what happened roughly 2 weeks ago
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"so they made a decision to split our team, into process improvement and TIO complaints... which is fantastic. its exactly what i have been fighting for since last novemeber when i joined the team.. however in the process all of my hard work and effort and enthusiasm i have put into this job have been shafted and ive been slapped in the face.
Ive spent a lot of effort and energy pushing and making things happen in the company for our team, i have been directly involved in fixing our invoices, tracking all the calls that come into the call centre, graphing and reporting these results to managers and using them to suggest improvements to the company and give our team the visualisation that it deserves, as not only a complaints team, but a team that cares about the company and what our staff have to say about their daily jobs and how we can all work together to make the company better.
Each step of the way i have fought to get things changed, and have things happen to benefit not only the call centre but the company as a whole. Ive butted heads with my manager grant and done my best to make things happen - and a lot of them have... a lot of them have also made me be told to get back in my box, but hey you dont get anywhere if u dont try and make things better right?
So they've split our team to process improvement and TIO complaints.... G has been made head of process improvement - which is a joke becoz all he is good at is collecting data and has always been too scared to make changes and actualyl improve things... for the 2 years that he has been here, things didnt start to change until I came into the team. Now i know that sounds like i am talking myself up, but honestly i dont mean to, its the truth. We (the team) didnt get visability to the call centre or the company as anything other than a complaints team until i started pushing for things to improve along with the help of P and for the changes that needed to be made, to be made. And now they have... except now im the one who's been kicked to the curb so to speak... all of my hard work, all of data ive collected and effort that i have put in has been for nothing.
They have assigned P to work with G on process improvement which is great becoz then it might make grant appear like he's making some changes... just hope pete gets the recognition he deserves... and the rest of us (me, B and C) to work under J (another CSR in our team) to JUST do complaints - no business improvement stuff) ...everything i have done, ive really done for nothing.
We all sat down in a meeting with A (G's new boss) and he said in front of everyone "the only people in this team with a passion for process improvement, that i can see, are G and P." and no one said a word. I couldnt speak up becoz i thought i would bust into tears if i said anything. I couldnt believe no one backed me up or said anything about all of the work that ive done or how i feel about it. Becoz our whole team knew how i felt about making a difference in this company.
Recently ive been applying for other jobs, yes... but that is only becoz i have had no where to go in this company and couldnt stand just doing tio complaints becoz how depressing is that?
When you only every deal with surface stuff and NEVER fix the underlying reasons for the complaints to be made against us in the first place, hence i was pushing for the restructure so that this could happen. G knew this before i started applying and even pushed me to look for other work in a way by saying that i seemed unhappy in the team, but that i needed to get back in my box and he didnt know when things were going to change.
So last night after the meeting grant tried to talk to me, as did B but i couldnt talk to any of them. We were told we were moving desks to i cleared out mine and took my personal things home so they didnt get mixed up and plus i didnt know what i was going to do and was still in shock with what had happened and been said. I couldnt talk to anyone becoz i was so upset and didnt want to break down or appear weak and cry in front of our team or people here.... So i put all of the process improvement stuff i had been working on, on G's desk becoz it was obviously no longer my work to deal with, i left my induction manual there too becoz it was too heavy to take home and i didnt know if when i came in, in the morning we'd all be moving desks or not yet.
So then i get in this morning, im 15 mins late becoz getting out of bed was just way too hard becoz i didnt want to even be here and also becoz traffic was bad on the way in. When i get in G says come and have a chat, so i put my phone on silent, grabbed a drink, said happy birthday to J and went and sat down with him.
He then proceeded to ask me what was going on. I asked him what he meant, and he said that it looked like i had resigned. I said no, im here, what do u mean. he said that i had put all of my stuff on his desk and cleared out mine - i explained why - ie) moving desks and the stuff on his desk was no longer my responsibility since i was to only be doing TIO complaints and that i couldnt carry my manual home and didnt know about desk arrangements when i got in, so it looked like the logical place to put that stuff.
He then proceeded to tell me that I had 3 options. 1) Go back to the call centre, 2) Stay in the team and be happy with just doing complaints and NOTHING else or 3) leave the company. All which made me feel like i was being threatened. To which i did tell G that it seemed a little unfair to be giving me these options now, becoz at no time did i indicate that i wanted to leave the team or that i would have any problem with working under J to do TIOs. It seemed heavy handed to send me back to the call centre, almost like punishing me... As far as I am concerned i havent done anything wrong.
G then told me that the reason i didnt get the position was that I went over his head with things and gave me 3 examples (when i asked for them) as to times when i did this. All of these i rebutted and explained why i did/said things that i did and that he had misunderstood situations and had he asked me about them, then i would have fully explained what had gone on why i had done what i did. He dismissed everything i said and generalised saying that i needed to watch how people perceived me. I said to him that if he had bothered to come to me and actually talk to me about something if he felt that I had gone over his head, then we could have discussed this and he would have understood what happened and why and that there are always 2 sides to every story.
This he dismissed and waved his hand saying its in the past and wasnt important and what was important was that i had a choice to make between those 3 options. This i felt was very dismissive and almost like a cover up of the fact that had he dealt with things that were bothering him in a more productive and conjusive manner, then maybe the outcome would be different.
G himself also admitted that he couldnt fault my job performance, that i was one of the highest performing team members when it came to work productivity and getting my job done. He stated that he couldn't fault this at all. So it means that all of this has come down to the fact that grant didnt want me in the job.
The way he has worded it, also means that if i was to take the matter up with A or anyone else for that matter, it would appear as if i was going over his head and then put justification to his claims (based soley on misunderstandings). So, i cant win. the only option for me i think right now, is to leave iinet. I dont want to, i love the company and think that i could play a great role in improving the way things work in this company and always, even after being knocked down so many times and getting back up, i still care about how this company operates and how it does becoz its the best ISP in Australia.
But i really have no choice but to look for other work and leave the company.
So there you go.. im emotionalluy exhuasted from writing all of this but its the truth. I'd love to stay here and feel like i make a difference, but its been made clear that I have a "perception" issue to others (as G would say) - albeit this has been announced to me based on very misunderstood reasons but i dont feel that i can be happy feeling like everything i have done has been to no avail.
I just hope this company can continue to be australia's best ISP... my role here is no longer needed."
