Clique in work

JakeArmitage

I feel very stressed about work lately, I feel like there a massive clique type environment where some people get preferable treatment and others and others get treated like crap. For example at our morning meeting there was a deviation for a mistake that someone who was on holidays was the fault off, however they decided amougst themselves that I was the chosen one to raise and investigate the matter even though I was on nights and wasn't even there , I find this unaccepetable especially since 1. It had nothing to do with me 2. it was my last night and I wouldn't be back in until Saturday, 3. since I wouldn't be back in on a normal business day for a few weeks I would have zero support to work on something that had nothing to do with me, how do you think I should deal with this matter

beauf

Tell them you'll do it when your back in normal business day.

Irish_Elect_Eng

JakeArmitage wrote: »

I feel very stressed about work lately, I feel like there a massive clique type environment where some people get preferable treatment and others and others get treated like crap.

People form groups in every work environment, it's a fact of life, just the same as not everyone is treated the same, there can be a thousand reasons for these behaviors, most of the time it is pretty benign, sometimes not. But as with all challenges, while what others do is largely out of our control, it is fully within our control how we react to our experiences.

JakeArmitage wrote: »

For example at our morning meeting there was a deviation for a mistake that someone who was on holidays was the fault off, however they decided amougst themselves that I was the chosen one to raise and investigate the matter even though I was on nights and wasn't even there , I find this unaccepetable especially since 1. It had nothing to do with me 2. it was my last night and I wouldn't be back in until Saturday, 3. since I wouldn't be back in on a normal business day for a few weeks I would have zero support to work on something that had nothing to do with me, how do you think I should deal with this matter

The example that you have given does not appear to be very negative based on the limited information that you have provided. It is a fact of life in business that actions often get assigned to those not at the meeting where the action was discussed, not a best practice :-) but so very common. I have seen this done at every level, from S&S committee to Operations reviews where a VP laughed and said, "if he did not want the action he should have been here" about someone that was actually on a different continent at the time.

Your reaction has one point that I want to address "a deviation for a mistake that someone who was on holidays was the fault off" When assigned a task, that is within the normal expectation for your role, never say it's not my job, that is not a picture that you want to paint of your contribution to the business. I know that these sort of investigations can be a PITA to complete, but there are a lot of opportunities to demonstrate your capabilities in closing out on these tasks. They provide an opportunity to complete continuous improvements and can lead on to changes that look very well at your annual review. The person that nails the PITA investigations looks more competent than those that avoid these assignments.

In you OP you were not specific in who actually assigned the task. If it was your manager/supervisor then hopefully they took into account your shift etc when assigning the task. If it was a colleague at the same level and being assigned work in this way is disruptive to other work that you need to do, then have a work with your manager / supervisor about this method of assigning work and ask for it to be changed. But if you do this please focus on the process of assigning the work, the process of determining who is best place to do the work, the process of determining who has the bandwidth to execute the work in a timely manner. Do not focus on the individual assignment, to avoid the perception that you are whining or are avoiding assigned work.

" Boss, I have been thinking about a potential opportunity to improve how we operate our deviation process. Can we review how investigations are assigned at the deviation meeting, to ensure that the investigations are assigned to the resource in a position to execute on the investigation in a timely and effective manner. I would suggest a risk based approach, with the most urgent investigations to be conducted by a tiger team meeting immediately, medium priority investigations to be assigned based on SME expertise on the primary shift (day) and non-urgent investigations to be assigned to employees on non core shifts (evening/night). These assignments should take into account each employees currently assigned workload to ensure that the assigned resource has the time to close out on the investigation in a timely manner. If you would like to take this further I could pull together a few stakeholder and red-line (create) the procedure for you to review."

As a manager, that is the approach that would grab my attention. Come to me with a potential solution and I am listening, even if I was not aware of the problem to begin with.

Best of Luck.

beauf

I'm all for being the guy that gets things done.

But you don't want to be the only guy that that has to take a hit for the team in doing the jobs no one else wants to do.

I suspect that's what the OP feels is happening. Or could be starting.

Irish_Elect_Eng

beauf wrote: »

I'm all for being the guy that gets things done.

But you don't want to be the only guy that that has to take a hit for the team in doing the jobs no one else wants to do.

I suspect that's what the OP feels is happening. Or could be starting.

I agree that it is possible what is happening.

My point still stands, that the way to ensure that things change is to make sure that there is a systematic method of assigning the work. Complaining about a clique, in particular if they are effective or have tenure could be perceived as negative, crating or fixing the underlying process would be seen as positive. With the benefit to the OP of resolving his issues, with an effective process in place, favoritism in assigning tasks or cherry picking of work would be minimized or easily highlighted.

beauf

It's sounds like it's the manager who is driving the current process.

Irish_Elect_Eng

beauf wrote: »

It's sounds like it's the manager who is driving the current process.

I am not sure, the OP seemed a little odd to me in so much that neither a manager or supervisor was mentioned and I took it that the OP was complaining that the task had been assigned by a group of peers, but I am only guessing as that information was not included in the OP.

OP, a little more information would elicit a more informed response. How are tasks normally assigned, was this unusual and what role doe your supervisor/manager play in the process?

beauf

.. or the lack of management in that case. Regardless, it seems odd to me that seemingly least suitable person is assigned the task. Which suggests its not something to rush into, or be closely associated, until you have more information.