Jester, Jeannie and the Missing Post

I said in my last post that there have been rumblings of discontent at the Dark Satanic Mill over two issues and covered the first in that blog. The second issue is one that I find very disturbing because it involves the bullying of a young team member by one of our managers.

I think it would be a good idea to give a little background here. The manager in question, Fran, has been promoted from the ranks as it were. A couple of years ago, she was a level 1 complaints handler and our department was having a crisis. Our manager had gone off sick with stress because he had been expected to deal with an unreasonable workload and when he had been unable to cope, instead of receiving support, he just got more hassle from his bosses. We were then, as I used to enjoy saying, rudderless.

This girl took over some of the administrative tasks because somebody needed to do them. She also made a great fuss about doing it in a "Hey! Look at me!" sort of a way. Other members of the team, including yours truly, carried on with our work and took on some extra responsibilities so they would get done but did not make a big fuss about it.

This girl came to the notice of the Fat Controller, our Customer Services Director, and he liked her style. Suddenly, she was surrounded by grateful directors, praising her for running the department single-handed, and was even given a Gold Award for Achievement, a very rare honour indeed.

At her next Performance Development Review, she leap-frogged Level 2 handler to Level 3 and her star was now clearly in the ascendant. She had previously applied for Trainee Team Manager but had been rejected because she was too aggressive. Now the Fat Controller asked her to apply again and this time she sailed through the application process and then the training period.

She is now a manager in our department and I really hate to say this because I like her as a person but she is not a good manager at all. She is aggressive in her dealings with her staff, too many of her decisions about complaints do not make any sense and it seems that her knowledge of some of our policies is pretty poor. Worst by far, though, is how she bullies weaker members of the team.

Which brings me to my present gripe. Her treatment of the daughter of my good friend and "adopted" little sister, Goodwill Jessica. Jessica's daughter, Jeannie, is only 17 and it is a marvellous achievement for her to get a job in our department when there must have been other candidates with more experience. It must have been a blinder of an application and interview. Now, please do not be cynical and say that she only got the job because she is Jessica's daughter. What kind of company do you think I work for?

Well, she got the job and she started work and what a lovely girl she is! Everybody loves her. She's a hard worker, pleasant company and just generally a nice kid. So why would anyone want to bully her? Because she doesn't work hard enough? But she does so much work and keeps her head down. She doesn't join in with the general gossip and chatter that goes on in our department, she just works. Unfortunately, her manager seems to think that she should be able to do more and do it faster and tells her off for not doing enough.

On Friday, the post for 14 February went missing and Jeannie was at the photocopier doing one of her myriad Admin tasks. Fran shouted from her desk for Jeannie to stop what she was doing immediately and go and look for it. That may not, on the face of it, seem too bad but in conjunction with everything else, the poor girl ended up in tears. If it wasn't where it was supposed to be, then where was it going to be and how was she going to find it?

The answer was simple, really. My friend, Jenny, e-mailed the whole department asking if anybody had removed it. When she got no response, she looked in the filing cabinet herself and found it, not far from where it should be, with the post for 15 February. It had been put back by some nameless member of the department in the wrong place. This begs the question. Surely the person who reported it missing could have done the same thing and found it and avoided all the heartache and who had put it in the wrong place anyway? My bet is that it was not a member of the Admin team.

I e-mailed the head of our department after that incident. I did not mention it specifically but just told her that I think too many people in our department undervalue our Admin Team and it would be nice for them to get some public recognition for the superb job they do. I blind-copied in Jenny, Jessica and Jeannie.

I hope they do get the recognition they deserve. It really is about time, after all. I also hope that Fran can improve her management skills. I'm not going to hold my breath though.