I work in a lab with research animals. We have a protocol for literally freakin everything. Everything has to have a wash date on it. And a lot of things have to be done WEEKLY. It doesn't matter how many days you're there or what days in particular, you better get that stuff done before the end of the week.
To me, I think making sure that our scrubs are washed so we have uniforms to wear (that are required to be in the building) or that there are enough rodent cages to change out the soiled ones are more important things to be done versus mopping a hallway 3x a week or making sure that the ceilings have been dusted that month (literal things we have to do). I completely understand that we have to do those things, but in the GRAND SCHEME of everything, I am not concerned about forcing time to do those menial things.
Welp. Come to find out, management does not feel like that. I was given a talking to by one of my supervisors saying that I “consistently don't do little tasks that I am assigned.” I said that I wasn't aware of what she was talking about, I try my very best to make sure all of my things get done while helping other people/covering for call offs/trying to keep up with other tasks due to being very understaffed.
She gave me an example of memorial week. I only worked at this location for 8 hours!!! The other days I had been sent to cover our other building. I guess I didn't SCRUB THE HALLWAY FLOORS like I was assigned so that was an issue. Even though I did all of the other 4 days of work I was assigned within that 1 day.
And then, instead of having one of our 5 members of management “pick up my slack,” it just didn't get done that week and they waited so they could complain at me about it. Clearly not that important, though, if the ones making double what I do couldn't be bothered to take 20 minutes to do it while the 6 company slaves do all the real work.
I started crying because I was upset. She asked why I was upset. I said because I'm getting chewed out about such a little thing as using a floor scrubber machine while working my ass off 40 hours a week to make sure TWO FACILITIES are being taken care of.
“I'm sorry you feel that way. Honestly, something like this would be a write up but I chose to just have a simple conversation. We know you're a team player. Our biggest asset because you know how to do everything. But maybe dial it back a bit so you can make sure you actually do all of your tasks. Thanks!”
It's been 4 days. Laundry is backed up at both locations by about 4-5 loads. There isn't any clean carts of a specific type of caging that'll be needed for the next 3 days. Inventory hasn't been done. Rodent houses are pretty much all dirty. But hey, that's someone else's job 🤷️🤷️ The floor scrubber got used this week though 🥰🥰