent us from doing things rashly or out of revenge. Having a clear mind and calm heart is the best combination when approaching any conflict.
Hi Chunsiang,
I certainly applaud your courage in dealing with the matter. However, while I can empathise with the frustration you felt being made to do menial and tedious tasks,
I do feel your rather confrontational solution could have been better managed. Though your motives were right, a more considered approach might have saved your career in that company (provided you even saw a future in that company!).
Being the youngest and least experienced in the group might mean you had nothing to lose, but you might have also tainted your manager’s image of the other engineers, thus affecting not only your prospects but others’ as well. There might have been reasons why the other more experienced engineers chose to keep mum over the issue, allowing you to find out for yourself the consequences of stepping on the manager’s toes.
Being new and unfamiliar with the company’s hierarchy definitely contributed to your confusion. Perhaps spending some time in the company and learning more about your manager and better appreciation of the social dynamics in the office place, you could have approached the manager expressing your uncertainty over your job scope despite what was written in the contract, then adding that you felt unchallenged and wished to be given more intellectual tasks. You could also have asked the manager whether there were unseen problems and if you and the other engineers could be of better help with your engineering nous.
Hence, rather than falling out with the manager, you could have turned the situation into an advantageous one for yourself. Your desire to contribute to the company and to help it better utilise its resources would have put you in a better light in front of your superiors.
thanks for all the comments, actually i find some ideas are really quite feasible and efficient to solve this kind of workplace conflicts. ^^
i think the most challenging thing is to persuade and convince myself which related to EQ ^^
ES2007s really interesting that explore various areas in communication.
Oh yes, Mr. Tan. I have known a few guys like this. Terrible fellows.
Thank you for sharing this scenario, so clearly and concisely, and inspiring detailed feedback from your classmates.
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