one step to moving forward, moving on

[Zoe Girl]

So baby step here, I emailed the Colorado mediators group about joining. I wanted to check in and see if they thought I could make some contacts to do additional volunteer hours as a co-mediator and work towards being able to do this independently. I remembered to tell them about my expertise in educational mediation based on my work and masters degree. I would love to do special needs, truancy, etc. type work.

Meanwhile the tone and culture of our department has taken a nose dive frankly. A colleague is most likely getting fired, if they don't then she is moving on. The damage has been done. Of course I don't know the whole story and maybe it needs to happen. I am getting heavily monitored and keeping notes on everything I do, deadlines, documentation to justify spending and staffing, just everything. They do mid-year anonymous surveys and I am going to be very honest. Last time it was this bad my supervisor at the time got horrible reviews and was sent to manager training. I am just concerned about asking for some flexibility within my 60 hours on call in order to do outside mediation. Need to be extremely careful.

[iris lilies]

What does "asking for some flexibility within my 60 hours oncall" actually mean?

If you are oncall, doesnt that mean you have to show up if called? If you cant show up, who would be showing up in your place? What are your exact expectations about " flexibility?" Those would be my questions were you my employee.

I would be very, very careful about risking your full time gig for something like mediation work which seems to be a vague plan for you. Because you seem so upset and overwhelmed by corrective action on your performance, I think you are asking for trouble. I doubt that your job is in jeopardy because you are pretty good at what you do and and your employer has a lot of turnover, so you would be hard to replace. But not impossible!

From your writing I cant tell who is "keeping notes on everything I do--deadlines, documentation..." if that note keeping is you or your supervisor, but so what?If you are expected to imorove in a specific area, someone is going to have to monitor that and that means documentation. You plan to complain in an "anonymous survey" because you, or someone, has to do tedious work to monitor your doesnt-meet-standard performsnce? Sounds petty to me.

[bae]

The whole work environment you describe seems toxic.

[JaneV2.0]

The whole work environment you describe seems toxic.

That's been my take on it, too. You seem to be micromanaged and driven like a rented mule, only recently for a living wage. But as someone who just put her head down and soldiered on, I can hardly give advice. (Though my situation was a walk in the park in comparison...)

[Zoe Girl]

Iris, oh that is confusing. I am always on call for actual programming time. So that is 6:15 am - 8;15 am and 3:00 to 6:15 pm. I wake up at 5 so if a morning staff is sick then I have time to get ready for the day and be there before program starts. I am also at all the scheduled meetings, I don't think I missed any last year. I did however reschedule my dental appointments 2-3 times every time I needed to go so that I didn't miss anything. So my request is that between 8:30 and 3 that I be able to schedule things in my life that I need to schedule, without missing any meetings or deadlines. And that phone calls and emails are something I can answer in a reasonable time, outside of program time I think under 2 hours max. I just realize that being ready to jump any minute for 60 hours a week does stress me out. I do answer everything right away, all the time.

Keeping notes, that is for my records. I have talked to 2 people who were talked to about issues or had it in their review that they felt were not issues, such as returning emails and phone calls. The supervisor did not have any examples of the problem being a problem, however it still stands in their review or improvement plan. I don't know of any method you can dispute these things, and probably it is a bad idea.

And yes, I am making a living wage for the last couple years. Being poor also really sucks. Not always the case in my field to earn enough money. Rather than sit around and complain I want to keep moving forward and building skills.

[dado potato]

Zoe, your situation does sound stressful... and it sounds like you are managing to meet the challenge of "everything, right away, all the time". But am I correct in hearing a note of anxiety and insecurity? As in, "how long can I keep spinning all these plates on top of these long dowels"?
In my view it is commendable that you are building skills... no doubt "marketable skills" that will ultimately serve as your parachute in case you eject from your current job.
In addition to skill-building, your Plan B may also be to network! Zoe to get to know people who know people who are in the position to hire people to work for organizations that are the "best employers" in your field... "the employers of choice".