I am going to include a new entry every now and then called "LET'S ASK THE AUDIENCE". This will be a place where you all can post answers/comments to questions/situations that come up. Today will be the first one that I am requesting interaction from YOU! Please try to be serious as the question that has been posed is of a serious nature to the person asking.
Someone emailed this work situation to me and asked how I would handle this, but I want to ask: How do each of YOU think this should be handled? Please post your answers in the comments area.
OMG Robyn, we have to chat. I have a situation at work right now also, which is pretty similar. Let me break it down for you. Our unit is a very tight group made up of 10 people. We work in the Consumer Affairs Department of an insurance company. We recently hired another person named "Bitter Betty".
Our unit resolves complaints on behalf of the company. We are very independent workers and work with minimal supervision. With this comes much flexibility. Now back to Bitter Betty. She has observed one of my co-workers taking personal phone calls at his desk. This was never a problem before. She told our manager. She also told the manager that this employee is leaving work early without documenting the personal time on our unit calendar, as we track our own time. Bitter Betty has completely torn the cohesiveness of our department apart. The major way that she did this was by gossiping about this employee to another employee in the department. She should never have done this, as we are all more tenured than her, of course the person she confided in shared this information with all of us.
I took my concerns to my manager. I tell you, I felt like a male version of Erin Brockovich! Anyhow, my manager appreciated the feedback. And said that this is definitely an area of focus that she will focus on with Bitter Betty. My manager told me that we will always encounter Bitter Betty's in our work environment, and that we just need to rise above it.
The problem now is that nobody trusts her. We feel like she is a spy. I am responsible for quality checking any correspondence before she sends it to our insureds. Part of me wants to let the typographical errors slip by so that her quality scores will suffer. Do you believe this to be unethical? She has now taken it upon herself to run phone reports to check everyone’s availability, which was never done before. We aren't really concerned about this, as the reports will speak for themselves, she can't alter them. We are alltop-notch professionals and we can not tolerate this rude behavior any longer.
How would you handle this situation?
3 comments:
It sounds like your manager knows more about Bitter Betty than you think.
Just keep on doing what you always do and don't let her run your work life. She will self-destruct without your doing a dang thing!
Mary Louise of Watching
Sounds like Bitter Betty will keep pushing until someone explodes WHICH IS A NO-NO. It'll be more exciting seeing her dig herself into a large grave. It's behavior that management is not going to tolerate in the long run. Besides, the best medicine is to ignore her behavior & see her fret about it. -=)
Seems to me that she is trying her best to crush anyone in her way to the 'top.' Unfortunately she will never make it. She will destroy herself and the numbers will speak for themselves. Her numbers will probably drop as she is busy compiling reports on everyone else, while everyone else is doing their job.
Post a Comment