Conflicting orders from boss

Penn

can someone tell me if I'm being unreasonable?

I'm writing up a report at work. Its only the third one I've done, the last of which was 5 months ago. I'm about halfway through when my boss wants to see what I've done so far, so I bring it up to him. He points out loads of faults etc, which I knew would happen anyway, due to my inexperience and the fact these reports are very difficult to compile.

He says I should spend a bit more time reading the books we have in the library, researching the different points, in order to be sure about what I'm saying, and get terminology right etc. Hands me several books, tells me not to get bogged down in them, but that I'll learn better this way. Tells me to ring manufacturers, ask them about the products in the report, ask their opinion etc.

This is all fine with me. My problem is, he then starts saying that we need to get this report done soon, cos theres more projects to be done. I shouldn't spend too much time reading the books, but do read them. He said the first few times he did reports like this, it took him and my other boss maybe a week to get right. Yet he's coming to me after I've been on it less than a day looking for a draft. Saying that if I don't know something, to leave it and we'll go through it later, but then why give me the books? Surely the books are to allow me to find the answer, but he's saying if I don't know, I should just leave it til later.

I understand about me taking more time to research and think more about what I'm doing.

I understand that we need to get this done soon because there are other projects waiting to be done.

Surely these things are in direct conflict with each other? You can't have both. I can do it right. It takes longer but I learn more and perhaps this will make me quicker at later projects. Or I can do it quickly. Half of it will be wrong and will require him explaining to me. I'll probably learn less this way.

But seriously, am I being out of order? I kinda tried hinting to my boss that I was having difficulties but he didn't really notice. I'm kind of afraid to say something because with the amount of people who can do what I can do who are currently unemployed, probably more experienced, and will pretty much work for peanuts, I'm kind of afraid to say anything.

daigo75

Yes, it sounds conflicting, but it's a "song" everybody heard, at least once: I want it right, I want it now. :rolleyes:

If you like the job, and you'd like to increase your knowledge and get experience, I could suggest you to take some of these books home and study them there. This "extra work" is something that I had to do in almost every place I worked (I work in IT), where technology is so various and evolves so fast that it wouldn't be possible to give people training during working hours only, or they would spend 120% of their working time learning new stuff.

I admit that it was not always pleasant to spend part of my evenings on the books, or "playing" with servers, databases and development tools, instead of relaxing, but at the end it paid out, as now I can choose what to work on, since I have a broad knowledge.

As you stated, you don't have a lot of experience on that job (yet), so your boss is asking "the impossible". Once you'll acquire the proper skills, the "impossible" will become "difficult", then "not so difficult", then "easy". In most cases, you'll also be able to mitigate the requests by explaining why something can or can't be done, and make your life easier.

I understand that not everybody would like to sacrifice their own (unpaid) time, but it can really help you out in the long (or even medium) term. Therefore, if you like your job, I'd encourage you to do some extra effort and you'll be rewarded.

InReality

my advice would be to belt into it.
There probably isn't a perfect way to do the report or balance the 2 demands.
Don't be afraid of asking your boss questions - from your desc he seems reasonable.Just don't ask the same questions over and over.

Ellechim

You've got some really good advice here.

In terms of doing these things here's my advice:

create a structure - you can work from there to fill in the gaps

Draft the bits you do know and make sure they are as good as you can make them

take home relevant articles/books and swot up on them and then draft the other bits.

Agree with your boss a timescale: get him to agree to the structure and then agree when he wants to see each bit and what is the final date he wants to publish/finalise the report. Get time in his diary to review as you go along to make sure you're going the right direction.

Say to him, I don't want to waste any time on this making mistakes, I do have to learn so perhaps this approach might be the most time efficient and I can learn from you.

Every time you show him something or if you're stuck on something have options or potential solutions for him: he is more experienced but he will really appreciate you putting in the thought. Handle all of these conversations with a smile: if you go in to him in a panic all stressed you will destroy any confidence he has in you, you are learning and he knows that so don't get uptight about any of it.

One other hting, I'm sure your boss is busy, is there anyone else in the department who might be able to help you?

The other thing to say is, and I say this with 20 years experience - try not to blow this out of proportion. It is a report, in your career you will probably write lots, and once you get over this one it will be much easier - in five years time will this matter? No, so just get on with it. Come up with a strategy for tackling it, break it into steps and get going.

Your boss sounds reasonable to me - time is money after all.

Good luck.

Thoie

It sounds conflicting, but doesn't surprise me.

Look at it from an alternative angle. He's under pressure to get this done. He's probably aware that he could do it faster himself, but is trying to do the right thing by letting you do it. He also knows you're inexperienced, so is trying to keep an eye on the progress of the report, rather than finding out on the due date that it's full of holes.

When I'm doing up drafts like that I stick to a few rules:

1. Don't worry about the formatting - you can do the highlighting and the tidying later.
2. If you don't have the information to hand, but know where to get it, stick that in. So you'll have something like "Section 3: Legal YYY Get bit about legal thingy from that book or ask Mr Murphy YYY". The YYY thing is just a personal habit so I can easily find the bits I want to get back to - important in a really long document. A quick Find picks them all up so you don't leave any of them in.
3. Ask for previous similar reports so that you can copy and paste bits. Many reports will have similar structures, eg starting with company background info or something. There's no need to reinvent the wheel. Judicious copy and pasting is always good - just make sure what you're copying is relevant.
4. As already pointed out, having a structure planned will help. This should be a 10-15 minute task - don't spend the entire day planning how the document will look when you finally get around to writing it.
5. Save multiple copies so that if something goes horribly wrong you don't have to start from scratch. Before doing any major additions/subtractions File, Save As filename_v1, filename_v2 etc.
6. Keep them on a shared drive somewhere so your boss can pop in and out of them whenever he likes - presuming it's in Word, as him to turn on Highlight Changes so that you can see any changes he's suggesting easily.