Should I quit my job?

tsar_robles

Issue: My new supervisor offers no direction nor communication, none.
Result: team is misinformed of project status, 5 days before project ends we realize we're way behind.
Action: I take even more ownership of project managing realizing my supervisor won't and he okays it and when I realize the additional company help does not even show up I get reprimanded for sending the email below.

Consequences from the email:

1. I called my client and tell him that none of the work will be done as I did not get the help. He gets upset and says he's heard enough and tells me not to worry that he's just going straight to the owner. He cannot find the owner so he calls the VP who is actually part of the problem and the same guy that reprimanded me. He tells the vp to 'get things fixed' now.

My supervisor is then asked to meet with me in person. He wants to know whats up and I tell him that he is lacking on communication as today was a perfect example (the guy that didnt show up had actually called my sup but the supv did not bother to inform me). He agrees and says that our VP is not happy that I called the client. I explain that the client would have expected to be informed if the work would not get done and that he would have called the VP even if my supervisor had been the one that would have notified him.

Later he puts the VP on the speakerphone and he says I have to be careful with keeping things internally, At that point I'm afraid I may lose my job so I say that my only intention was to give the client a status and update him on a couple things including this one but that he might have picked up my overtone.

The VP THEN asks "anything else?"... I say yes that I do my best assisting supervisor and that I try to do beyond my job with the things I have available as i realize that his other help offered in the past with sending a guru 2-3 times a week might have slipped through the cracks... he interrupts me (agitataed) and says that I'm making assumptions, I say 'but," and then e yells that he will not tolerate arguments, I apologized to him and let him finish so I could not continue letting him know that this is all due to my supervisor's lack of communicating things. Any thoughts???

EMAIL:

RE: PC roll out project

From: [email protected]…
Sent: Friday
To: me, colleague that didn't show up
Cc: my immediate supervisor, our manager

I think that’s enough.

Benny – I’d suggest checking yourself before lashing out at someone who is trying to help you. I realize you’re all under a lot of stress, but this kind of communication doesn’t help. Always assume that something outside your control happened, instead of assuming someone blew you off.

I will assume that the next time we offer to send people up to help, that there will be a little better teamwork and a little less attitude.

Agree?

vicepresident

--------------------------------------…

From: me
Sent: Friday
To: guy that didnt show up
Cc: my supervisor, our manager, our vicepresident
Subject: RE: PC roll out project
Importance: High

Guy that didn't show up:

I've been waiting for you here at the project site since 7:00 am this morning. This is not acceptable. I gave both you and guy # 2 precise driving directions. Let me know if you are still coming.

me

From: guy that didnt show up
Sent: Friday,
To:me
Subject: RE: PC roll out project

Lucky me, my phone is dead. I will head over there from the wifi spot I am at and will figure out how to get a hold of you

guy that didn't show up

IT Systems Manager

--------------------------------------…

From: ME
Sent: Thursday,
To: GUY THAT DIDNT SHOW UP, GUY # 2 THAT WAS ALSO SUPPOSED TO SHOW UP
Cc:my coworkers, my supervisor
Subject: PC roll out project

Hey guys,

Here are some directions to the new pc rollout site. The address is ****. Make sure to come down **** St rather than **** Ave as I'm not sure of premise access through there.

You can call me on my cell if need additional directions and also when you get there so that I can come out and get you in.

I'll be emailing more project documentation between today and tomorrow, FYI.

me

google map link + embedded map with precise directions

tsar_robles

Mad Dawg

All I can say is that, if you do decide to quit, line up the next job before you do quit.

Broken Promises

Bosses don’t like being told where they’re going wrong.

And keep company problems inside. Don’t let the clients know there’s internal problems.

Think About It

If you quit you probably will not be eligible for unemployment. This economy is in such a condition that you may not be able to find a job with comparable salary. Getting terminated can be a double edged sword. You are eligible for unemployment, but it could hurt you by causing potential employers to pass on you because of it. Work politics suck and you have to remember in many cases it's not about work, but about surviving. Sounds like you may have dug yourself a hole. Good luck on getting yourself out of it.

Think About It

Gopher

I think you may have blown it by calling the client directly. That's not your responsibility, yet.

However if you play your cards right and continue to perform well, hopefully your management will realize your value to the company and perhaps even use you in some sort of oversight role. However you may have set yourself back by stepping outside of your current role - and they may need to see that you perform well and don't have a "strike two" and you may do well, or at least well enough to earn a recommendation when it's time to move to another firm.

tsar_robles

hmm I know I'm not comfortable anymore, even though the vp guy said my client was surprised to hear me agitated when I gave him the update as I am his best guy out there doing excellent work...

in the end the vp said that he would just 'write it off' as a bad day...

yeah right, until I finish the ongoing projects... just to give you an idea of how phony this guy is, when he last met with us and we told him that our last project supervisor quit because of all the stress, he said 'no, he quit because he got another position'.... and someone else is like 'we were friends with him, we know" I'm not going to repeat myself! - he replied... this guy is an a**le

Quandry

Well, it's a tough job market right now.

Use diplomacy....how about sending the boss "updates on progress, with requests for further information" as you are working on projects? Ask for the specific date work is expected to be completed, etc.

Some places don't have good communication. This is an area where your talents can shine. You can become better informed while at the same time subtlely instructing your workplace on how to have better communication.

SnakesInTheTower

i once got fired over the "tone" of an internal communication at the major water utility I was employed by. The recipient of the email did not object but did comment to me personally about "toning it down" but they loved me. This guy was a supervisor in California at a local district office and I was in Illinois at a call center as a billing specialist. They had a customer that kept asking for unreasonable adjustments on their water bill. I finally emailed that I made one last adjustment and that was it. My problem was using all caps and bold on a few words...that was the "tone" problem.

The issue escalated because I cc'd a call center supervisor who was dealing with the customer from our end. He had a huge issue and escalated it to my boss, her boss, and his boss.

That evening, I kept getting receipts returned via LotusNotes that my emails were being opened, one after the other. Problem was, they were days, weeks, even months old. Same supervisor was opening them. I walked out of my cubicle to hers. She was in there crying. After 50 emails she had to suspend me. Too many "problem" emails.

I was fired a few days later. I won my unemployment appeal. But I sure hated to lose that job. Despite the politics, which I sucked at, I loved what I did and it paid well (at the time) and had full benefits.

Now I have a job that pays well but no benefits.

Moral of the story..be careful what you email. Other moral of the story...if you are employed...stay employed and keep your head below the radar...until you can find something else.

Snakes (Rich )

Finally-Free

I hear you too well. I want to quit my job too. I work under an IT director that has never taken an IT course and doesn't know how to create a user account. He names computers after planets though. I guess his degree in astronomy is paying off after all. Also over me is a "senior" network administrator who didn't know the difference between a hub and a switch until I painstakingly explained it to him. He also didn't know how to do a "sh run" on a Cisco router until I showed him, and after over 20 years in IT is finally learning how to configure NTFS security. He once deleted an entire OU in Active Directory that contained over 300 users, then runs to me in a panic because he didn't know what to do about it. I worked in a number of IT departments in my time, and I can say in all honesty he wouldn't last a week in any of them before being literally laughed out of the building.

Yet his salary is 50% higher than mine.

I'm quietly working with a couple of recruiters to find a suitable position, and they assure me that the market is improving this year.

W

Should I quit my job?

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