At every company I've worked for the company line has been that employees are encouraged to take initiative. In those yearly polls one of the questions is always about whether or not you feel like you can take initiative. The majority answer is always negative and then we have exhaustive follow up meetings dissecting why we feel this way and assuring us that we can take initiative.
Well last week I had a client call in with a problem that I could fix and my supervisor was busy so I took the initiative to solve the problem. Today the result was finalized so I sent an email to my supervisor. I have a review coming up and I thought that this would be a plus.
I just got an email back thanking me for taking the initiative….but also telling me that I really should have asked her about the situation ️
I feel like there's no way we can do the right thing. The company thinks that they want us to take the initiative, but when we actually do this happens. I'm feeling kind of crappy now and will probably have an unproductive day. Also not particularly excited about that review.