Attended a staff meeting a couple of weeks ago about mental health awareness, taking care of self, telling direct management when taking on extra duties becomes overwhelming, avoid taking on extra duties to prevent burnout, give us a speech about a new position opening up and evaluating how the duties can cause overwhelmed, and calling out for mental health days to avoid turnovers. Sound good right? Finally they care.
Until I was volunteer-told as the team leader to tell the coworker that is on my team that me and the coworker have to take another task because we have the certification to do so. I kindly ask, “ Can I have time to think about this extra duty and follow up later because I am behind in schedule and have to meet with someone. I don’t want to agree to something without thinking and having a discussion about it.”
Told the coworker what the boss said. The coworker expressed being newly hired and not wanting to take on other activities because they are still in training and already feel overwhelmed with documentation because the basic course for the certification doesn’t teach them exactly everything versus someone with the college degree.
I followed up with my boss and said “me and my coworker will like time to think about it and discuss it before we agree to it.” My boss replied with “you both have the certification, so that’s all I’m going to saying about this matter.”
(I almost told my boss I can pay you through cash app, take it out my check, or give you cash for the training if that’s your attitude. But, I continue to stay cool).
I replied back discussing how this same action with not having discussions about volunteer-told activities caused us to lose two employees within a month because management threw everything at them, reprimanding them, and increase workload for everyone when they quit. I discuss the reason I wanted to meet in person and wanted to discuss an plan that will allow everyone to not feel overwhelmed. Even discuss how agreeing to something fast when you are on the go and not thinking can be destructive. I expressed that I am not saying no, I just want an clear plan with this activity to make sure I don’t get overwhelmed and fall back on my requirements. So, I apologize to my boss if they felt like I was being difficult or not trying to help.
My boss reply back by discussing how back and forth can cause communication problems. So, we can meet and discuss this in person.
I am convinced that management actually doesn’t do leadership trainings. They just react and don’t take the time to think of a plan that actually makes sense. I was baffled that management doesn’t truly understand how their words can actually turned into a bunch of legal problems. I was just baffled that I asked for a meeting in the beginning to avoid this interaction and it took my boss to realize that my response made sense.
And, don’t worry I am actively looking for another job and having multiple interviews setup. But, I just wanted to share the growth I learned from leadership training on delegating task.