I was called into my boss' office today over an assignment I completed last week, and was given this warning. I have been here for about a month.
The text shows that my violation was “Carelessness” and “Work Quality.” It reads:
“Employee delivered marginal work self documented at 2.0 hours. Content embellishment was done by simply adding words to the end of titles, with little to no regard of value.Work examined, and should have taken less than 10 minutes based on what was done.Work thrown out, and done by Manager as the content was clearly not thought over, or examined for keyword opportunities.Further incidents of this quality will result in termination as employee is in evaluation period and exhibits other work habits that are slow or careless.”
This is bullshit. I was supposed to embellish product keywords for our client. As far as I was aware at the time, there were two ways to go about this: One, adding whatever relevant keywords you can in line with the product and Search Engine Optimization rules, where you must also respect your client's wishes regarding how to word things. (Sometimes they want a very specific way of phrasing things; sometimes they want sentences, and other times just keywords thrown in together.) And two, you could also note similar wording for their other products from a bulk listing of what they have in stock and apply it to these titles when relevant to meet the character count. This is what my trainer also told me I could do, as some clients really do not like it when you add any phrasing but their own. Turns out, this is why my boss reprimanded me today. Because I used the second method.
I didn't “simply add words to the end of titles.” I scoured the bulk file to determine where the sentences I pulled from applied to the titles I had to lengthen. I actually redid them all over again to make sure they applied according to phrases the client seemed to favor over others (which is why it took 2 hours). My trainer told me that clients are very picky about their wording so this was the best way to go about it. Well, that was not fucking true, apparently. (I'm much more inclined to believe that she misunderstood because the rules here seem to change however they want to.)
This all apparently gave my boss a reason to tell me that I wasted time, that I phoned in the assignment, and he has a hard time believing this work came from someone with a Master's in English Literature. Yes. I studied English Literature, not Search Engine Optimization protocols specific to your company. Why include that for any reason other than to insult me?
I was in shock over this whole thing and kept calm (I have complex PTSD from decades of abuse and I have trouble standing up for myself when I'm wronged), but I also straight up told him that I didn't appreciate him calling my education into question over this.
I want to leave. Immediately. This would be the first time I would ever leave without a job lined up, which I know is extremely important to have, but I can't take this at all. This is not okay for someone who has been here for literally one month.
I also love how “disobedience” is a possible violation. Definitely shows that this is not a toxic workplace at all. /s