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Problems in new promotion
I recently got a promotion at my work - was very excited for it as it involved my leading more higher end projects and taking own higher level individual work as well. Ever since the promotion however, all the other staff members in my department have said they want in on more of the higher level things too and have started collecting + hoarding orders to themselves (all store orders are placed in an area that everyone can access at all times, there’s no assigning of orders, it’s just who grabs what.)
The people who work the morning shift with me arrive earlier than me now, distribute the orders they want amongst themselves and then when I come in to the start of the shift, I am left what are the “lower level” orders and the things they just don’t want to do. I’ve had several discussions with my boss who’s had meetings with them individually about how we need to try and keep workload equal and only grab an order or two at a time but the cycle just keeps continuing. One coworker will walk over to the other and hand them some orders one on one as well.
I had no work to do for 40 min a few weeks ago and asked coworkers if they needed help to which I was told no they’re good; when I walked by, I saw the one person had six orders to themselves. I got frustrated and then said if this is going to keep continuing this way, I’m going to just start going up to peoples tables and start taking orders for myself. Which probably wasn’t the best thing to say, but I’ve been saying nothing at all - it’s a very small work area so you have to be careful of how much “drama” you wanna stir up.
I know it may not be the actual case cause everyone of course has their own perspective, but I have not found me to be conflictive with anyone or a bad coworker to garner any of this. Especially since the promotion; I got some feedback with the store front people that I listen to them and they feel heard with their ideas. When people ask for a product to help their workload or something new they’d like to use, I try to get it for them if I’m able. It’s just the people who work the same area as me are giving me a little pushback.
My boss is the type of person that at the end of the day, as long as the work gets done, he doesn’t care who does it. Which from his business perspective I completely understand but for me as team leader, I feel like I’m now being led by everyone else. I guess I’m just asking for any tips/advice if there even is any? I’m not sure if there’s any other tactics on how to distribute orders or just how to keep order in general?
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Sounds like the solution is a new rule at work. Only the boss or manager can distribute the work.
However by your simple description, it sounds like the boss is one who would rather not be involved with all the details himself. If so, then perhaps you can talk to him about delegating you as the one to distribute the work evenly and fairly.
I used to be a route manager for a carpet cleaning company. We a certain number of guys who cleaned. I had to distribute the written up orders so that each guy had equal value for the day and also didn't have to drive too far for next job of the day. One day, I couldn't keep it all in close proximity so each guy would have to drive all over the place. At end of day, each guy brought in their paperwork and picked up their routes for the next day. Since I am female, I think that some of the guys thought they could do better but only one was vocal and took actions. He came in and looked at his route. Then the others for area/location of each job. Then he told me that was not a good plan. I watched as he began to move the job forms around until all the ones were located in the same area. There was no rule in place that the cleaners couldn't mess with the assigned routes and jobs for the following day, but it was assumed that a route manager would make fair route choices. So I let him move the orders around and heard him say he would do a particular route where instead of smaller clean jobs like two rooms or a sofa, his location wise would give one cleaner a massive amount of money while all the other cleaners went to each location for small stuff. I told him that yes it made sense location wise for the jobs of the day but he had not looked at the amount of each job, and since they all earned their portion of money for the jobs of the day, it would not be fair to the others. So with him watching, I moved them back to be fair and then told him he could choose a set of jobs he would do for tomorrow.
I told that story so you could know this sort of thing happens everywhere. First you need a boss who is willing to have your back and enforce what decisions you make. And there has to be a rule, and in this case, an unwritten rule is the same as no rule so its everyone to themselves. If you are in a position over them now, then it doesn't look good if you are doing no work, even though at no fault of your own. If you came in earlier than them to take your pick, you'd just be falling into their scheme, bending down to working at their level which sounds like it every man or woman for themselves without a care what happens to another other worker. Workers will go as their leader is going. So whoever has the right to hire or fire them would also be the one to make the rules. If that person doesn't want the job of delegating out the work fairly, then such a boss should delegate that to someone in a position below him but above the average workers. I am retired now but in my life, I have worked several jobs and just laughed at how they told someone they were promoted and came up with a new fancy title, but that only. Nothing in writing about the job duties, nothing said to other workers about needing to do as this person says. It could be, someone else wants the position you have, or several others do so they all are grabbing work and leaving nothing or scraps for you. If you studied books about how to be a successful team leader, you'd have to have the authority to follow through on the incentives given to workers. I am guessing you only have the title of team leader but no authority. Such authority is given by your boss or the owner. So perhaps having a talk with your boss about the situation is very much needed. After some time after all, with things going as it is, it may look like you are slacking and a boss can come up with a reason to lay you off because of that, for that reason or making up another as I have seen done over and over. If things do not change with your boss which I feel is the majority of the problem here, then you may have to start putting out feelers and slowly looking for something better for a job. Since the pandemic, many people have decided after a break from work with having to stay home during lockdown, that it is possible to find better work elsewhere, a better boss, a job where your contribution is valued highly. Now that things are more back to normal health wise, it isn't changing peoples minds. If they are not happy at work, people are still taking other jobs and getting more pay plus a better management. This of course leaves lots of the lower pay jobs or the companies badly run, in need of workers and finding no one. You don't want to find a job like that or even that as a second job but to find one where you are valued as an employee. I used to work also in a claims dept for a large moving company. The clients were either military which as the biggest or commercial claims being anything none military. My boss had a small private company, eventually his wife retired as she had health problems and we became the claim dept of a large moving co. Five people to handle military claims. His wife and he were the ones to do the others but since she was now gone, he needed someone to be his right hand man, err woman. He was finally able to handle taking a vacation day or sick day without worry, because I was there to handle any of the calls he got back for things that could not wait. He thanked each one of us personally at the end of the day for having come in. Two of us, myself included, were moms with kids in grade school. We would have to stay home if our young kids, too young to be home alone, were ill. So he let her and I bring the sick child in, where they slept all day under our desks, so we could still do our work. After all, this was sick enough to sleep it off, situations. But I know other people would not allow such a thing. He cared about each employee, and what was going one that might make it impossible to be in for work. There are all kinds of bosses or business owners. So its not just the company or the title you are given, but how good of a boss you will have. Unfortunately it isn't something you can know ahead of time when applying. So try talking with your boss, something about caring that you can take the load off his shoulders and get the work distributed fairly. You believe you should still be doing as much as anyone else but it is now looking as if you do very little work since everyone else is coming in earlier to grab work orders and leaving little to none for you. So you ask if he would like to help you come up with a solution, a new rule that makes it part of the job description that all team leaders now have authority to distribute the work fairly, so all are kept busy, not one hogging all the work but unable to get it all done without cutting corners and doing shoddy work to finish in time. You would be glad to do this but only if it was now a rule and put into job description so you truly legally have that authority. That way, he doesn't have to police all his employees, just have leaders with the authority to do so. I hope I understood this correctly. If not, write again and give new information or detail so I can better know what the issue really is. Wishing you the best, Dragonfly
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