View Full Version : crisis management style, can I affect it?
Hi all, I am actually going to attempt to keep this short. I have been asking about some new job positions coming up for next school year for at least a month. I have been told that it will be coming, and I have a job so don't worry. So I got a call today from my former supervisor and she said the job is posted and they are starting/doing interviews thursday. Okay notified on tuesday at 4 (did I mention this is the first week of summer camp, I have 75 kids and it has taken 3 days to figure out the laptop cart so they actually charge, ever try to teach a 5 year old to hit CTR-ALT-DEL) for interviews on thursday. And I have an okay resume but I can't find the really awesome one for a variety of reasons, mostly I am stressed beyond the max and my brain is not functioning and the one DR appointment concerning my brain i have to cancel. Why?because of the last minute, crisis based, way we are running things.
My former sup also sent an email on the LAST DAY of school wanting our registration numbers by 11, no being late. Umm, we are supposed to start at 930 and we had sites to totally box up and check out plus payroll clocks to download and make adjustments as needed. I went back and saw how many times this has happened, I have enough last minute crisis in my personal life. I am not willing to do the same thing for work that has no reason to be a crisis. Not for registration numbers that are needed a couple times a month, not for a job I have been asking about for a month. I am telling my kid to leave me alone, again, so I can handle this outside of regular hours.
So do I say anything, who do I say it to, and now I am going to meditate since that helped me see the core issue of why I got agitated.
Okay, I vented out and called my trusted work friend. I also meditated to get to the core of the issue. The core for me is that I am not willing to continue to work under crisis management, I save that for when a child is injured or when a staff has an emergency
I called and left a message for my supervisor saying thank you for the call. I also said that since I was in the middle of camp and preparing for a full day, water park field trip tomorrow I did not feel I could do my best quality work with such short notice. I said I still was very interested in the job and I would email my latest resume but could not get an effective cover letter done that quickly. I think I was nice and not agitated, but this supervisor knows I will say what i need to say straight to her (and that means no gossip around the building). We will see
Good luck on this, please update when you can!
I would proceed with caution here. I know you are interested in this position for a variety of reasons, but do you REALLY want to be working under this person? In addition to being disorganized, it seems there may be other things going on. For example, this is the position you know was posted weeks ago, correct? Why did she just tell you now that it is up, and that they are going into interviews? If she really wanted you in that position, wouldn't she have been keeping you in the loop all along? SOunds to me like a situation where they had a public notice, hoped they'd find someone "better" than the internal candidates, maybe didn't, so now they are going to dip into the internal pool. BUt whatever the situation, this management style clearly doesn't work for you and is NOT setting you up for success. Do you really want to choose that option when you have others available. If this were an outside position I'd say go ahead and apply without reservation, since you have nothing to lose by trying. But here you have to consider the internal politics/emotional fallout.
Anyway, I think you handled it just right. MOdel the kind of behavior you hope to see from her, set good boundaries. If you end up interviewing and if you end up taking the job, one approach would be to focus on the poor management skills and lack of attention to detail by asking for HER help with YOUR struggles in this area and work on developing good systems that will benefit everyone. Might be less threatening to her that way. Present it as "gee, I really struggle when I get last minute requests for information and I'm busy with the day to day work. Is there some way we can tweak the way we do things so that expectations are clear and we all have more advanced notice and can plan our time better?" She's probably not going to change much, but if you can at least institutionalize some parts of what you do so that the system controls her everyone might benefit.
Good luck whatever happens. I do realize how important a higher-paying position is for you, and understand that is partly why you are interested in this. But if you end up spending the difference in psych copays and meds that isn't going to put you ahead in the long run.
lhamo
Thank you, it has been a test of my assertiveness and I am feeling good about how I am handling it. And this really isn't a higher paying position but since I have not yet been assigned anything for next I need to go through this process. I was really hoping to just be placed on the KC side and be done with it but they have fewer positions so they are filled, I have been assured many times I have a job but I do not trust that I won't fall through the cracks. More simply put, I need to do this to just have a job and I can ask for what I want (a site she does not supervise) but so far I have not had any of my requests fulfilled. So the great moment of asking for what I wanted, poof. Plus they keep moving this superrvisor so who knows? (PS it probably does not pay more)
I went to the main office today after our field trip (which was awesome) and I saw the grants manager. I talked to her a few minutes and she commented that I was angry, yeah I am. She told me that I was supposed to know about jobs that I didn't. In fact the school I wanted to interview for in that change last year I can now interview for now. Go figure. She had emailed me for an interview time at 1 pm and called my old phone number, however I was at a water park with 75 kids. My phone number she had was the phone I turned in for the summer and I left a message with my new number. She made a comment about how if people want the job they will make the interview times, well no. I already have this job and I will just be moving and have slightly more duties, plus I am working for another area of the department. Summer camp is a huge business. I think maybe we should respect that I am doing a job for them and that is why I can't be there at those times.
So she told me to contact the supervisor I have had for an interview time. I didn't want to see her in person (for her own safety) and i was already late for something so I was going to email tonight. Before that the grants manager called me and offered me an interview time tomorrow after camp. I warned her I would not be dressed up and thanked her. It seems one small part of making things right by making sure I get an interview.
Zoe Girl, it sounds like your approach is quite reasonable and respectful of all concerned. Good luck in your decision!
I will, however, second lhamo's advice. One of the main reasons I burned out on my former job was that upper management constantly was manufacturing crises, in part from their inability to say 'no' to unrealistic deadlines and in part to making ridiculous assumptions. Okay, every job gets crazy busy once in a while, but creating crises out of insecurity and ignorance ... It was very hard to observe that set of managers and up and think any other job with them would be better. Be careful about where you land -- and about your ability to "change" that management style.
How did it go today Zoe Girl? You were on my mind and I was sending out positive thoughts for a good interview!
Thanks all, quickly it was a very good interview. I knew everyone at the table, and was able to answer everything well. The only questionable question was about budgets and I answered based on a volunteer treasurer job. meanwhile the supervisor on the KC side came to look at camp and found out some of the crap and told me she hopes the other side does not take me because she really wants me. She is a bit of a goof however I can work with her.
I am trying my best to keep up outside resumes, if i can't then I will just document all my experience with this coming year and move into better paying pastures. Lhamo knows how long and hard it has been to just earn a basic living, really getting old,
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