Before I start my story, I would like to explain that the company I work for now is the same company I worked for almost 4 years since graduate. I left the company to seek a job more suitable to my personality. However 5months ago, I came back. It was only for one major reason..to be nearer to my baby. One thing I liked about this company was the friends I made here comparatively to my second company.
I had a very rough past couple of weeks at work and it took a toll few days ago. It made me burst into tears two days straight..alone, in the office and even in front of the client’s representative.
Firstly, let me explain a little on my line of work. I am an engineer consultant and I help the client to prepare drawings, documents, forms and reports for the submission to authorities for approval on their project
It is of course normal for client to rush us for results (as in any other kind of work) as the faster it is done, the faster they will receive their $$$ from the sales of their project. I have worked for many clients before and some can really push us to the maximum. I always tried to accommodate them the best that I can.
However this time, this client does not just push us to the max..it is pushing us to a point that the time given is actually impossible.
But what that hurt me more was that I did not feel any proper back up from my management when all of this was going on. This really got to me and that was when I burst.
The story as below:
Assuming client’s boss to be the WOMAN, her assistance to be “A” and the architect to be “B”.
Clients changing their details in their project are a normal thing. As consultants we have to amend and change everything when this happens. For this particular project, we have informed them that we will need 5weeks from the day they confirmed their details with us to do the submission to the authority following the proper procedure. They actually expected us to keep the previous deadline based on the old details. Hence they gave us a week. I ask you, how to finish a 5 weeks job within a week? My job also involves external parties and even if I finished my part, there are other factors to take into account. Truthfully, if my bosses took away all my other projects to concentrate on this particular one, I would need a minimum of perhaps 2.5weeks? One week is IMPOSSIBLE.
Hence, my superior and I met up with our boss who is in charge of this project to explain the situation. We worked out the minimum time we need to finish our work for the client and he said he will tell the client in the meeting. Next thing I know, my superior came to me and said the client wants it by tomorrow. WTH?Since there is nothing I can do, I just tried my best but knowing it cannot be done. Hence, my drawings are incomplete and do not follow the instructions by the authority (from my previous discussion with the authority). The proper procedure was when I finished my drawings, I am supposed to meet up with the authority for their pre-checking and they will fill in a checklist. If there are major amendments, I have to redo the whole process and the authority will fill in the checklist again. This will go on till the authority is happy with our drawings and therefore will issue out an official checklist to us for our onward submission to the One Stop Centre. (Note: This was one reason why we stated 5 weeks’ time frame)
When “A” came to the office to collect my documents and drawings, I explained to him the consequences of doing this in a rush manner. There is also a high possibility the One Stop Centre will not accept the submission because we did not follow the proper procedure. “A” was surprised and he requested me to be at the One Stop Centre with him, his boss and the architect. I said alright and told him I will just keep my mouth shut about not having the proper documents and hope that person is blind enough and accept our submission. Told him I will let him do all the talking unless something technical comes up. He agreed.
Of course the personnel at the One Stop Centre is not blind when checking through our documents. They asked for the checklist from the authority. That WOMAN, “A” and “B” stared at me. The personnel continued to scold me and said “Aren’t you aware of the checklist? This is the procedure you have to follow? You don’t know meh?”. Imagine how I felt and none of them helped me to reply them. So I calmed myself down and said “Yes, I am aware but it is not available yet. However, I did a pre-discussion with the authority already”. That personnel continued to scold me. This was my first embarrassing moment of the day. So I kept quiet and just say I understood. During this moment “B” asked me “First of all, were you aware of this?”. I said “Yes. I am well aware. This was why I told you all I need a certain time frame. But you are asking me to do a 5 weeks work in one week. How can I when there is so many other procedures to follow?” The WOMAN then spoke out “First of all, you are all aware of our programme and we expect you to follow it”. I then replied “That was before the big change in your layout. Before you gave us the new layout, we have informed you the new deadline and even “B” was aware of this”. The WOMAN kept insisting that we have to follow their original programme.
I was feeling the rage then and I was so angry because in the first place, they are aware of the situation before we went there. And now that it is rejected, they put the blame on me. WTH? Then the WOMAN said “Why don’t you go now with “A” to that authority and get it all done and me and “B” will wait here for you”. I explained that first of all, we need to make an appointment with this authority. Second, my drawings did not incorporate most of her (the authority) comments in my pre-discussion with her due to the time limit given to me by the WOMAN. Then again the WOMAN started blaming me etc. So I had it, I looked at her and said “We have informed you on the time frame needed for this submission but NO, YOU insisted we come and do it today? And you expect it to go well?”. As I was saying this, tears flowed out a little. I knew if I stayed on, a bigger fight will occur..so I took all my documents and drawings and stormed out of the room. As I was storming out, I said without looking at them “Since you want me to do it, I will go and meet up with the authority now”. That was when I heard her saying to the rest “Well, that was unprofessional of her!”. I admit, it was unprofessional of me. But what does she expect from me? I did my best for her and this is what I get? I was also unprofessional because I submitted my drawings and documents knowing they were incomplete, knowing that it would be rejected!
Anyway, “A” followed me to see the authority without any proper appointment. The authority was nice enough to see us after we persuaded her. She actually took her lunch time to deal with us as she just came back from a meeting. During the checking, I got scolded a lot for not following her instructions from our pre-discussion. This was my second embarrassing moment of the day. After a period of time with me and “A” only she realised that I made all this incomplete work because I was rushed by the client. She looked at “A” and said “Tell your boss not to rush the consultant. What is the use of rushing them when they need to do so many amendments and they give me incomplete work? It is actually normal for me to meet with the consultant 2-3times before the final checklist is out. Give them this time to do it. Do you prefer that they submit in these incomplete work and you have to wait for a month before I reply that the consultant did not comply and you have to go through the whole process again or do you prefer that you give them a little more time to complete according to my discussion with them and get it approved in a month? And this does not only effect the approval, you as the client have to pay up the processing fee each time the consultant resubmits their submission. Do you really want this to happen?”
I was so thankful to this authority for helping me voice it out. However, I wished that the WOMAN was here to hear all of this because “A” will only take it all in and will not “fight” with his boss about this. When I went back to office and gave this authority a call to make an appointment with her, she actually told me how she was really unhappy with our behaviour for barging in her office like that and stated how rude “A” was for going into her office few times and tried to catch her even when she was busy.
Conclusion was I was humiliated for something I should not deserve to be blamed on and this really affected me emotionally.
The above will not happen if the management back me up on my request in the first place and did not agree on the WOMAN’s unreasonable requests. This is only one of the many submissions in future. So if we say YES now, she will always expect us to do the same for the rest.
What makes it frustrating and sad was that there was not back up from my management in the first place.
Anyway, I will not stay long in this company and that is something I can look forward to. I will never ever look back again when I leave this time.
I had a very rough past couple of weeks at work and it took a toll few days ago. It made me burst into tears two days straight..alone, in the office and even in front of the client’s representative.
Firstly, let me explain a little on my line of work. I am an engineer consultant and I help the client to prepare drawings, documents, forms and reports for the submission to authorities for approval on their project
It is of course normal for client to rush us for results (as in any other kind of work) as the faster it is done, the faster they will receive their $$$ from the sales of their project. I have worked for many clients before and some can really push us to the maximum. I always tried to accommodate them the best that I can.
However this time, this client does not just push us to the max..it is pushing us to a point that the time given is actually impossible.
But what that hurt me more was that I did not feel any proper back up from my management when all of this was going on. This really got to me and that was when I burst.
The story as below:
Assuming client’s boss to be the WOMAN, her assistance to be “A” and the architect to be “B”.
Clients changing their details in their project are a normal thing. As consultants we have to amend and change everything when this happens. For this particular project, we have informed them that we will need 5weeks from the day they confirmed their details with us to do the submission to the authority following the proper procedure. They actually expected us to keep the previous deadline based on the old details. Hence they gave us a week. I ask you, how to finish a 5 weeks job within a week? My job also involves external parties and even if I finished my part, there are other factors to take into account. Truthfully, if my bosses took away all my other projects to concentrate on this particular one, I would need a minimum of perhaps 2.5weeks? One week is IMPOSSIBLE.
Hence, my superior and I met up with our boss who is in charge of this project to explain the situation. We worked out the minimum time we need to finish our work for the client and he said he will tell the client in the meeting. Next thing I know, my superior came to me and said the client wants it by tomorrow. WTH?Since there is nothing I can do, I just tried my best but knowing it cannot be done. Hence, my drawings are incomplete and do not follow the instructions by the authority (from my previous discussion with the authority). The proper procedure was when I finished my drawings, I am supposed to meet up with the authority for their pre-checking and they will fill in a checklist. If there are major amendments, I have to redo the whole process and the authority will fill in the checklist again. This will go on till the authority is happy with our drawings and therefore will issue out an official checklist to us for our onward submission to the One Stop Centre. (Note: This was one reason why we stated 5 weeks’ time frame)
When “A” came to the office to collect my documents and drawings, I explained to him the consequences of doing this in a rush manner. There is also a high possibility the One Stop Centre will not accept the submission because we did not follow the proper procedure. “A” was surprised and he requested me to be at the One Stop Centre with him, his boss and the architect. I said alright and told him I will just keep my mouth shut about not having the proper documents and hope that person is blind enough and accept our submission. Told him I will let him do all the talking unless something technical comes up. He agreed.
Of course the personnel at the One Stop Centre is not blind when checking through our documents. They asked for the checklist from the authority. That WOMAN, “A” and “B” stared at me. The personnel continued to scold me and said “Aren’t you aware of the checklist? This is the procedure you have to follow? You don’t know meh?”. Imagine how I felt and none of them helped me to reply them. So I calmed myself down and said “Yes, I am aware but it is not available yet. However, I did a pre-discussion with the authority already”. That personnel continued to scold me. This was my first embarrassing moment of the day. So I kept quiet and just say I understood. During this moment “B” asked me “First of all, were you aware of this?”. I said “Yes. I am well aware. This was why I told you all I need a certain time frame. But you are asking me to do a 5 weeks work in one week. How can I when there is so many other procedures to follow?” The WOMAN then spoke out “First of all, you are all aware of our programme and we expect you to follow it”. I then replied “That was before the big change in your layout. Before you gave us the new layout, we have informed you the new deadline and even “B” was aware of this”. The WOMAN kept insisting that we have to follow their original programme.
I was feeling the rage then and I was so angry because in the first place, they are aware of the situation before we went there. And now that it is rejected, they put the blame on me. WTH? Then the WOMAN said “Why don’t you go now with “A” to that authority and get it all done and me and “B” will wait here for you”. I explained that first of all, we need to make an appointment with this authority. Second, my drawings did not incorporate most of her (the authority) comments in my pre-discussion with her due to the time limit given to me by the WOMAN. Then again the WOMAN started blaming me etc. So I had it, I looked at her and said “We have informed you on the time frame needed for this submission but NO, YOU insisted we come and do it today? And you expect it to go well?”. As I was saying this, tears flowed out a little. I knew if I stayed on, a bigger fight will occur..so I took all my documents and drawings and stormed out of the room. As I was storming out, I said without looking at them “Since you want me to do it, I will go and meet up with the authority now”. That was when I heard her saying to the rest “Well, that was unprofessional of her!”. I admit, it was unprofessional of me. But what does she expect from me? I did my best for her and this is what I get? I was also unprofessional because I submitted my drawings and documents knowing they were incomplete, knowing that it would be rejected!
Anyway, “A” followed me to see the authority without any proper appointment. The authority was nice enough to see us after we persuaded her. She actually took her lunch time to deal with us as she just came back from a meeting. During the checking, I got scolded a lot for not following her instructions from our pre-discussion. This was my second embarrassing moment of the day. After a period of time with me and “A” only she realised that I made all this incomplete work because I was rushed by the client. She looked at “A” and said “Tell your boss not to rush the consultant. What is the use of rushing them when they need to do so many amendments and they give me incomplete work? It is actually normal for me to meet with the consultant 2-3times before the final checklist is out. Give them this time to do it. Do you prefer that they submit in these incomplete work and you have to wait for a month before I reply that the consultant did not comply and you have to go through the whole process again or do you prefer that you give them a little more time to complete according to my discussion with them and get it approved in a month? And this does not only effect the approval, you as the client have to pay up the processing fee each time the consultant resubmits their submission. Do you really want this to happen?”
I was so thankful to this authority for helping me voice it out. However, I wished that the WOMAN was here to hear all of this because “A” will only take it all in and will not “fight” with his boss about this. When I went back to office and gave this authority a call to make an appointment with her, she actually told me how she was really unhappy with our behaviour for barging in her office like that and stated how rude “A” was for going into her office few times and tried to catch her even when she was busy.
Conclusion was I was humiliated for something I should not deserve to be blamed on and this really affected me emotionally.
The above will not happen if the management back me up on my request in the first place and did not agree on the WOMAN’s unreasonable requests. This is only one of the many submissions in future. So if we say YES now, she will always expect us to do the same for the rest.
What makes it frustrating and sad was that there was not back up from my management in the first place.
Anyway, I will not stay long in this company and that is something I can look forward to. I will never ever look back again when I leave this time.
Firstly, hope you're feeling better. It was very tough.
Secondly, and equally important, is that you should try to learn from this experience. It takes lots of practice to get it right.
I understand the extreme frustration you felt. Goodness knows how many difficult clients I've had.
However, no matter how bad things are, always try to be professional. State facts without getting personal. By doing that, those idiots have nothing concrete against you and most of the time, they would be embarrassed to say anything, although they may not show it.
"Next thing I know, my superior came to me and said the client wants it by tomorrow."
This is the key moment. On hindsight, a better respond is to tell your superior that it cannot be done.
PP....I can feel and understand u. If only the management understands it better and not just saying YES all the time , expecting the employees to be Super Robot in work.
Well...if you really feel unhappy here..I'm sure there are better places for u. CHEER UP & Kah Yau!! =)
Jeremy, I understand what you say. It is not easy to control my feelings then because I already had a very bad day the previous day which also involved me crying. I tried to gulped it down and showed up. If I wanted to be more unprofessional, I would have told the OSC and authority straight up that it was the client that wanted to do this even after I warned them. I bit my tounge from saying this out.
And I knew about the key moment, that is why I said I was disappointed. I did say it is impossible. But I tell you, the bosses here do not understand that word at all..not the first time. They will continue to push you and at the same time do not fight with the client for an appropriate time. They know the possibility of getting rejected. So they rush me to do whatever I can and prepare incomplete work for the client. And even say they have no choice and just let the client hear and see for themselves that it is rejected. They don't realise that by doing this, they are sacrificing me...being embarrassed and humiliated is me, not the client.
How did you expect me to answer the client? How do I answer professionally and make them too embarrassed to say anything else? I stated the facts. Fact that they were already warned about the time limit but it is only that they insisted that I had to do an incomplete work.
I support JJ's comments. However, to work in an environment where you do not get management support is tough. After the negative outcome, did you consult with management, and ask how they propose to handle such situations in future? Let them realize that everyone in the company must be on the same team. sr