New job....but....
Ok, so I started a new job 2 months ago after being laid off for almost a year. I've been looking for a job and interviewing the entire time I was laid off, then finally received a job offer at a company 32 miles away from home and accepted a significant pay cut, which is better than no income at all. I am a single mother with a child that's in middle school and the sole provider. The work at this job is steady and my coworker, which by the way is also new and started a month before I did. We are required to work late due to the nature of the business. Our work hours are 8:30 to 5:30 and we never leave at 5:30. We work an additional 2 hours after 5:30 which of.course is overtime. The job doesn't pay much so the overtime helps. My 60 day review is coming up at the beginning of October, however today my manager calls me into the conference room because she says she has to speak with me. She says she has to counsel me on my work. She says when I leave, my work isn't completed and I don't prioritize the work. Then she says I am suppose to punch out and take an hour lunch yet I am not the only one who dosen't punch out and works through lunch. Then she says I have to work pass 5:30 to make sure all work is done which I already do. She then hands me a piece of paper with what I mentioned in writing and asks me to sign it. She rushes me through the whole thing and says she needs to leave but wants me to sign the paper. I ask questions about yet she doesn't give me a straight answer. I couldn't believe what was happening. All that time there was never a complaint about my work and it only took a few days to trains me and doing the work all on my own. I don't think I was written up or was I? Is this one step before getting fired? I don't know what to make of this. I asked my manager if she was writing me up and she says no. She was counseling me on my work, etc. I've never experienced this before so I really don't know what her real intentions are other than to fire me at a later date. I do my work and my coworker doesn't do as much work as I. They've been training her to do a lot of other things yet she and another co worker don't get along but I am the one who gets counseled? I am still confused as to what just happened right before I left work. I am at a loss. What should I do to keep from losing this job? Speak to HR? Follow up with an answer to the counseling paperwork/meeting? Any suggestions?
Hi Lisa,
It sounds to me as though your manager is establishing a document trail so that if it does come down to terminating you for cause, then she has sufficient evidence to demonstrate to HR and even a court of law that you were afforded ample opportunity to improve your performance and that termination wasn't a capricious, impetuous act by management. How your manager chose to handle the issue must seem harsh, and I know it must have felt like a brick wall fell on you, but in the end I think you will appreciate her being so up-front. I was "counseled" once by an employer and the event was so casual that I didn't even realize what had happened until my annual evaluation rolled around and the topic was brought up again. So take this as a warning shot and treat it accordingly. At least you now have a baseline to work with. On a related note, good managers document everything. So should you. I keep a daily log of everything my manager says to me, work-wise. I recommend you do the same. You never know when you'll need to refute a future counseling specification. By the way, it doesn't really sound to me like there's a problem with your work per se, as far as procedures are concerned, it just sounds like you need to finish up your work at the end of the day (which might mean reducing your work load as the clock runs out) and be a bit more flexible in re-prioritizing your workload as the day progresses. I suspect that the reason why you were "counseled" was because the manager was probably trying to apply the same standards across the board to all employees (she's probably already counseled, or is going to counsel, the coworkers you mentioned). As far as the lunch thing is concerned, a lot of people don't know it but federal law requires an employee to take at a minimum a 30 minute lunch break every shift. I know the "counseling" must hurt and you must feel disappointed, but take it in stride and keep your chin up! And here's another thing: when your performance evaluation rolls around next year (I think this year's evaluation is too close to the counseling), bring up these "deficiencies" and show how you've improved as evidence that you're a strong worker. Who knows, you might even get a raise out of it!