I was talking to my friend Chirag about this a while back. Why do some people take so much on, not cope, not talk, not be open about it, not delegate and then make it really difficult for others to manage the situation after?
Recently I’ve let myself be affected by this. I get that we have a choice in what we let affect us and I guess I’m not ‘ready’ to let this stuff wash over me yet.
Anyway, to let you into my thoughts a bit more….things like someone saying they’ll organise calling a potential investor who wants to give her money away to help build/finance an orphanage in England but they don’t! Â So how did that happen? You heard about this offer from the person with the money herself. You pass it on to the ‘donation’ department. You check what happened and get that told they’ve not had a chance to call. After this, they called but left a message. After this, they spoke on the phone but she said she’ll get back to them. Now she’s away and hasn’t returned yet. What an amazing resource and it’s slipped through our fingers because I followed procedure and didn’t make the call myself.
I recently learned that a member of one of the committees I’m on didn’t take a mandate to the bank that would allow 3 signatories on the account. He got their proof of ID, got them to sign the mandate and was going to take it in himself because he works in a bank. Over 6 months later we learned that he’s not done it, he is the only person who can access the account and he didn’t bank any money from past events. If anything had happened to his home and the money was stolen or if he lost it; we wouldn’t be covered. Why? How?
I get that people have things that happen. I get that work, committees etc. aren’t always/often a priority. I understand that people experience things and everything else is moved to the backburner.
Would it not be better if when this happened, the person told whoever needed to know so that the load can be shared and sorted out?
You know as I write this I can feel the compassion in me saying that when a tragedy or something that demands our attention occurs, we don’t always think of what’s pending in order to pass the job on. Sometimes we don’t function in our normal emotional, intellectual way so we can’t share and delegate. It’s not fair to be so frustrated with people in these situations, is it?
I guess this would be OK they were only like this occurred when stuff like that happened.
I think the reason I wrote this is because of people who don’t seem to have things going on, over and above, what they can usually handle. It’s about those who rarely get the job done! Those who rarely take responsibility for their tasks!
Some people take things on and then can’t be bothered to carry them out. Others are enthusiastic but with lots of things. They then spread themselves too thin and can’t do anything fully. What do you do with people like that? Don’t expect anything and do what you can?
What happens if you have to write a report but you can’t because you haven’t got the diagnostics you need? Do you go and make the diagnostics yourself? What will you NOT do because you need to invest time in this? Is it fair? They will get paid for doing a task that they didn’t do. You’ll get paid for doing a task you’re not supposed to do and you won’t do the things that you are supposed to do because of this! Do you go to your line manager or boss? Do you ask the person yourself? There is a risk that if you feel frustrated and as if the person’s negligent, lazy, dishonest; you’ll show it when you speak! Then what?
It’s so hard to sack people nowadays. We have many rights which are supported by the law and unions. This is a great thing because in the past, present and future employers have, do and will escape although they mistreat staff. However, neither extreme is good. Employers who need to remove people from their teams may look for ways to make them leave, using ‘low’ tactics because they can’t just say ‘they don’t fulfil their role so they are fired’. Some employees who feel a certain way, will milk the system without being forced to do what most of the other employees do, nor will they be removed or their duties changed. Great huh?
Where do we go from here? Is there an answer?
