Education & Work Workplace wits end

Discussion in 'Living Room' started by moridog, 2nd Sep, 2016.

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  1. Azazel

    Azazel Well-Known Member

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    If you can't beat em, join em.
    I've never really had a problem with someone having it better than me.
    Do your work, improve yourself and move on. They will probably still be there in 15 years.
     
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  2. vtt

    vtt Well-Known Member

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    It sounds like you are a person that expects others to perform at an acceptable level.

    On that basis my advice is that you need to leave the public service immediately as you are in the wrong sector. You need to go to the private sector preferably in a nonunionised environment, you won't know yourself!
     
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  3. vtt

    vtt Well-Known Member

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    By the way the 3 written warnings thing is a total myth. Depending on this person's tenure and previous work history it may take a lot more than 3 warnings to get him out.

    Also keeping a diary means nothing, all issues must be addressed and ideally supported by a written record of conversation provided to both parties.
     
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  4. Perthguy

    Perthguy Well-Known Member

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    I caught up with a mate the other day. He is a manager in the public service. Someone in his team was struggling so he went out of his way to help this person. Recently he took the person aside to assist them with a report. The staff member went nuts accusing him of all sorts of things including him not being helpful. Pretty rich being called unhelpful in a meeting with the sole intention of being helpful! Anyway, he has copped a formal complaint over the whole thing and staff member has been handed off yo a different manager. My mate is gutted of course. He is the nicest guy and was only trying to help. The new manager has put the staff under performance management. According to my mate it isn't helping. That's the public service. :(
     
  5. Gockie

    Gockie Life is good ☺️ Premium Member

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    I've got an update for you all: Now the colleague that I have - she's been doing this role for nearly 2 years but she's lacking some SQL skills, struggles with Excel (as an analyst!) and spends a fair whack of time on internet shopping etc...

    Yesterday she was on the internet thinking of stuff to include in a cover letter (not for a new job... but so her mother in law could get a visitor visa to Australia and I know she spent time doing that at work on that too).

    The update I have is, since Monday she is supposed to help me on a project i'm working on. My boss knows she spends a lot of time internet shopping (I've told him that in the past and he knows about her lack of tech skills)... He's a great boss but he lives up in Newcastle and he's only in the office sometimes. I sit next to this lady, no barriers between our desk spaces so I know exactly what she's doing all the time.

    So she's now been helping me out on a project (my boss planned this). So for the next few weeks i'll need to keep her occupied (but not simply doing stuff to kill time but stuff to actually get this project delivered) - So far so good and she will keep me on my toes... I believe I will actually get a good result from it, because it makes me think and my work needs to be completely ready (i've been designing a new report build taking data from many different sources and requiring various logic) so she can do the next steps.

    I can delegate out the more run of the mill work that I don't necessarily want to focus on myself and just do the more complex/interesting and difficult stuff... (as I have in my tag... I love solving logical problems) which is a huge bonus. :D

    So it's obvious... I'm thinking about the bright side of life... the positives... this is awesome. :D Its great to have control. To be honest she's really not a terrible person but simply put she's just not the most talented analyst!

    My boss and I both know her tech skills are a bit lacking and he has told her to try to solve problems first herself before running to others (which has been him and me) to get help.
     
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  6. Sackie

    Sackie Well-Known Member

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    The best thing one of my ex colleagues ever taught me about public service was as you walk through the front gate, leave your logic at the front door and pick it up on the way out.

    This is indeed public service. You'll rarely win going against the grain because from my experience most staff, from top to bottom just want their day to go by as Sh&T easy and trouble free as possible. I always used to join em rather than go against em and it was a fantastic ride. There were 1 or 2 others who went against the grain and they were always the miserable ones. Management just wanted them to shut the hell up and leave them alone. At the end of the day all the work gets done more or less anyway.
     
    Last edited: 15th Sep, 2016
  7. Lizzie

    Lizzie Well-Known Member

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    Ahhh - public service. So frustrating go-getter do-ers.

    Have a DA in council atm. Submitting a DA is not rocket science so I was happy to do it myself ... unfortunately on the DA application form nearly every question says "refer to online DA guide". Couldn't find the guide so rang council. There is no online guide. It was removed due to being out of date.

    So, after getting very "first name basis" with the customer service dept, asking in regards to every "refer to guide" question, I thought I had it right.

    Drive a 1.5 hour round trip to submit.

    Only to find out some of the "bits" that had to be submitted with the DA, that weren't listed on the application form but are, instead, in the non-existent guide.

    Fortunately logic prevailed when they insisted I draw up a site plan on A3 paper (apparently a printout of googlemaps doesn't qualify) and mark every 300+ tree - after much too-ing and fro-ing from the back office they agreed that shading and labelling "lightly timbered" areas would suffice.

    Back home - drew plan - drove up and DA was submitted.

    Then was told I had to lodge an "onsite septic management" application (no mention of that anywhere).

    Back home filled out the new form with accompanying paperwork from installers and maintenance companies, drove back and submitted. Apparently much of this cannot be done online

    Got a call yesterday re septic application - I have to also submit a completely separate site plan for this application.

    Seriously - took me 15 minutes to convince the girls that the logical thing would be to walk 3 desks over to the DA application, remove the site plan, photocopy it (yes - I am more than happy to pay the $4 fee rather than spend another hour drawing a new one up and 1.5 hours dropping it off), return the original to the DA file and put the copy in the septic application file.

    Sometimes I wonder if staff have to take a "no common sense" test before getting a job
     
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  8. Scott No Mates

    Scott No Mates Well-Known Member

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    @Lizzie - the manual/process says staple.page A to Application form B. If you haven't attached form B, time stops, a letter is written and nothing happens until you respond.
     
  9. Sackie

    Sackie Well-Known Member

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    I feel your pain. yes they have no common sense but also I think for the most part - they simply do not give a ****. No one is accountable, and when the bottom line isn't about profits, there are no heads on the chopping block. They just simply do not care.
     
  10. Gockie

    Gockie Life is good ☺️ Premium Member

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    I guess @Lizzie, next time ask them if they see anything in your application outstanding that could hold up the process. It may or may not help, but at least you tried to get them thinking.

    Unfortunately its not something you can give to an competitor to do a better job... the government is a monopoly.
     
  11. devank

    devank Well-Known Member

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    I spent first 10 years with public and last 5+ in Private.
    I thought public life was harder. I had to be in the office 9-5. Had to play by rules.
    I find it easier to work in Private. They don't care what I do as long as things get done.