At my wit's end.

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At my wit's end.

Posted by: beanhugger
Date: 8/28/2007 12:36:31 PM

I work for a large, nationwide corporation- I'm an office assistant in one of the group offices. My boss is the office manager, and she has two bosses- the group manager and a woman who manages all of the office managers for our region. There is one HR person for our group, and he basically only does payroll- I do not feel safe discussing any of my issues with him.

My problem is that I am bored 90% of the time, and have told both my boss and her boss this several times. Nearly everyone in the group, and even other groups, knows how bored I am. However, my boss says, "can't help you there" when I ask for more work to do- and she's supposed to be my primary source of work! The group manager really has nothing to do with the office work, so I don't ask him- he gives me little projects to do now and then but I am a very effecient worker and they do not take me long to complete.

Recently, I decided to email the woman who manages all of the office managers, and told her I was looking for more work. I simply stated that I was bored a lot of the time, and my boss couldn't come up with things for me to do. I asked this woman if she could point out things that maybe I had missed, things I could be doing that would take up more time in my day. Instead of answering me, she called my boss and told her to deal with it. My boss told the group manager, and the next day I was called into the group manager's office and lectured about how inappropriate it was to go to this woman for help without going through my boss or him first, and that he was not happy with me. All I did was ask for more work to do! I didn't stay home and not call in, I wasn't acting out against co-workers- I wasn't doing anything out of line- or so I thought! At any rate, I still have nothing to do. Oh, did I mention that, despite the fact that I am without work to do most of the day every day, my bosses saw fit to hire two part-time workers? One is the group manager's wife, and the other is my boss's daughter. Neither of these women are necessary, and I've voiced that opinion to my bosses to no avail. They just change the subject or ignore me completely. They are determined to have these two people working here and all they're doing is getting paid for nothing.

I am looking for another job, but where I live the job market is a little thin. In the meantime, I have to put up with my work conditions because I do need the money. I've searched around this site and have read some very interesting articles on incompetent bosses/managers, but haven't found any solutions on how to deal with this particular problem. I can't believe that my situation is so unique?

Reply from:	goodboss
Date:	8/29/2007 3:50:00 PM
Reply:	First of all, when you went to your boss's boss and asked for more work, it looked like you were going over your boss's head. That's why your boss's boss sent the whole matter back to your boss. It also looked like you were ratting out your boss to your boss's boss, and that's why your boss is mad at you. Basically, your boss is the only one responsible for giving you more work, and if she can't give you any more work, then you don't get any more work. Period. It's a good thing you're looking for a new job, because if you continue to tell people at work that you're bored and have nothing to do, some day someone is going to decide that your position must not be necessary, and you're going to find yourself suddenly laid off. I apologize for not sounding more sympathetic - I do know from personal experience how mind-numbing being bored at work can be - however, I don't see your problem as being nearly as serious as those of the others who post here, who are being harassed, abused, bullied, and sometimes even physically assaulted at work on a daily basis. Bored to the teeth though you may be, count yourself lucky that boredom's your only problem.

Reply from:	beanhugger
Date:	8/31/2007 1:20:00 PM
Reply:	Boredom is not the only problem I have at this company: I've been sexually harrassed by a couple of the guys I work with and I've been bullied by them more times than I can count- and my bosses did nothing. Despite those things, the fact that I'm punished for not having work to do while other people are hired to come here and sit on their butts all day is the biggest problem for me. And my problem is serious to me- and just that fact that I'm "bored" is not the case- my boss not only completely ignores my requests for work, she ignores her boss (the one who wouldn't deal with me). And yet my boss gets away with it all!- she's incompetent, she's lazy, and she's a horrible manager who is costing this company money. What I really want to do is let someone much higher up on the food chain know all the damange my bosses are causing the company- both monitarily, and by letting a great employee (who could've really done good things for the company as a whole if given the chance!) get away.

Reply from:	goodboss
Date:	9/1/2007 10:14:00 AM
Reply:	Well, you didn't say any of this in your original post, so how was I to know? First, how did these guys sexually harass you (i.e., what did they do/say), and what did you do about it?

Reply from:	beanhugger
Date:	9/4/2007 1:03:00 PM
Reply:	I told my boss about it, who then did no more than to say, "don't talk to her like that". That was it. I didn't say anything in my first post because the person who was the harasser no longer works for the company, so that is not an issue for me any more. The only problem now is that my bosses expect me to be busy and look like I have work to do all day-- which can't happen, because my bosses also feel the need to have two extra people working here who get favoritism by their mother and husband, respectively. I am second when it comes to handing out work, and that is wrong.

Reply from:	goodboss
Date:	9/5/2007 12:13:00 PM
Reply:	Employers are not legally required to do anything about harassing behaviour except stop it. If saying "don't talk to her like that" stopped the harassing behaviour, then that's all your employer needed to do! I'm having a hard time figuring out what your problem is - first it was boredom, then it was harassment, and now it seems to be having to pretend you're busy combined with parental faviouritism at work (which is not illegal, BTW).

Reply from:	beanhugger
Date:	9/5/2007 12:41:00 PM
Reply:	I didn't realize that I'd have to defend myself here- I just want help like everyone else, not to argue with one person. I only mentioned the harassment because YOU said that's the only kind of problem that matters around here. Since I first posted here I've said that boredom is my problem. My bosses don't give me work to do, but complain that I'm not working constantly. So I have to fake being busy just to keep myself from feeling bad. When I tried to go "over their heads" (which I felt was deserved and necessary but didn't solve the problem) I got in trouble and I'm STILL looking for work to do. I would've thought that my bosses would've tried to fix the problem after I went so far as to complain to someone higher up, but like I said, the problem is still very much alive. They're in denial, they're obviously in need of an eye checkup, and are unrealistic. Parental favoritism may not be illegal, but it's horrible business ethic and should not be rewarded- it should be stopped. I am the odd man out in an office of only 5 people. I can't hide in an office, I can't take lots of time off- I have to attempt to deal with it, but I shouldn't have to and that's what I'm trying to say. My bosses should be punished for the way they're treating me.

Reply from:	goodboss
Date:	9/5/2007 2:39:00 PM
Reply:	As I said before, I understand how horrible it can be to have a boring job - I've had jobs like that, and I hated 'em with a passion! If you hadn't said that you'd already asked for more work, twice and with no result, I would have advised you to ask for more work. However, you've already done this and your bosses weren't receptive. The only thing I can think of at this point is to suggest you use all this free time you have to jobhunt (keeping in mind that many people with horrible jobs don't have the luxury of having the time to jobhunt while at work). Just make sure no one finds out about it because employers have been known to fire employees for doing this (and it's perfectly legal for them to do so). Again, I am sympathetic to your problem, however I don't think there's anything you can do about it at this point - you've tried everything we might have suggested. Regarding your bosses being punished, since everything they're doing is legal (and really not all that bad, compared to other bosses described in this forum - don't forget, many employees here are being verbally abused, spat at, and punched on a daily basis by their bosses, and you haven't indicated anything that rises to that level), how do you think they should be punished? I'm just curious, this seems a bit of an odd thing to say.

Reply from:	goodboss
Date:	9/6/2007 6:22:00 AM
Reply:	I just re-read your first post and realized you work for a large company (for some reason I'd gotten mixed up and thought that your five-person office was the entire company), which means you have an HR department. Have you met with HR to discuss your issues? What did your HR rep say?

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