Sticky miscommunication situation

[youdunsay]

For the past three months to present, I have been sending reports to a senior for editing because I'm still not very good and I'm still covered within probation period. She lectured me (quiet sarcastically) yesterday for some presentation mistakes which were entirely my fault.

 

We had a serious miscommunication problem today. Because the report has a general cut-off time and that I was worried that I pass the time, I filed my report a few minutes right before the cut-off hour in which we need to concentrate working on a live-testing system. She edited my version, send it to me and realized that I have had filed on my own. I explained to her that I have informed the end-editing group (we have many editing points) to put on hold while I wait for her to send to me her edited version so that I could overwrite it. There bam. She was totally furious, screaming over (at me only) via our communicator channel.

 

I admitted it was my fault partly (and I have apologized thousand times over the communicator - to think of it I have never typed so many 'sorry's before in my life) because we were running out of time and partly because I thought she was pissed off yesterday that she wouldn't want to edit my report today. She got totally defensive and uptight, saying that if I believed my report was that great I shouldn't be bothered asking her. Though, I have to say I can sense that she's partly testing for my reaction when she shouted in the communicator.

 

So there, what would you react going forward? I have to say I am a pretty straight-faced person so I am not good at judging emotions, let alone showing out. Should I dissemble more expressions of "I'm sorry" look tomorrow when I see her?

[d0nnivain]

Stop with the apologizing. Fix what ever the problem is. Tell her it's fixed & assure it won't happen again

 

 

She wants results not words.

[youdunsay]

I see. okay....anything else?

[GemmaUK]

I don't think you need to apologise again - or maybe just once if it's a face to face thing.

 

 

It's not clear what kind of things she is checking and editing for you though.

 

 

Is it spelling/layout/facts?

 

 

Do you think you could start having a go yourself and leave her out of the equation?

One thing I have learned is that I learn much faster by making a very visible mess up than I do if someone else is checking my work.

 

 

To scream at you for sending in a not yet checked version sounds unprofessional to me. It sounds from what you said that it was 'on hold' as it were.

[youdunsay]

I guess I am still lacking at joining facts in my report to make it logical and presentable, as well as being creative. And yes I do feel that she didn't really explain what I was lacking or the blindspots that I was missing in most days unless she's running out of time and she's pissed. In all fairness, she did asked me to read through the past reports and her edited versions. I have agree that working should be a self-learning process and nobody is obliged to teach you what to do.

 

It was 'on hold'. I was chatting with one of the guys in end-editing group to put on hold since I passed the time.

 

Yes, I am contemplating to start on my own after next week so that I can learn and know exactly what is expected of me from the end-editing group. That is, to get the end-editing group chase and scream at me instead. What do you think? And how should I raise that to the senior?

Edited February 28, 2015 by youdunsay
Adding more comments

[GemmaUK]

I would suggest sit her down and speak to her about it briefly first and then book a decent amount of time with her.

Before that second meeting though do some back ground work and see what changes she has made in the past. Write yourself some notes.

 

 

When you see her the second time make sure you have a decent amount of time so that you can show you are serious but also go over all of her edits and what your interpretation is of why she edited things. This way she can then see your interpretation but explain why she did it if it was for a different reason than you thought.

A rushed edit with a deadline is sometimes not always clearly explained and for you to learn and build knowledge upon edits you need to absolutely understand them.

Also, if you just don't understand any edits when you are looking back over them highlight them and ask what the reason was.

 

 

I can be useless at a task unless I know all of the reasons behind it - simply because it means nothing to me or because I only know half of the story.

 

 

I think if you can find out the nuts and bolts of why you will start to understand it.

 

 

Once you understand all of that then you will take more care but also will feel more confident about your reports - so the edit crew screaming at you will be part of the job and it'll happen less and less as time goes on.

[youdunsay]

When you see her the second time make sure you have a decent amount of time so that you can show you are serious but also go over all of her edits and what your interpretation is of why she edited things. This way she can then see your interpretation but explain why she did it if it was for a different reason than you thought.

 

Thank Gemma. After the first day lecture, I did reply to her edits on the areas I believe I was possibly wrong in the report after I compared my report to hers and asking her if she agrees. But she didn't reply.

 

One thing for sure her ego doesn't allow someone who is way younger and joined only for three months to communicate objectively with her as though there are no hierarchies between us.

[GemmaUK]

Thank Gemma. After the first day lecture, I did reply to her edits on the areas I believe I was possibly wrong in the report after I compared my report to hers and asking her if she agrees. But she didn't reply.

 

One thing for sure her ego doesn't allow someone who is way younger and joined only for three months to communicate objectively with her as though there are no hierarchies between us.

 

You should chase her up on it if she doesn't reply. If you need an answer from someone it's your responsibility to chase it if you don't receive a response.

I sent some info for checking to one of our directors a week and a half ago and asked him to get back to me by last Friday. I hadn't heard anything by the Thursday so I chased him on it. We have agreed a later deadline of tomorrow lunchtime. I will be at his desk first thing tomorrow to make sure he gets it to me on time for me to work on it.

 

 

Egos are out there in business but also different work styles. If she has been there a fair while you can pretty much rely that other folk there have learned her work style and have adapted to it.

We all have work styles which are in our nature and we all learn to adapt to each other.

More often than not all that is required is communication. It's so very simple!

 

 

Your colleague may well be like me and a planner. Time she has invested in guiding you she will expect that you have taken what she said in and she will be looking for you having applied what you have learned each time.

 

 

Being a planner myself I can give you an example of my last 12 months at work.

I work in finance for a company who runs training courses.

We had a new girl start work who was very quickly promoted to be a project manager. She was 22, fresh out of Uni.

About this time last year when her project really kicked off momentum I noticed some bookings on our database with no details in them. There was no charge to the customer, no costs, no trainer name.

All of these courses ran in March and we were 3 days away from closing our figures for month end.

There were over 2000 bookings with no details on them dating back to 12th March. What this actually meant was that no one knew whether they had run or not, no one knew what the costs to us were and also the customer would not be invoiced for any of it. We were set to lose £60K in revenue and £38K in profit for March.

I spotted these bookings with no details so I called her, explained fully that we needed all of the info on the system in the next 2 days and I helped her do it all too and was given extra access to our database to do so.

 

 

We got it all done between us.

She appeared to fully understand.

The following week we had a catch up call and I said I would help her out but that she needed to make sure that at the end of each week we had on our system full details of what we had delivered that week.

Over the next 6 months I basically had to project manage her as she never did apply anything. She left everything to the last moment or very often just didn't add sales to our system.

I asked her boss to explain things to her, he asked our finance director to explain things to her. She always listened and never acted upon any advice she was given.

Eventually she got demoted. We were receiving invoices in for £10K here and £5K there for training that was missing from our database - just completely missing.

In her lesser role she worked the same way. She got fired earlier this year.

 

 

This is an extreme example but 100% true.

 

 

Perhaps you could check in with your colleague at various stages to get her to check the first part so it's locked down and correct, the second, the third etc.

She will for one then know that you are communicating with her along the way and not leaving it until just before the deadline.

 

 

She needs to be able to trust you, she has guided you and if she is seeing the same kind of mistakes each time then you need to step up and apply what she has previously guided you on.

 

 

Forget her ego. You want to learn how to do this yourself. Show her that you can. Show her that you can communicate and that you can check in to let her know how things are going before the deadline.

If you do that she will then start taking you seriously.

[youdunsay]

Thanks Gemma. I wholeheartedly agree with you.

 

But unfortunately, she couldn't be bothered to explain her the parts that she have changed. I have never once send the report near the deadline. What she have changed were mostly rephrasing into her style. Today she picked on a mistake that I have made for a long time (it's a notification that I have not been sending out internally to our team since I started my orientation but have been sending out to end-users without fail). I think I am blacklisted.

Edited March 2, 2015 by youdunsay
adding more comments

[GemmaUK]

In that case you need to go and have a confidential chat with HR about it all.

 

 

Don't forget also that if you wish to you can extend your probationary period.

I extended my probationary period by a month at once place I worked whilst I decided whether I wanted to stay or not.