The Problem Manager
Julia had a problem manager. Her problem manager always wanted to give Julia more work than he gave Julia’s colleagues. Every time Julia was due to go into supervision with her boss Julia vowed she would complain and every time Julia said nothing about the unfair allocation. Eventually Julia was disciplined for the level of her sickness. Steve thought Julia was an excellent worker, one of the best in the group that he supervised. Julia seemed to relish allocation of complex cases and she completed them faster than anyone else. One day Julia went off sick for months and failed to communicate to Steve the reason for her sickness. The company lost good clients who only wanted Julia and Steve got reprimanded for the downturn in his work.
The moral of this story is that neither Steve nor Julia were aware or understood the impact of Stress on them as workers in their organization, nor did they have effective ways of dealing with it.
Julia really loved her work but she began to do more and more which wore her down and then began to resent her boss and she could not tell him the effect it was having on her.
Steve had performance measures to keep up with and workers he could not rely on, apart from Julia. She helped him do his work well.
If you are in Julia’s position try doing the following:
• Communicate your needs appropriately and clearly; if you can not and you feel pressurized at work seek an understanding of how things can be rectified through company policies
• If you feel unwell due to the level of work request appropriate support
• Stay in contact with your manager even when you are off sick so that they know what is going on for you and can make alternative arrangements
• Although it is not up to you to sort out the issues concerning unfair distribution of work, you can ask why it is happening
As an employee it is important that you identify and deal with any issues of stress at work. Good communication is vital and it is a two way process. Which one of these tips will you take on at work?
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