During the vacation, I worked as an administrative officer in a bank and one of my duties was to type letters meant to request the relevant documents from customers. Due to the accumulating workload, my supervisor appointed my colleague T to help me with the job. Initially, I was quite glad that there was someone to share the heavy workload with me. However, it turned out that things were not as smooth sailing as I thought.
After a few days, there was a large number of errors in the letters handed in and to my dismay, the supervisor placed the blame on me. However, I realized that most of those letters were typed by T as can be seen from the capitalization of addresses which he always did. Moreover, I knew that T was attending night classes and had trouble concentrating at work. As such, he might have overlooked his work.
Even though I would like to inform my supervisor about the matter, I was afraid that he would not believe me and might think that I was trying to shift the blame. On the other hand, I was on friendly terms with T and had to work closely with him at times. If I were to tell him directly or if he discovered that I tell on him, it would hurt our relationship. I was at a loss as the problem of multiple typos would not be solved if no action was taken.
What should I do to solve the problem but at the same time maintain my friendly ties with T?
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Hi Jie li! In my opinion, honesty with a tinge of tact might work. Since you are on friendly terms with T it would be good if you could honestly and tactfully tell T about the large number of errors in the letters that he wrote and that the supervisor has placed the blame on you instead. Show empathy and understanding to T and request that the both of you approach the supervisor and explain the issue to him. Also, you could offer to do a quick check of the typo errors in the letters that T wrote before sending them out to the customers in future. In this way, you can maintain your friendly working ties with T and also resolve the misunderstanding that your supervisor had of you=)
ReplyDeleteHi Jie Li,
ReplyDeleteThis seems like a typical problem which one might encounter at work. This is a tricky situation to handle since one should take care not to jeopardise the relationship between a colleague as it would hinder cooperation in the workplace in the future.
As much as you would like to be honest with your boss and tell him the truth that the mistakes were T's fault, it would be magnanimous not to do so as doing so might have implications. Firstly, the problem would not be solved. Secondly, your boss may think that you might be trying to push the blame to someone else. Moreover, T and you were assigned to the job and thus it should be the responsibility of T and you to work together to accomplish the job well.
Thus instead of telling on T, you could notify T about the mistakes he had been making as he could have been oblivious of the mistakes. Moreover, you could proof read his work and hopefully over time, he would learn to complete his work with no errors.
This way, friendship between you and T can be strengthened and the job will be accomplished well.
Hi Jie Li,
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a situation that we are likely to encounter in the workplace. The way you described the problem is very realistic, in the way that the problem is complicated by your friendly relationship with T and yet still have to confront T with the problem about the multiple typos.
I agree that since you and T are on friendly terms, it would certainly hurt your relationship if you were to report the matter to your boss without informing T first. Perhaps you could approach T first and inform T about the problem.
It could be possible that T assumed that he/she was producing error-free letters and thus did not see the need to check his/her work thoroughly. Or it could have been that T was still unfamiliar in the company’s style of letter writing in terms of its formatting. In these cases, you could point out the mistakes to T and attempt to guide T to produce better quality work.
However, if the problem arises because both you and T are overworked, resulting in a drop in the quality of the work produced, then this matter should be brought up to your boss.
Regards,
Nicholas
Hi Jie Li,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your kind suggestion for my dilemma. Indeed B" sincerity would have helped to save the situation. Sadly, A was not prepared to listen to B. I eventually ended up telling B about what happened. A was angry that I betrayed her trust and avoided me for some time. However, after much explanation, A started to forgive me and talk to me. A and B are still not in talking terms...:(
Cheers,
Rathi