Monday, July 07, 2008

Settle a Disagreement!

Internets I need your opinion! Here's the situation and please let me know who you think is right!

I am one of 3 assistants at work who all share an office. We all support different departments and people and technically our jobs should not in any way overlap. Except that because I show up on time, stay late and do not leave my desk for hours at a time during the day to run personal errands and/or get my nails** done like my two co-workers do, I end up doing quite a bit of their work. Their bosses (who are higher than mine) come in and routinely ask me to do things for them, simply because I was the one in the room when they came in.

**their bosses KNOW they leave, but never do anything about it and it's my #1 (daily!) complaint to HR.

Here is the disagreement: *I* believe that if the task is an immediate task (e.g., "go get me coffee", "get person X on the phone" etc.) it should, of course, be done by the person who was asked (aka usually me). However, if the task given was something for the future (e.g., "set up a meeting next week with Y", "make my travel plans for October") then it's perfectly ok to take the note for the person's actual assistant and have THEM do it. My coworkers, however, think whomever is asked should be the person who does the task, no matter when it is for. It should be noted that they are rarely, if ever, asked by my boss to do things 1) because I'm always at my desk and 2) because the department I work in has very specific knowledge that they wouldn't necessarily know how to do.

Thoughts?

4 comments:

Seeking Solace said...

I agree with you. What do these people think is going on...out-sourcing??

ccw said...

My first thought was to tell the one lazy bitch that her nails look like crap so she might as well stay at her desk and do her job. Obviously this is not the solution.

I agree with you. I see no reason why you can't just make a note of the request put it on their desk and/or tell them when they return. I just don't see how that is inappropriate or offensive when technically you should not be handling such matters.

Doing the immediate tasks for the other bosses seems more than reasonable and all that should be expected.

Karen said...

SS: HA out-sourcing...I love it!

CCW: If I could, I would tell the lazy bitch that her recent BOOB JOB looks like crap, but you are right, it's not the way to go. LOL

I'm glad you both think I'm not crazy...they really had me believing that *I* was the unreasonable one!

Gucci Mama said...

You are definitely in the right here; keep doing what you're doing. May I suggest a snippy, yet veiled insult that Miss Augmentation may, or more likely may not, totally understand?

Miss Augmentation: (flitting about and singing softly to herself) Oh, I get my nails done on company time...la la la la la...I am a little twerp...la la la la la...but my boss likes my boobies...la la la la la...

You: You are suffering from delusions of adequacy.

Miss Augmentation: She likes me! She really likes me! And she does all my work so I can go to the salon...la la la la la...