Workplace advice

tikarika

Hey all!

You guys have always given such thoughtful advice so I thought I'd give this a shot.

There are 4 (including me) women in my department at work with one of them being the lead. Recently one of the other girls have been messing up more frequently, some things could be overlooked, some things shouldn't be. It is the leads job to talk to any one of us if an issue were to arise and take care of it/fix our mistake/etc, however sometimes she can come off more abrasive than I assume she means to be. In our job, a mistake can be very dangerous so the mistakes are not to be taken lightly. The girl that has been messing up lately feels as though she is now being targeted by our lead and has had a couple meetings with our boss and HR (our boss who has openly spoken badly about our lead and that he doesn't like her- but thats a whole different story). We all, or were, friends outside of work, hanging out often and there hasn't been an issue at work until recently. Today, the 3rd girl was pulled aside and asked her thoughts about the issues between the two, yet I was not. Since there are only 4 of us, and 2 are involved with the issue, is there an issue with me NOT being asked for my input? It certainly feels like I am being excluded (not like i WANT to be involved) but because the other girl in my dept are quieter, i'm worried that our boss will use this to his advantage to get rid of someone because he doesn't like her. Because I am being trained as the next in line to take her place one day (by her), I think I haven't been asked because they perceive her and I to be close and that I could not be neutral?

So frustrating! sorry if this didn't make sense

JoanE2012

I recommend you just do you job and not worry about it.  Office politics can be maddening.  Don't get involved if you don't have to.

Jen4948

JoanE2012 said:

I recommend you just do you job and not worry about it.  Office politics can be maddening.  Don't get involved if you don't have to.

Sorry, but IRL following this advice often doesn't work. Yeah, office politics can be maddening, but "just doing tour job and not working about it" can really backfire when you're being kept out of the loop. It's not far from there to a "I'm sorry, but we're downsizing/you don't fit/etc." crap that results in you not having a job anymore. You HAVE to get involved if you want to stay employed or don't want to be demoted or lose benefits.

I'd handle it by not saysaying anything to your boss or HR about being left out now, but I'd document the problems she's causing with her mistakes as they relate to your specific job, and give a signed and dated copy of the documentation to your boss.

kvruns

tikarika said:

Hey all!

You guys have always given such thoughtful advice so I thought I'd give this a shot.

There are 4 (including me) women in my department at work with one of them being the lead. Recently one of the other girls have been messing up more frequently, some things could be overlooked, some things shouldn't be. It is the leads job to talk to any one of us if an issue were to arise and take care of it/fix our mistake/etc, however sometimes she can come off more abrasive than I assume she means to be. In our job, a mistake can be very dangerous so the mistakes are not to be taken lightly. The girl that has been messing up lately feels as though she is now being targeted by our lead and has had a couple meetings with our boss and HR (our boss who has openly spoken badly about our lead and that he doesn't like her- but thats a whole different story). We all, or were, friends outside of work, hanging out often and there hasn't been an issue at work until recently. Today, the 3rd girl was pulled aside and asked her thoughts about the issues between the two, yet I was not. Since there are only 4 of us, and 2 are involved with the issue, is there an issue with me NOT being asked for my input? It certainly feels like I am being excluded (not like i WANT to be involved) but because the other girl in my dept are quieter, i'm worried that our boss will use this to his advantage to get rid of someone because he doesn't like her. Because I am being trained as the next in line to take her place one day (by her), I think I haven't been asked because they perceive her and I to be close and that I could not be neutral?

So frustrating! sorry if this didn't make sense

maybe they will ask you about it today or perhaps, like you said, he went with a perceived neutral party. I wouldn't want to involve myself in the drama if I could help it but also wouldn't be afraid that not being asked means anything either. Beef up your CYA file in case you ever need to "prove" your effectiveness and go from there.

charlottesmom0626

Honestly, they could just feel you're above the drama or not involved: and I would take that!

southernbelle0915

If you're being groomed for her position, I'm going to guess that's why you're not being involved - so that your stay neutral, so to speak.

Just keep your head down, do your job and do it well. That's all you can do. People see "drama free" as a good leadership quality, so stay out of it and don't gossip about it (even though y'all are close).

thisismynickname2

Keep out of the drama with the other three, document your work and keep notes on her mistakes so you can CYA with your boss. 

In addition, should HR or your boss ever question you, be diplomatic. "Although she contributes well most of the time, I perceived issues in this case and this case. We worked together to resolve the issues." Words to that effect.