This is kind of a sad case of PD, it's so unnecessary... hopefully it can be resolved but I'm at the point where I don't really care anymore. We hired a new case manager in February, and the quality of her work is great, her clients seem satisfied. Unfortunately her standards are so high that she refuses to understand that other teams have different priorities, and that they can't drop everything and help her on a moment's notice. Every time she doesn't get the response she wants from somebody she becomes irate and frustrated. It's as if she sees herself as a lone island, the only person who cares about her clients, and that she has to fight for them... when in reality every single person here is focused on the same common goal.
I am only in the office 3 days per week, the other two days I'm available on phone if needed and also check my emails.
Every single week, at least once, I get a phone call from Linda complaining about something the customer service team have done, normally some kind of conversation she's had with them where she's unhappy with the outcome - we're talking about very routine, minor things, that aren't creating any extra work for anybody, just where she hasn't gotten her own way. I spend 30 minutes on the phone coaching her through the problem and calming her down. This would be slightly annoying. But it's also important to note that Linda
doesn't report to me - she has a very lovely manager of her own, Clare (who does report to me). I also don't manage the customer service team directly, they have a very lovely manager Emma (who does report to me). Yes, I have an open door policy, yes I encourage people to talk to me, and I love that they find me approachable. But running to a senior executive with
every tiny little concern? Yeah, I'm starting to feel like a primary school teacher. Yesterday it was that she went in and asked Abby for something, which happened to not be Abby's role. Emma jumped in and explained that it wasn't a question they could answer straight away as they needed to look into it (it was a request for a schedule change a few week's ahead of time - not something they can answer off the top of their heads, or even look up quickly, quite complex). Linda was not happy that Emma jumped in, and not happy that they can't give an answer right away. (Emma actually offered to look at it for her that day if she would give her the details, which I personally think was actually quite generous as it was not a high priority request and the workload is very high this week!) But no, Linda was Not Happy, and called me straight away to complain. At length.
I've been very understanding of Linda up until now, helping her understand procedures and the way things work, and reassuring her. But now I think it's getting ridiculous - stop calling me! Emma and Clare are going to sit down and see if they can work out a plan to help Linda settle down and ensure she feels her work is given enough priority, while getting her back in line. All the other case managers, including Clare, are happy with the customer service team. Yes there are occasional issues, but they understand the different priorities and that while they each may have a list of clients, the customer service team are dealing with 100s of clients, everyday!
(For the record, my staff overall are awesome, if there were a thread to rave about awesome staff, I'd post nearly everyday).
Topic: Professional Darwinism: Update to OP on p.74 (Read 4198188 times)