The Work Thread

[mietze]

This morning at work one of the 5 year olds told me his favorite movie was Titanic. Specifically the part where they run into the iceberg and "everyone dies." He did know enough about the basic plot beyond that that im pretty sure he's seen it or parts of it.

Then after recess in the afternoon one of the 4 year olds painted a big blob on her easel surrounded by MANY small blobs and took took me by the hand to show me. "Mietze look, I painted the earth! These are all the asteroids that are going to crash into it and make huge craters everywhere! Maybe we will see one tonight!!" I told her I wasn't sure if an asteroids would strike our area tonight, and she looked me in the eye and giggled and said "/You'll/ see!!"

So kind of an apocalypse/disaster sort of day in preschool today.

[Arkandel]

@mietze said in The Work Thread:

This morning at work one of the 5 year olds told me

On an unrelated note, I wish I had 5-year olds at work.

What I have instead is adults acting like 5-year olds.

[Macha]

So this morning, there is a meeting - boss has no idea what it is (or so he says). Log in, show up, say hello. It's training for taking messages for that other project, for the call center from the City.

This is NOT my job. My job is outreach - AKA I make the calls out to the consumer/client/whatever you want to call them.

Last year, they tried to force me to do call center. I told them sure - as soon as they pay me what the people working in the call center make. (They live in one of the more expensive cities in the world, yes, they're making more than me) Subject got dropped.

So today after this little meeting/training/etc, I called my boss. "This is call center. WHY did you spend so much time hounding me to learn this project, just to take me off it? This is /not/ in my job description. I took this job to get AWAY from call center environments."

So now I need to do research and see if I refuse to do something not in my job description/something with a higher pay rate for those whose job it is, if I can get unemployment if they fire me for it.

If @Ganymede or @derp have any insight, or can point me in the right direction, I will adore you.

[mietze]

@arkandel i loved being a teller, mostly because I really like office equipment (and working at a bank you get to play with a lot of equipment plus I had my own stamps and doing safe deposit boxes never got old) but honestly yeah, at least now when someone has a screaming, stomping, paper throwing tantrums (a weekly or more event at the bank) usually they're fine after a hug or I can help by giving them playdough or letting them hang out and be my special task buddy. Also they're a lot cuter, funnier, and they just wear their damn masks like they are supposed to. Yes, even the 3 year olds. (Since it is a montessori school the ages in my class range from almost 3 to 6)

[Ganymede]

@macha said in The Work Thread:

So now I need to do research and see if I refuse to do something not in my job description/something with a higher pay rate for those whose job it is, if I can get unemployment if they fire me for it.

In the retail world, we call this "bait and switch."

In the world of employment law, if your employer fires you for refusing to do something outside of your job description then you may have been terminated without cause. In Ohio, where an employee is terminated against their will, the board of unemployment compensation may nonetheless award unemployment benefits where the employee can demonstrate that they were terminated without cause or agreement.

I would say that refusing to do something clearly outside of your job description is perfectly reasonable. If you were hired to do IT work, you could justifiably refuse a demand that you clean the toilets. If you were terminated for your refusal, the board would likely side with you because cleaning toilets isn't related to IT work. So, the analysis revolves around whether the work you were being asked to do fits within the job description of the position for which you were hired.

Based on what you're telling me, I think that that there's a good chance you'd qualify for unemployment compensation. Still, it sounds like you may want to talk to an employment attorney.

[Macha]

@ganymede Yeah. I just checked the job description for my position.

Nowhere does it state even so much as "other duties as assigned".
I took this job to get out of inbound call center.
I am about to make both my boss and his boss put in writing, that they are aware I have anxiety, and that they are aware I have brought up my concern that insisting I do something outside my job description, may exacerbate said anxiety.

I also already called my doctor.

[Macha]

So we have gone from threats of writing me up for insubordination, to "I'll talk to management and see what we can do."

All because I told boss' boss that I would be happy to start on this task, so long as she provided to me, in writing, that she understands I have anxiety, and doing said task may exacerbate said anxiety.

She asked me to explain to her what the difference was. So I told her. Outbound - I choose when the call happens. I need a minute to breathe, or have a snack, or check my sugars, I can do that. I can't, when I'm in an inbound queue.

I explained I took this job to get away from inbound, because the last inbound job I had, I was stuck on a call, no one would come to relieve me, we could not hang up (it would be a firing offense), and I sugar crashed. By the time I could get off the phone, I had splotches in my vision and couldn't even walk to the break room (I had been given shit for trying to keep 'snacks' at my desk), because my eyes were starving for glucose.

While I understand these calls are not nearly as long or involved, anxiety is not logical.

I also called their Accommodations team, started a case, and got my doctor's office faxing over a letter saying "Yo, she got anxiety."

I was so hoping to get her to put it in writing. Damnit.

[Macha]

they have chosen to fuck around and find out.

"Management says you must do the assigned task until the MALT request is approved." (Malt takes 2 weeks to do anything, min.).

Me: I need that in writing, in an email, please. That it is known I have opened a MALT case for this, and explained why, and am still being asked to proceed.

[Macha]

Wait. I have all of this in a chat message in teams, with names and time stamps.

that's in writing, right? I copied it and emailed it to my non-work email, Just in case.

[Macha]

[12:41 PM] Boss' Boss
If you need an accommodation, you need to go through the process of an approval. You do need to do the assigned task until you are approved. The assigned task was sent to you in an email by CFEEC supervisor Moksha yesterday, it includes taking inbound calls through Genesys and taking messages due to high call volume. Please start this after lunch and send your spread sheet at the end of the day to Moksha and cc Jim and myself. Thank you.

[12:52 PM] Macha
I am trying to get an accommodation. But as this task is not in the job description for a CSR outreach, I did not know that I would need it and it is not an instant process, as you know. I needed this in writing, so should something happen, I can show I attempted in good faith to make Jim, yourself, and management aware of the issue at hand. I will be taking this conversation as your written understanding of my attempt to get an accommodation, and your awareness of the issues and possible outcomes. I will be keeping this conversation for my records.

[Arkandel]

Managing people can be tough. It can also be rewarding.

Telling someone who's doing a great job that they got a higher raise than the one they asked for makes my Friday.

[Macha]

[12:58 PM] Boss' Boss
I am not able to approve an accommodation, that is not my job. Supporting the call center in times of need is not outside of the job description of the outreach department. Most of what we do is in support of the call center, especially for our WFH staff. I suggest you try the task before making decisions about it. If you cannot perform the task being assigned until your MALT request is approved, you would need to use PTO or LWOP. This is the only assignment available for you right now, per project management. My entire team has been tasked with assisting the CFEEC unit.

[1:03 PM] Macha
I recently re-read the job description that I agreed to. It makes no mention of doing inbound call center as part of the job summary. I am fully aware you can not approve an accommodation, nor am I expecting you to do so. But this was a sudden shift in my expected duties, and I could not foresee needing an accommodation, either. There are other tasks I could be doing to assist, such as setting appointments for RL. But I needed it to be made fully clear what I was doing trying to get an accommodation, and why I was seeking it, so you are fully informed of what is going on and what may happen.
Job Summary
Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Develop working relationships with customers and monitor engagement and progress.
• Work with customers on a regular basis to meet and achieve program goals and/or maintain program services and eligibility.
• Conduct workshops and other training related services for customers.
• Exhibit considerable programmatic knowledge and assist customers in multiple phases of the application process, ranging from enrollment through the awarding of benefits and services.
• Assist customers to acquire services that facilitate program goals (e.g., educational and/or vocational training, medical, child care, transportation, substance abuse/mental health, child support establishment, legal, and other related needs).
• Follow-up with customers to ensure that their needs are met and questions and concerns are resolved.
• Interact with other team members to provide expertise and assistance in resolving participant issues.
• Maintain accurate and timely case notes on all customer contacts and document activities.
• Share information about outreach and engagement efforts with project staff.
• Inform project staff of any barriers that they identify and that are preventing the customer from engaging with the Provider.

ETA: I love the 'try it before you make decisions". I don't need to TRY it to feel my anxiety going up.

[Ganymede]

@macha

Take a moment to read through this.

Then contact the EEOC or your state's civil rights body.

[Macha]

Currently on hold for EEOC.

[1:14 PM] Boss' Boss
I don't know what to tell you, other than what I have already said. This is the assignment. The job has clearly changed since you were hired. You were not hired to work from home, but here we are. No matter what the job description said when you were hired or what is says now, this is not outside of the scope of what we do. The essential duties is never going to describe every possible task. Please log in to Genesys if you're not/havent and start taking calls.

[Macha]

And if anyone is curious, yes, this is also messing up my anxiety and has me a wreck. But I can't do this day after day.

[Macha]

I am trying to comply and at least attempt to do this as long as I can stand it.
...the spreadsheet doesn't work. They have no workaround, and the request to put office in my Workspaces still hasn't been answered.

So now they want me to half ass it, and write it in an email. Are you KIDDING ME. There is no way to keep that organized the way they want.

[Macha]

Still can't use the spreadsheet. Workaround from Friday is no longer working.

they want me to 'just put it in an email'. Like I'm going to remember everything in the spreadsheet I can't even get everything from.

[Ominous]

My workplace is also kind of dicking me around, as I might (very unlikely) have COVID, but nothing to the level of what @Macha is going through with their workplace, so I'll just sit on my peeve and offer support.

Sorry your workplace is run by a gaggle of dumbasses, @Macha.

[Macha]

@ominous Please peeve. Let me feel less alone.

P.S. So I did the thing they've been asking me to do. I got screamed at by two women on a speakerphone, and it shoved Anxiety over the edge into tears. My roommate was telling me to hang up on them. So I did. And then, still in tears, I called my boss. Because this is bullshit.

[Derp]

I can't go into details, but I will say that someone much higher up than my boss asked me to do a thing, and I disagreed so firmly with doing this thing that I refused to put my name on it. I made my boss put his on it. We had an hour meeting debating it.

Fun times.