Hi Everyone,

I'm hoping to pick the minds of my fellow dieters. Not that this has anything to do with weight, but this topic is something I'd ask my dad for advice on- except, he has passed away- and now I need some advice, but don't have anyone around me who could help.

I work at a company that I pretty much like. I like the people, the work can be interesting (although it is in no way what I went to school for, but life throws curve balls). It is a small company, which has grown exponentially over the past few years I've been there. (Think we went from filling 12 orders a day to 75-100). And this industry that I'm in is pretty recession proof. *knocks on wood*

The company is very understanding of my situation (it is a family company, started out as just the family running it, they have since expanded). I'm a single mommy, and my daughter has asthma (which can mean missed work). Just today, I had to leave because my daughter's school was closing due to snow. They didn't even blink an eye. It wasn't a problem.

What's the problem?

I'm too good of an employee. I know that sounds incredibly conceited, but here is the deal:

I'm an incredibly fast typer, as well as I have an aptitude for numbers and remembering things. I have our entire inventory memorized. Yes, everything that is in our warehouse, I know it by part number, and by description. I can usually even tell you how many we have in stock. I have a pretty good sense and understanding of what these parts do, even though I am not a scientist. And because of that, customers prefer to speak with me concerning parts they want to order, or if something is defective. And because of that, I do most of the quotes that come in by email or fax. Which also means I place most of the orders. Which also means, I handle all special and custom orders, as well orders from newly acquired vendors. And when our sales reps in different states have something they need taken care of- even though everyone in the office is assigned to assist one specific sales rep- all the sales reps insist on coming to me. And then they ask for favors- they want me to handle specific accounts- to kiss their butts because this is a trial run and if they like it, they'll sign a contract and use us permanently.

But wait there is more! I also do accounts receivable for many accounts, including credit card transactions, which are done manually (by hand)- which- I guess it's a good thing I type fast. I handle half the company's accounts payable invoices, and I'm the one they go to when someone needs to be contacted because they owe us money. Because I can be *ahem* pushy.

And if you call now! I'll probably be the one who picks up the phone. Because not many other of my co-workers do. And as an added extra bonus I also pack and ship your orders!

But wait, if you call now, you'll realize that not only do I ship orders, but I am the one who processed returns and credits. And on top of that, I run monthly and quarterly reports on items that are being ordered because I try to predict what parts are going to be ordered. All of our stocking inventory is based off of me, my reports, and how many I believe we will sell in a month.

Because of all this, I was recently promoted to supervisor... and it was made known that I was the first person outside of the family to be promoted.

But I am up to my eyeballs in work. Unfinished work. Because I am expected to order, ship, fix, answer phones, answer emails, send quotes, request quotes, process credits, issue RMA's, process credit cards, call to collect money, run reports, pack and ship your order, attend to diva sales reps, attend to customers who insist on dealing with me and only me... Did I mention that I also update our website when orders are processed and then update it again with all the tracking information... I mean.. the list goes on and on. If I were to do my resume right now, it would be a bazillion pages long.

But, I don't work by myself. There are 5 other people. What do they do? Some days, I would have a hard time answering that. One is fairly new, although seems promising. The other, while I love her to death, is incapable of multitasking. and is a little whiffty. It may take me 45 mins to process 15 orders. It will take her 3 hours + to do that. And she does nothing else. She places orders, answers the phone, and ships with me.

The other guys actually are on the warehouse team, they deal with another aspect of our company. It's hard to explain. but they rarely answer the phones, and they just place orders, and ship their stuff.

It's really unbalanced. If I were getting paid two salaries, I might not be so frustrated right now. It would take atleast two people to replace me. The operations manager runs a report every month to see how many orders people place, and every month, I get scolded for doing so many orders when I have so many other things on my plate. But if I don't do it, the orders won't get placed... and then there is no money.

When I got promoted to supervisor, I got a $1 raise. It seemed like nothing to me for the amount of work I put in.

Thing is, I don't even know how to approach my boss on this or if it is even worth it? How do you bring up "I do the work of atleast two people and I want more money damnit!" (oh, did I mention I basically ran the place when she was out on maternity leave.... twice. I mean, there were higher ups there I could go to if there was a problem, but the whole ordering and shipping operation was on me). I've thought about looking for another job. I don't really know what to do, how to resolve it, or where to start if I look for a different job.

Any advice would be appreciated! (and sorry for the long post)

Ah, yes. You need to develop the fine art of delegating. It is a tricky business for sure. Communication skills are a must.

Some of it depends on your relationship with your boss and whether he/she will back you up when you make assignements. Also, your boss might be the person to talk to about delegating. He is after all, delegating to you. He may have some management books on topic.

Some of it depends on how you develop your relationship with the subordinates. You can encourage a better work ethic with positive feedback. Its kinda the sups job to get the best out of the employees.

There are lots of books on the subject of supervising and delegating. Check your local library, online, or at a bookstore.

On a side note, try to stick it out for at least a year. If you decide to move on, a year of supervising will look good on your resume.

Step 1: You need to refuse to do things that are not your job. If you don't take the orders, and no one else does, they will eventually reprimand or fire the people who don't do their jobs. When those people are made responsible for placing the orders, they will place the orders. Right now, they don't have to, because you do it for them, even if it isn't your job. Not to mention, if you're supervising them now, you need to do a little whip cracking. You are a less effective employee at the role you have been hired to do if you are spending your time doing other people's jobs. So you need to stop, so you can properly do what you were hired to do. That's why they are scolding you for taking so many orders...because it is a distraction from the work you are meant to be doing. Your job is not to take care of everything that your coworkers don't...especially as supervisor...your job is to make sure those coworkers do what they are hired to do.

Eventually, when the phone keeps ringing? People will pick it up, or they will not be with the company any longer. Right now, you are failing to delegate, and thus preventing those people from getting any better at their jobs. Trust me on this, they will improve or make it known that they are not good employees, if you stop filling in. And when you're filling in, and they're not getting better, you're not able to fulfill your other responsibilities.

Don't worry - you're not the first person to make this mistake! It's hard for people who were previously STELLAR employees to "graduate" to supervising people in their old role...because it's easier in a lot of cases just to say "screw this, I'm doing it myself". But that doesn't make your employees do a better job, and eventually, your own work quality suffers too (as you're finding). So you need to learn to let other people do their jobs. At first, it's harder (again, that's why people tend to say "I'm going to do this myself, because it is easier")...you have to train people, you have to mentor, you have to get people up to speed. But that is what supervisors do. This was 100% the hardest part of my job when I moved up to manager - having to take 2x as long to train someone as it would take me to just do it myself. But now that person is working as fast or faster than I am, and I'm no longer doing everything myself. It's absolutely essential.

Step 2: That's exactly how you start the conversation to ask for more money. Set up a meeting, summarize the additional responsibilities that you have taken on as a result of your promotion, your averages, etc, and state an expectation for a salary increase. Usually, you want to look what people in your area are typically paid for such a position, so you are making a reasonable request.

Hmmm...

I am aware of my inability to delegate. It's not my inability really, because actually i've gotten better at it. But I am a "control freak." (I once took a physics class during the summer at a different college just to get it out of the way, and the labmates I was stuck with couldn't care less about the class. They did all the lab work wrong, and after getting sub par grades on two labs, after that, I did the labs all myself, while they just sat there and screwed around) Anyway, yes, my delegating, or lack there of, has been brought up in performance reviews numerous times, as well as my stress. (I get really stressed out when I can't pull strings and get the impossible done for a big client.. where as my manager is just like, you did what you could, what's the big deal?)

I'm wondering if my drowning in my work is due to the fact that when I had my review and was promoted, I wasn't told what my responsibilities were or what was expected of me. I think they promoted me because I was doing it anyway, might as well give her the title, sort of thing.

When I was originally hired three years ago, the company was very small, doing like I dunno $8 mil a year. It was expected that you placed and processed your (12) orders in the morning, and then in the afternoon, we shipped the orders that had came in. We have added more hands into the company, as well as different aspects. Also, our 70+ orders now come through out the day. We might start with 40 in the morning and then more keep coming in. And while we might end up with processing an additional 30-40 in the afternoon- when I leave in the afternoon, there are 20 still sitting in the bin, and they will have to wait until tomorrow.

I've tried telling them that eventually this process will not work once we get so big. Orders should be placed all day long. We need to separate the customer service department from the shipping department, because right now, we do both. And I bet that combining of jobs is very cost effective. But having 20+ orders in the bin at 4:30 in the afternoon, I mean, even if they can't go out today, orders should be placed all day long by the customer service group and the orders that are ready to go out today should be invoiced and passed on to the shipping department. I really think they should be separate- that is how it works with most distribution companies, isn't it?

They have agreed with me that this is ultimately the way the company should run. But no progress has been made in that direction. We keep adding more hands, but not separating departments.

We have changed in the fact that now, only 2 people ship, and the others stay inside and place orders. But even when it's my day to stay inside and place orders, I'm still not getting to the other work that is piling up.

Part of me is hoping that this is just January crap. All the pricing has been changed, everything is messed up because of price hikes, and now that it is the beginning of the year- companies have the money to spend. Orders are flying like crazy... January has always been that way with us, but I don't remember it being this bad.

Another thing I think is making this supervisor thing wonky is that we are a very laid back company.

Everyone that I supervise is younger than me (mid 20's, I'm 31) and we are a very playful group. I can't tell you how many times one of my coworkers has said something incredibly stupid and I've thrown something at them. (I actually have a drawer full of projectiles, stress balls, a golf ball, rubber bands, and the stuffed kitty... ) I peg people with them when they've done or said something stupid. It's all in good fun and we really have a great time in the office. But when I'm really laying into someone about something that they did, it's like... I guess I'm not taken as seriously as I would like. (mostly by the men in my group)

Like there was a time when I caught my coworker on ebay.. instead of working.. I covered his entire monitor with postit notes. It looked like a crazy lion head. I mean, at that time, I wasn't a supervisor, and I didn't want to throw him under the bus, and that's not to say I don't read an article on msn or surf the net for a few mins every few hours... but really? Watching an item on ebay? That can take forever if you are bidding.

But I'm the one who got scolded for wasting post it notes.


And then there is the fact that there would only be two people I could delegate to (they separated the guys to the different aspect of our company.. it didn't always be that way)... so my choices are the new girl, who is not entirely trained yet.. so I can't delegate to her.. and my other coworker, who I love, but is whiffty... I mean.. she can't even eat a snack and place orders at the same time. Or drink her water. Everything is done with purpose for her. If she is drinking water, she really is drinking water with purpose and cannot possibly do anything else. (it's really annoying to watch). Drinking, snack time, coffee time.. she has to stop and do that and only that. and it can take 15 mins.

Oi.

First off, PLEASE don't take this as critical! I literally JUST went through this less than a year ago, in transitioning from wonderful employee into supervisor of a group of employees, in a company that used to be smaller, in a department that used to be just me that I sort of was managing before it was official. I also heard in reviews both that I had trouble delegating and that I needed to work on it. AND I'm young, younger than most of my employees, actually. So I recognize so much of what you're going through, and I really want to help. I also worked really hard at reading about management, developing strategies, etc, and in addition made a careful study of delegation because really, I was JUST LIKE YOU. So if I give advice, know it's because I understand where you're coming from, and from the other side, can tell you how much better things can get with proper delegation and delineation of responsibilities.

All of what you just wrote suggests to me that you need a meeting with your boss. In that meeting, you lay out:

1. That you're feeling like you don't have clear responsibilities with your department and supervisory role, and would like to get yourself a clear job description.

2. That you've not seen any movement toward the idea of restructuring, and that you would like to take steps toward it. If you're really slick, you offer real suggestions here on exactly how that will get done (in order to do X, we need to move employee ABC, who is great with the customers, to be dedicated to only customer service. The remaining employees DEF and GHI will be working on shipping and packing. I would like to propose that we do X, Y, and Z steps to get to that stage). This will make you look like a rockstar, and will make your job easier. In addition, it shows that you understand the strengths of your employees and are forward thinking. Seriously - business rockstar move. Most likely it's not happening because it seems like an overwhelming problem to solve. Solve it for them and present it up so that they can take action based on your good ideas? EVERYONE WINS. And again, you look like the best employee ever.

3. That you've heard their feedback in your reviews about having trouble delegating, and you want to move forward with a plan (again - have a plan!) to transition some of the responsibilities and customers taking your time now to other employees. That plan should include who you'd like to be responsible for what, how you plan to make the transition, and what your next steps will be. You want to make sure your boss will back you up.

Then, once you have boss's support, you call a meeting with the employees you supervise (note: This will feel weird at first. You'll feel like a fraud, because you're not truly feeling like their manager yet. You sort of have to fake it until you make it with this one. Same with the boss meeting, actually. Eventually it starts feeling more natural, I PROMISE). You present to them:

1. That you have performance expectations that they all should be working toward, including goals for number of orders to place, that the phone is answered in shifts, etc, and that you will provide them with resources, support, and training to meet those goals. Note that those goals shouldn't be what YOU are able to do...you were promoted for being exceptional. Their goals should be a little stretch, but not too hard from them to attain.

2. That you will be enforcing that performance with performance reviews/feedbacks/follow-ups, and will train and support people to be able to meet those goals.

3. That you are available to help, but that they will be taking on customers/
sales reps/etc. One great thing to do here is transition off those "won't talk to anyone but you" clients to someone else...the next time they call, bring over the other employee that you've assigned them to, and say to the customer "Jim, I want to introduce you to ABC..she's going to be taking calls from you in the future. Of course I'll always be here if either of you have questions". The next call, they take and you listen. And then they come to you if they have questions. This sort of transition can really help the "I only speak to you" customers (I had five clients like that, and I've successfully transferred three to my other employees, leaving only 2 clients that I handle personally, and they represent a huge part of our company income. That means that when one of them needs something, or when we have a potential new client that must be handholded and coddled, I have time to do it and do it well). It helps to specifically assign things out...if a sales rep doesn't know who else to call when they need a favor, they'll call you, because that's what they've always done. But if you've told them that "ABC will be taking on your orders from now on", they'll contact ABC. If they don't, you forward it so ABC can take care of it. Eventually, they understand that ABC can get them what they need, and will call ABC directly.

4. That you want to work on training them in whatever areas they're not trained in. Again, at first this takes more time (like the new girl who isn't fully trained yet), because you CAN'T just delegate...you have to do it TOGETHER so that the other employees learn.

Note that your employees will probably NEVER do things as well as you did. That's why you're the manager. But it doesn't matter, because you have other responsibilities, so that YOU can't do all of those things as well at once. You just have to get them to a level of acceptable, so that you can worry about other things.

The sad thing about being a manager is that, while you can still be "fun", you can't be their friend. You have to have expectations, make them clear, and enforce them. If you do that, they'll take you seriously, even while having fun day-to-day. I can STRONGLY recommend The Girl's Guide to Being a Boss (Without Being a B*tch). It was an essential read for me in transitioning to being a manager: http://www.amazon.com/Girls-Guide-Wi.../dp/0767922840

It's a really, really hard transition, but you CAN do it. I can recommend other books if you need more (seriously, I read a TON in prep for managing), and you can PM me anytime if you want to talk about how difficult it is.

I think I'm going to have to print this thread out and re-read it a bunch of times,

In general, I don't want to leave. I fully appreciate a company that is family oriented and knows that sometimes, my daughter's health will come into play- life gets in the way, etc. (I unfortunately have my father's work ethic- be there no matter what and get the job done!- so I carry a tremendous amount of guilt if I can't get to work because my daughter is sick, or etc)

I would like to be paid more though. (And I know they are rollin in it!) Maybe if I can make all these changes and really step up to this position, I can ask for a decent salary without batting an eyelash- and truly expect it.

So yes Mandalinn! Please list away any books you feel would be beneficial! I would greatly appreciate it!

Good thing I have a Kindle I can start reading ASAP

LR

I don't have much to help this thread along except to say I think this advice is fantastic (delegation is SO important!), and that the concept of the thread (though SO frustrating and exhausting I'm sure, LR) seems incredibly relevant to quite a few people I know, right now - I'm very thankful you posted it, and super thankful Manda for book recommendations. It's exactly this type of whole-life, and not just diet-oriented, healthy renovations with open community dialog that keeps me such a big fan of 3FC.

You are right Eskinomad (how north are you? lol), I am just trying to be happy. No one else can do that for me (taken me 31 years to really register that), and so basically I'm doing a house clean of all the areas in my life. My weight, my health (I just went to the doctor for the first time for a physical in 12 years- not including the time when I was pregnant, they were more concerned with the baby that me and I just found out that I am hypothyroid, which I have suspected for 4 years now), my mental health (I'm looking to maybe start therapy again and finish what I started so many years ago, but a whole lot of other dr. appts for other things need to come first)...

And I'm looking to clean up the stress in my life- and most of it starts in at my job.

And maybe when I start to feel better, in all areas, I can maybe put myself back out there. It is especially depressing to see that generally, most of the people in your life are happy and progressing (Ex: Just found out my ex-husband is engaged. I had mixed emotions about that. 1, because I found out from our four year old daughter, and 2, he abandoned me and left me in a bad position while he basically got his dream job (not without my help mind you) bought a house, and immediately started dating his best friend. Me and my daughter are living with my mom, I'm obviously struggling with work, I make hella lot less than him, but I didn't go after him for child support because he wouldn't have been able to afford it (we do 50/50 instead)...So basically, I feel stuck.

But, I congratulated him and I do genuinely wish him and his GF well. (I am a rare breed, I know everyone else thinks I'm crazy )

Anyway- sorry for the tangent.

It's time to clean house!

LR