[MWC_LifeBeginsAt40]

A co-worker came to me today with a problem. I used to be her supervisor, until a new boss was hired for the whole dept, and now I'm more of a mentor to her, although I have been asked to mildly reprimand her on a couple of occasions when the boss was away. Her step dad is one of the owners and didn't want her to get special treatment, so I had to talk to her on a couple of occasions about some issues.

She is expecting a baby and will be taking one year maternity leave, and by law the company has to hold her job for her. She requested to come back on a part time basis and had first spoke to one of the owners. He said he would do what he can for her. but he went to our boss and our boss said no...that she was needed here full time and daily inquiries come up. That's a bunch of bull because I was in that profession for 15 years and there may be one week out of the year where you get "daily" requests for something and always something that can wait a day or two. Her job also covers several areas that are unrelated to each other, and it could easily be split into two part time jobs.

She is very upset and was told that if she came back part time, they would find something else for her to do (usually means filing). There is another lady in the office who is always looking for more work to do (also works part time) and would be perfect for the two of them to share duties, and she has experience in the field.

I have a close working relationship with our boss, and we have shared the occasional conversation about this employee having daddy as an owner, and she has made mistakes in her job, but does a good job most of the time, works hard, and pumps out alot of work - more than most workers. The boss thinks she is spoiled and has a bad attitude. I know for a fact that she dislikes him - both of them come to me and I feel caught in the middle alot. He is my boss so I do suck up on occasion, but she would never do that.

I told her I would talk to him and suggested she write a memo explaining that she really wants this and wants to keep her job. She has taken courses to do her job better.

I also have an issue with the person who will be replacing her for a year. I assumed I would be involved in the decision process, and offered some good suggestions. Today when she came to me, I found out that they gave it to a guy in our dept with no experience in the most important area of her position!! They didn't even tell her! This guy came to her and told her that she will be training him!

I have had to train and work with this guy in the past, and he is slow and dumb!! I just know I'm going to be covering alot of his stuff just so it doesn't get screwed up. I want to talk to my boss and express my disappointment in his decision.

I don't know what my question for all of you is,...what do you think I should do? I want to help this girl out, and I don't want this guy to have her job (prob too late for that!). He doesn't even want her job as a full time job when she comes back - even if it's available!

Any insights? Anyone?

[HokeyReligions]

I don't know that I would express disappointment in your boss's decision, but you might want to bring up some of your concerns based on your knowledge of this guy's past performance. Keep detailed records of any time you have to cover for him and why, and how it impacted your own job duties. If it becomes frequent or habitual, talk to your boss and ask him to speak to this guy about it.

As for the other girl - I dunno. Doesn't sound like you were in the loop in their decision making process. They may have legitimate reasons for doing it the way they are, but they are not going to share those reasons with anyone else. They may have some legal HR rules that don't allow part-time work for her position. A whole year off huh? wow! I had the week of birth and two weeks after---two weeks being vacation and only one week being classified as "maternity" leave.

[quankanne]

has she considered writing up a proposal outlining how her working part-time can benefit the company?

based on what you've written, her talents could very much be utilized with the PT position, but it doesn't sound as if the decision makers are aware of that.

encourage her to write up the proposal, and do so in a way that it'd be hard put for them to turn down such a good idea, especially if she can maximize the kind of work production/effectiveness that would be of an advantage to the company.

heck, she might even be able to factor in the woman you spoke of her sharing duties with AND "mentoring" the guy they hired to fill in for her, thus making her indisposable in their eyes ....

[MWC_LifeBeginsAt40]

all good suggestions thank you. One reason I'm worried about going to the boss is, in the past I have spouted off about some issues and they had to hold a meeting to figure out how to keep me happy (I got what I wanted and deserved nonetheless). But most of those issues ended up benefiting the whole office, which was my reasoning behind bringing them up.

So maybe this is one of those times they're just waiting to see if I let off some steam, I dunno. I will help her out with her proposal as I have a feeling she will be able to do this. The owners/boss have a whole year to think about it. I think the boss just isn't getting any you-know-what from his wife!

And I won't go to the boss right away - I'll wait until he decides to tell me about the decision to replace her with "Bob". Then I will keep track of his screw-ups!

thanks.