Having a good manager is key

One part of my job for which I feel the most fortunate is how I have a great coworkers and a great supervisor. My supervisor, Maria, advocates for me and those under her for proper treatment and rewards for excellent work. Nearly everyone under her has moved up. There is one manager in the research area, however, who doesn't advocate for her one employee (and she only has one). The employee has been an administrative assistant for years and prospects of a promotion for her are slim, because her boss is afraid to have a discussion with the chair about giving her a raise. Other people have tried to negotiate for this employee, but the discussion has to come from her boss and she won't do it. It's tragic. However, I think only so much can be blamed on the boss. If the employee wants a raise, she needs to take responsibility to look elsewhere...especially if she's been in the same position for years.

I hope to be in a position (professional and mental) where I do not fear authority.

Suddenly, I was a Supervisor

I had written this back on February 28th, but didn't publish it. It was an important learning moment for me in my career, though, so I want it to be on record.

Let me introduce our main office administrative team to you:

Janet - residency manager

Nilu - fellowship coordinator

Amy - residency coordinator, administrative associate

Melissa - administrative assistant (formerly Amy's position)

Janet came to me yesterday and let me know Melissa was taking time off. She asked me if I wanted a copy of her forms. Two things went through my head:

1) Why would I need her forms? Why would I care?

2) Shouldn't Maria (executive assistant and head admin of department) get the forms?

I asked Janet about this and she said that she (Janet) and I were Melissa's direct supervisors. Umm...what? I was pretty sure Maria was her supervisor. In the past, the previous fellowship coordinator was on the verge of being let go because she had reported to the incorrect person...at least those were the reasons brought against her. Janet had talked to Maria, though, who said that, no, we were in charge: Janet was the manager over here and I knew exactly what Melissa was in charge of and what she was supposed to be doing. Therefore, we were her supervisors. 

I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach. It wasn't that I didn't want this responsibility, I just felt bad because sometimes I lost patience with Melissa. Many times I've wondered why she's asked me certain questions...why can't she take some initiative and figure them out herself? Or I've wondered why she needs help writing an email or why she isn't quick and snappy about things like me. I've always answered her questions, helped her with emails, never mentioned her work pace, but I've been silently judgmental about it. Now that I realize I'm professionally responsible for her...I feel terrible about it. 

Training someone is challenging. I keep trying to remind myself that when I start new jobs, I feel like the dumbest person ever. I repeat questions over and over again and I forget things. There are also things you don't think about...like how to correspond with others appropriately. There's a system of class levels and formality within the hospital and between other academic institutions. You have to learn how to communicate between the classes - how you address people, how you phrase what you want without offending them, or even if you should be sending them email or calling them at all (you don't email chairs of departments directly, for instance - you talk to their assistants). There were times when I asked my coworkers how to say things...because I didn't know a professional way to do so. I forget this sometimes. I forget how much I've learned, especially when it comes to "invisible" skills. 

Overall, Melissa does a great job. She's positive and gets along with the doctors. She does everything they ask and gets tasks done on time. Who am I to complain that she's not high-strung like me about details? Or that she isn't rushing around. Maybe she is...I sit in the back and only see her about half the day anyway.

Compensation

Today I received an electronic notice that my checking account has $1 in it. While the situation isn't dire - I have a little money in savings and I get paid today - it was a bit shocking. I realized a few months ago that my current income is no longer livable, so I've started the process of applying for other work. One of the hard things, though, is writing out a resume and saying I'm "excellent" and "exceptional" at what-have-you when there is evidence to suggest otherwise. An incident yesterday made me question some of my abilities I want to "sell" and consequently, it has been difficult writing that resume...

This past month, we've had several scheduling errors where clients have missed appointments because of the schedulers/admin. There's a team of three people who do it: me, Judy, and the owner. Admittedly, we all mess up. There are so many freaking details that go along with running the business that it would take a super-human administrative assistant to get the job done perfectly. However, several errors have traced back to my coworker, Judy, who is newer to the job than I am. The owner was getting frustrated. I feel the pressure, too, though and I'm terrified to make a mistake.

Then yesterday, a client called to confirm an appointment for that afternoon and she wasn't in the calendar. We were unlucky, too, because her slot had been scheduled over. Of course, the client couldn't remember when she made the appointment or who she talked to. I've had a pretty good track record with my scheduling for the last several months, and the owner knew she didn't talk to the client...so she suspected it was another mistake made by Judy. There didn't appear to be any evidence either way, though.

Yet I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. I couldn't remember doing the scheduling, but the client had a treatment on the day I was working. It would have made sense for her to rebook that same day. I checked the company cell phone's message history to see if the appointment had been texted in, but the messages had been cleared since then. At the end of the night, I stopped the therapist who would have had the appointment - did she text in the treatment? She couldn't remember, but I asked her to go through her messages anyway, giving her the date. She found it. The appointment had been scheduled during a short text conversation we had had. I must have gotten distracted and forgot to put it in. Now I had to figure out how to handle it. The mistake should not have happened. Period. I've been there long enough to be more attentive than that.

I decided to leave a note for the owner. I explained to her what happened - that it was my fault the client lost the appointment and not Judy's. I said the client should be compensated a free massage (since that is the right thing to do) and I asked that the price of the massage be deducted from my paycheck when she rebooks (she's a regular, so we knew she would). That way the company gets paid, the therapist gets paid, the client - hopefully - feels taken care of, and I can feel redeemed.

I don't know if she'll actually do it, though. In the past, she's let the business as a whole - and probably herself then - eat the cost. So it means I'll have to make sure it's deducted myself.

Anyway, this event was a blow in two ways:
1) My bank account clearly can't handle any more losses, and
2) I'm not as good as I thought I was.
I was considering applying for a job at the university hospital where the stakes were much higher, but I've lost confidence in my ability to step up to that challenge. I was going to be stretching myself as it was - being somewhat under-qualified for the job - but now...I mean this is a hospital. Life and death happen here. Missing an appointment in a massage therapy center is one thing, but I don't know if I could live with myself if I did the same in a hospital...particularly the Children's Critical Care Unit...

So I'm battling two dilemmas now...the $1 in my bank account and the feeling of being qualified...

Judgement Call

Everything was fine until one of our clients called.

"Hi Amy. I want to confirm my appointment today with Megan at 1:00 at the Northwest office." I scan the calendar. Not there.
"I'm sorry, Jim...you aren't in the calendar for today..."
"Well I made this appointment months ago, back when we were scheduling for several dates at one time."
"Let me see...do you remember who you were talking to about his appointment?" I was stalling and sifting through emails, trying to make sure that this was in fact our mistake.
"I think it was [so-and-so],"  he said. I continued to look while he talked."This is the second time there's been a screw-up," he sighed.
"Let me see what I can do..."
I put him on hold and sure enough. There was the email. He had scheduled the appointment back in September. There was his request and it wasn't put in, and now someone else was in his slot. When we no-show on someone, policy is to give them a free treatment. Loss of income. Not good.

Megan, his therapist, came into the room then. She's a very up-beat, smiley person so I let her talk to him while I tried to coordinate something... she's at location A for one hour...needs travel time...he wants an hour and a half...she could be there at 3:30...two and a half hours later than scheduled, but she can do it... With Megan talking, he seemed to be more flexible and we put him into a later slot. She hung up the phone but the job wasn't done. If I were him, this is what I'd be thinking come payment time:
"You messed up my treatment appointments twice and now I'm taking one today at a later time than I had originally scheduled...and you want me to pay full price even though I was inconvenienced...again. Why should I book with you if I can't be sure I'm actually going to get a massage when I ask for one?"Jim's a nice a guy and he never said any of that, but even nice people get frustrated if they don't get the service they're paying for.

Of course the owner was not around and left me to exercise judgement. I went back and forth weighing monetary gain and loss with client satisfaction gain and loss, trying to find a balance between the two. I realized in the short-term that I could skip the discount and hope Megan would smooth things over. She's good at that. We'd get paid for a full treatment, but he would not entirely trust us the next time he did. OR I could give him a discount, maybe get an irritated reaction from my superior when she came in, but the client would walk away happy. This would be so much easier if my boss were predictable - I would at least know the consequences of my actions.

I thought everything over several times. The bottom line, though, was doing whatever would restore the client's trust with us. Trust is an intangible entity that you can't quantify into numbers, but it's that thing that gives you numbers (brings people in) in the first place. So I gave him a fair (and pretty nice) discount.

A few hours after I left work, I checked in with Megan, asking if Jim was satisfied with his treatment.
"Very," she said. "He said we are great. He was very surprised."
"Oh good. I'm so glad. Thank you." Client saved.
"Thank you for helping me with this. I really appreciate it." She added.
"Helping take care of the client?" I was confused...why would she thank me? This is what I do.
"Yes, ma'am."
"You're welcome...but it is my job."
"Not everyone does their job. You are wonderful at what you do and you are appreciated for it."

This was one of those moments when I felt accomplishment in my work and I sensed a turning point in my own confidence in my level of responsibility. At the end of the day, I'm glad I made the judgement call I did...and I felt I could defend it. The best part, though, was being recognized for the risk I took and being recognized for putting a person above money. That doesn't always happen, so I definitely appreciated it.

Benefit of Outcome: Yours or Theirs?

As with almost any business, there is an element of wanting to serve people and an element of earning a living. At our staff meeting this week, the therapists talked about strategies they've learned to help them do both. The one that stood out for me was, "Don't focus on your personal outcome."

In times when you need money, you feel desperate and want to convince your customer/client to come back and see you. Focusing on your personal outcome, though, of needing money will incline you to give a sales pitch...and a sales pitch is about you - your performance, your goals - not your client's. One therapist said that when he took himself out of the equation and focused on the needs of the client - giving him information about his pain and honest feedback on how frequently he needed treatment - the way he interacted with the client was different. He felt genuine...because he was. If the client didn't want to come back, then the burden was on him. Many times, though, if a client feels more like a patient than a customer, he or she will probably return. People like to feel like you have a personal investment in them and when you put information out as an informer or caregiver, they will come back.