October is my crunch month, the busy month at my place of employment, when we have concurrent fundraisers so we can keep the doors open the rest of the year. Last week, I submitted a draft of a schedule for the month, but it still hasn't been approved my management. For some reason, the Powers that Be have decided to limit the part-timers to a cap of nine-hundred hours for the year. I have four part-timers in my department, so I can foresee some bad decisions being made for us, decisions which will negatively impact our functioning. So far, I have had to cover two sites for two nights in a row due to staffing limits.
I spoke to my immediate supervisor about this, and he is trying to make things work within the parameters set by the mucky-mucks. He's a good guy, but this is his first Fall with the organization, so he is still learning the ropes and feeling his way through management. His suggestion was 'calling a meeting' for everyone in my department (he himself is juggling several departments), but I think that tomorrow I will try to get him to commit to a certain amount of hours per employee so I can coordinate with everyone in order to allocate shifts. Personally, I only need two days off this month (both SSC nights), and have already joked about setting up a cot onsite somewhere.
Needless to say, morale is bad. Even our contractors are picking up on this- I had a long conversation with one guy I have know for years and mentioned a grumpy vibe. To compound matters, one employee who was universally beloved by the rank-and-file, including myself, was fired for snapping at a vendor when said vendor broke a piece of equipment that was crucial to his job. Even worse, one of our contractors wanted to hire him, but was told that that would be unacceptable under any circumstances.
So... the 'spider sense' is tingling, telling me that the coming month is going to be an unpleasant slog. I am probably going to have to pull an ad hoc schedule out of my ass, and justify my decisions after the fact. The way I see it, I have to be willing to force the staffing issue in the face of institutional paralysis. I've been with the organization for over ten years now, and I feel that I have a reputation for level-headedness and a sincere, though not sycophantic, dedication to the organization. To paraphrase 1980s-era local band Dancing Hoods, I've got a reputation and it's giving me the hoops of fire:
I must jump through, when I've got a reputation, you know.
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2 comments:
My sympathies and support. It's very stressful to know you have to cut hours while maintaining activity. And up-the-chain seems to always behave as if everyone knows how to do that, so why don't you?-while not providing any sort of guidance as to what they want, except hours cut. I recall when it happened to me in the court system, way back when that was what was being attacked by KS's nutty legislature. It did work out, with fingers being pointed but not at me, so I hope this works out well for you. And that you get to get enough rest while it's ongoing.
Thanks for the support. I'll be fine, but I'm concerned about my subordinates, all part-timers. Tonight, I'm going to tell my immediate supervisor that I am going to stick my neck out and make some 'executive decisions' for the coming week. If I can get through the short-term, it will buy me time to work on the rest of the months- I just need the parameters that constrain the department.
Morale is terrible, one of our long-time part-timers quit because of the firing of our mutual friend.
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