doormat at work?

am i a doormat

I am in my job over 2 year and am permanent. An office like any other.

While I'm not a supervisor or anything I usually train new hires & temps as I learned the systems myself quickly. My appraisals are not amazing but they're a little above average I'd say and the supervisors often request me to join their teams to help. I wouldn't say I'm super popular but I get on with everyone and go for drinks and for lunches with them.

A job that must be done everyday is scanning post and then organising it on the system so others can review it. Sorta like insurance correspondence, queries from customers, claim forms and things like that. And every few months this has to be packed into boxes and archived.

I am always assigned to this job! I haven't done any internal interviews but I have pushed myself forward for other roles in the department but keep getting told I'm a great worker, so valuable and they need me here. Others have ran it and made a mess and claims got delayed and documents went missing. One lazy guy even got fired for not scanning the post and hiding it to do later. 7 cheques also went missing when I was on holidays, I would never ever allow that to happen as I'm super organised

4 temps started before Christmas and I trained them in the area of answering client questions and how to look up information on the systems. Yesterday they all got made permanent and I'm happy for them, I really am. I was in the corner scanning a 170 page document, struggling with paper jams in the scanner and wondering what am I doing wrong?? To stamp 170 pages is not learning anything

Before Christmas I had a meeting with my supervisor and I listed a training plan and the areas I want to learn and who I can learn from and it was agreed on. The next week the manager moved me back to scanning post and handling the documents.

My motivation has nose dived and I've started to come in late, I pulled a sickie early in January and I arrive into work dressed like a bit of a slob. I also stand back in meetings barely listening when once I was engaged and writing procedures and making presentations and helping everyone.

I have another meeting with my supervisor today to discuss my goals. I can think of 4 occasions when I pushed myself forward and agreed goals with a supervisor and got pushed back onto scanning post later by the managers.

My friends in work say I'm looking fed up and ask if I'm ok showing concern. One told me I was a doormat for letting this happen. She is succusful and got promoted twice in two years so I think she would know more than me. Am I a doormat?

Atlantic Dawn

The scanning may be given as a positon of trust that they don't want to risk anyone else doung it.

minidazzler

By being diligent you've boxed yourself in. It's boring monotonous work so people get lazy about it and took up. Since you don't they've find a niche where you are the only one diligent enough to do it. Explain to your supervisor that it's low level work and you're not being utilised efficiently as you're ready for something with a bit of a challenge and newness to it.

Rubberchikken

your ability to be responsible and reliable has meant it's easy for them to keep you in that position as they just know you'll do it right.

good for the company but not fair on a person who sounds capable of lots more.

is there someone above your supervisor you could chat with?

Goldenlady

OP I could have written this a few years back. I had to leave the company as I knew I would never get any further., Was told I was too valuable in my role! Ive moved on, doubled my salary etc... yes its daunting initially, but move on and start your new job as you mean to go on. I set down ground rules from day 1 and continue to do that. best of luck

BabysCoffee

Could you offer to train other staff at the scanning job?

LegacyUser

minidazzler wrote: »

By being diligent you've boxed yourself in.

Think this pretty much sums it up OP. Im in a similar position myself. I was the new person and all the lowly crap jobs got thrown at me, as I was new I just grinned and bore it. Until 2 years later they hired more newbies, and the crap jobs were still being thrown at me and all the interesting stuff given to them.These days I'm far less accommodating, before I felt I had to do said jobs, now I just say sorry I'm busy doing x is there anyone else free? (I'm Also looking for new employment as it's clear I'm completely being taken for granted)

I presume the scanning is only part of your role, is there any way you could claim to be too busy to do the scanning every now and again? Let someone else do it. The only reason it keeps being passed back to you is because they know no one else has the patience to do it.

I think like me OP it may be time to start looking for a new job. like the previous poster, in my job I know I'll never get any further in this company. To be honest, and I get a hint of this from your own post OP, I get the impression I'm purposely being kept down and deliberately being made to question my abilities, so that i won't have the confidence to leave for another role, as they know damn well they'd never find anyone willing to take on such menial jobs.

am i a doormat

OP here, can I bump this to close it off? Hope so

I put in an application in work for "job shadowing" which means you spend a half day with another team. There is a team nearby that do interesting work so I applied for that. I copied m my manager by email but never heard anything back from HR, so be it

Got called to meeting by my manager a few days later, was told he was happy to see me pushing myself forward and actually they had an opportunity open on another team. It's mainly reporting and handling payments for insurance claims which is a welcome break from scanning post. I'm going to learn lots and lots!

I'm moving next week and people seem happy for me.

I was asked to archive a years worth of post folders before I go by my supervisor and I insisted I would not and I had done this every time since 2012 and others need to do it. I found it very hard to be assertive, must work on that.

Thanks all for the replies, the thread can die so

DoYouEvenLift

Get one of the newly permanent employees or temps to do it, teach them well as well so they don't make any mistakes that fall back on you and next time your supervisor asks you to do it tell them that "actually, *name of new employee* knows how to do the scanning now as I've trained them to, so from here on can you please tell them" - this shows you taking initiative and frees you up. If they take issue with this then explain the conversation you mentioned where you agreed to not do the scanning anymore and how you want new challenges and to be better utilised. As a last resort you could include how you've began lacking job satisfaction because of these points and you'd really like to progress. If your supervisor doesn't appreciate this then they are <SNIP> idiots who can't recognise someone whose genuinely looking to improve themselves and productivity during work.


Edit: strong bump lol

dixiefly

am i a doormat wrote: »

OP here, can I bump this to close it off? Hope so

I put in an application in work for "job shadowing" which means you spend a half day with another team. There is a team nearby that do interesting work so I applied for that. I copied m my manager by email but never heard anything back from HR, so be it

Got called to meeting by my manager a few days later, was told he was happy to see me pushing myself forward and actually they had an opportunity open on another team. It's mainly reporting and handling payments for insurance claims which is a welcome break from scanning post. I'm going to learn lots and lots!

I'm moving next week and people seem happy for me.

I was asked to archive a years worth of post folders before I go by my supervisor and I insisted I would not and I had done this every time since 2012 and others need to do it. I found it very hard to be assertive, must work on that.

Thanks all for the replies, the thread can die so

Well done in being more assertive with your supervisor and best of luck in th new position.