Struggling with change at work

[scarletnymph]

The past few weeks, the company I contract for has been introducing their plan to completely overhaul how we interact with customers and track our work and I've been going crazy over all these changes.

I have been largely been left alone for years ... allowed to come up with my own system for doing things ... and my system works. My work gets done, my customers love me (I'm often the only person at my company they'll deal with), and no one has to watch over me or even talk to me. I work from home and can go weeks without talking to anyone from my company.

Now they want to impose all these new rules and procedures on things, completely killing my system that I've been using and force me onto their system which is really designed for their Tech Services department. I'll have to do a bunch of new things that waste time and divide my focus mostly so they can keep track of every little thing I do. Things like they want me to keep a window to their task manager open on my computer while I work and put entries into it every time I start work on a task, go to the bathroom, take a break, switch to something else, etc. They want me to track stupid things like how long I spend researching things for people, how long it takes me to write emails, etc.

Its all part of some kind of AI based management thing that is supposed to absorb all of the data we put in and use that to tell us what to do and when to do it. In theory this is going to make our lives better because we wont have to think anymore I guess.

They are also controlling the way we categorize our tasks and their statuses, and their categories / statuses do not work with my way of doing things at all. I honestly don't know how I am going to fit what I do onto their system - and they just tell me I'm overthinking it.

I should note that I'm a contractor who works through them. So I don't get paid for any of this stuff they want me to do that wastes my time. I get paid a percentage of the contracts I bring in and complete - that's it.

This stuff actually slows me down - partially because it wastes time but also because it puts me in high anxiety mode as I try to force myself to adjust and my brain doesn't want too or doesn't know how. My obsessive nature is taking over and I have trouble working, sleeping, or even enjoying my time off because all I can think about is this stuff. It's also making me bitchy and short tempered - I almost told my boss to F!@K off when he told me to do something I didn't want to do yesterday.

I don't know what I'm going to do. I am thinking I may have to quit but I worry I wont be able to find a different job that will have the things I want ... to work from home and be left alone to do what I do without my employer trying to micromanage me or force me to do things 'their way' or participate with them socially.

I am also realizing I feel awful about having these issues. Obviously the other employees are being presented with the same system and they are adapting, some of them are even really happy about it because they've been struggling to manage their work and this will help them get their lives under control.

That is part of why my bosses are so difficult, they can't understand why I'm having a problem ... one actually told me to 'stop fighting it and just do things how we tell you and it will be fine' ... which, frankly, trips several PTSD rape related triggers in me, although I don't think he was trying to be rapey.

It still makes me feel broken or something. I feel like I'm a bad person because I'm struggling so hard to do what they want. I also wish I could just adapt easily for my own sake, I don't like feeling like this. I also don't like the prospect of having to do all this nonsense or having to find another job.

I'm also a little worried that if I do it, and I put in all my time and how I spend it that its just going to reveal how different I really am from everyone else there ... how I spend more time researching things because I want to be right, and I spend more time writing emails because I struggle to figure out how to express my thoughts or have to give customers tons of details (this is already a known issue my bosses complain about), or that I spend extra time on projects beyond what we bill for to make sure they are done right, etc. I worry I'm going to be 'found out' ... revealed as a 'fraud' ... as not as capable as they think I am or at least not being a good money making monkey for them. And I don't know what they are going to do when they see that ... try to micromanage me more and do more to try to 'help' me be a good employee?

Sorry to unload like this ... I don't really have anyone I can talk to about all this stuff ... no one I know understands. My girlfriend tries to understand but she can't really.

 

[Aspychata]

Really see what you are saying. You have everything under control with your system. Now you are being told relinquish your control. Because we are dummy downing the system for the others that can't do it. You obviously handle quite a lot of details, but many others can't do that, so hence the *system* being inserted.

You may have to get onboard or split. It's a decision you need to think about. Maybe try it out for a half year then plan accordingly. As a paralegal, l had to bill everything l did to somebody, but l had a little leeway.

So what you are discussing actually does happen. Do you want to open up your business? Sorry you feel so stressed right now. Please try some deep breathing, try to come from a less emotional place so that you can work on what your plan is to stay or move on.

 

[VictorR]

I'm sorry you have to deal with this.

Indeed it's often difficult for us for whom to others things may seem disorganized and chaotic, but where we know exactly where everything is and how everything fits together... in our world.

I'm in social work and several years ago management decided to implement scientific management techniques, a big one of which was the measuring of production. And similarly, there's timers that start when a client is assigned to you and runs until when you finish with them, and we have to fill out forms indicating when we're doing peripheral duties, such as mailing stuff out. It was a pain, and for most people, one of two things happened: production dropped due to extra requirements, or service quality dropped, as we'd get clients coming back asking for a different worker as the first one didn't adequately address their concerns. Another issue of course is that some clients come to get something signed off on, and those are super quick, done within the hour, whereas others come in with a half dozen issues not knowing where to start, and you may spend several weeks sorting things out with them. And guess what? Some colleagues, the moment they think that a client might be more time consuming, and if they have a vacation coming up will just sit on that file until they go on vacation, and all of a sudden, it's your problem, and now the records blame you for failing to serve the client in a timely manner, because you were the last one to touch their file. They still track things, but it's no longer part of the performance evaluation as management came to realize that quality of work was suffering, and at the end of the day, quality should always take precedence over quantity, especially when working with vulnerable people.

Back to your situation, I'm not really sure what to say. I think I would try my best to explain that I have a system that works, and as they can see, it has worked, and that while I respect their wishes to bring in a new system, that it will negatively impact your ability to deliver, which ultimately hurts them.

 

[Judge]

So sorry to hear. Painful to read, as it reminds me of two situations with two different employers that happened to me many years ago. If anything, when such things happen, it may be to your advantage to try to investigate why. If it's just some shift in strategy, that's one thing. Hard to gauge the degree of struggle in having to adapt accordingly.

However if such changes quietly involve a merger or sale of the company, you may find it more expeditious to plan leaving. When the change you are witnessing in real time usually amounts to just the "tip of the iceberg". Where your job- and life is turned upside down. When the best option may be to leave and seek a new position on your terms rather than theirs.

I've never done well with anyone person- or system micromanaging me. Just another employee and person on the spectrum who works best with the least amount of oversight possible.

 

[Amy Stone]

I am angry FOR you! I have been through this micromanagement crap. This is how corporations weed people out. Your best bet may be to find a job with a smaller company that cares more about the people and less about treating employees as cogs in a system. But don't jump ship yet. Stay on the down-low, do what they ask for now but start interviewing for other positions. Best of luck, Love!

Amy

 

[Aspychata]

Immediately like @Judge said, my brain in methodological mode says umm, why the change? Is this company losing money, being put up for sale, what's up folks? Plus the fact of what are the mouthpieces saying, what is the propaganda being spewed by management? Are they downsizing? So how little they say is a bad indicator. And the people not onboard maybe walked to the exit door. So it doesn't matter what you think about your skill set, just go do it. There has to be a grace period of learning the system, l am guessing a month to 2 months.

 

[Finder]

I certainly understand your frustration. However, you can't fight the system. Personally, I would adapt to their system and try to make it as efficient as you can. I would also start looking for other opportunities. Whether you adapt to this job or not, it is good to look for better places.

 

[Skittlebisquit]

I know what happened. Someone fresh out of school just doubled down to the higher ups, promising better numbers. Like higher sales or less "wasted" time, an efficiency expert type of dude made a bunch of promises, that you get to pay for.
Try and chillax on it. Wish you well.

 

[scarletnymph]

Thank you all for your comments. I appreciate you taking the time and telling me what you think.

Immediately like @Judge said, my brain in methodological mode says umm, why the change? Is this company losing money, being put up for sale, what's up folks?

For @Judge and @Aspychata's question ... I know what's going on. This company is 25 years old and most of that time we've only had a handful of people. When I started 10 years ago, there was almost no rules and we were all entirely independent. The owners themselves were working in the trenches with us and no one had any time to be management, even if they used those titles. Most employees were independent contractors, like me, more or less running our own business under their brand.

Then a few years ago they started trying to grow their business and more than doubled our staff in less than a year. They have been trying to treat them like the rest of us and its not working - the new people are making a mess and its hurting the overall brand. So, this major policy shift is an attempt to fix the problem and make these people productive.

This isn't the first time they've done something like this, they just usually leave people like me out of it. Why they are trying to force me to get on board is anyone's guess ... frankly, I think its because my goals and their goals have never been insync ... I wont do anything that seems deceitful to me and I care about the quality of my work and good customer relationships over making as much money as possible.

They haven't ever liked that - making a lot of money as a business person seems to be largely about deceiving customers or cheating them in some way to me. So far, we've mostly followed a strategy of 'they leave me alone and I leave them alone', although sometimes they have tried to push me to be more like them.

Which is a big part of why I think they are trying to force this system on me ... this whole things is about trying to make people who aren't doing what they want ... do what they want through micromanaging ... so I think their hope is that if they can get me to do this that they can have their cake and eat it too ... control and groom me to make happy customers and lots of money at the same time.

Of course that wont work. My happy customers come from my priorities, nothing else. In fact, this system is already damaging my relationship with my customers as I fall behind ... and I'm being less helpful to them as I panic and try to catch up ... not to mention my bluntness gets ten times worse when I'm anxious and hurried like this ... I don't have time to figure out how to say it and sound nice.

The other part could simply be that this is how they are going to do everything eventually. The number one reason I haven't simply ignored them entirely on this is that they say that this is how they are going to pay people. If I don't follow this system I wont get paid.

Since I am an independent contractor and only make what I earn, I've been thinking of telling them they need to pay me if they want me to do this stuff. Its not something I get paid for in any way and its taking up extra time - not to mention making my life hell.

However, I'm still not sure if paying me will make up for it. This is really messing with how I do things. I am having a really hard time changing how I organize stuff in my head. For some of it, I have years worth of data organized certain ways in my mind and I feel like to fit into this system I have to try to re-organize all that ... and thats crazy ... so my brain is trying to keep putting data in those categories while trying to figure out how to fit stuff into their categories and that doesn't always work, since in some ways I have more categories than they do.

Like, in my system, after I've contacted a client I put them into a 'waiting' category ... but I have a bunch of different ones depending on the situation ... like "waiting on customer - expect them to get back to me fast", "waiting on customer - I'll probably need to poke them in a week - they are bad at getting back to me", "waiting on customer - don't care if they get back to me", "waiting on customer - they aren't really going to buy anything", "waiting on customer - they put the project on hold for now", etc.

Now I've got two "waiting" categories ... "Waiting on customer" and "On Hold" ... which would be fine, I guess, if I could define what those two things meant ... I could just lump everything into "waiting on customer" and keep track of the sub-categories in my head.

However ... in their system ... 'waiting on customer' means they will get back to me within two days ... this is what the AI thinks that means ... and since its managing us, that is part of how it makes decisions .... if they don't get back to me within two days, I'm supposed to contact them and either get them to tell us they aren't interested/close the task or get permission from them to put their project on hold and get them to give me a date when they want to start the project up again. Again, so the AI can plan my life for me.

However, if I could get the people who 'get distracted' to get back to me ... I wouldn't need to put them 'on hold' ... so in order to please this system ... its going to force me to feel like crap and spend a bunch of extra time and effort harrassing the customer trying to force them to get back to us on OUR schedule. Just thinking about having to do that is giving me anxiety.

There is also several other 'variables' ... like priority ... that I have to categorize stuff into ... and I don't have any idea where to put things. They have fairly clear definitions of what each priority is ... but when its not a variable I came up with myself, I have a hard time judging where something fits ... and my boss is no help. He thinks its clear.

I honestly don't know what I'm going to do here. I'm guessing I'll just try to get through it ... I may want to die for the next year ... but I don't want to work for myself and I don't think I can get a better offer someplace else ... and I'd be afraid to try ... I'm sure I could get a different job, but once I was there ... if it was even worse than this place ... I couldn't exactly come back ... and so far, this has been my best job experience ... so I'm not hopeful about other places being any better.

Thanks for your support. Its appreciated.

 

[scarletnymph]

We had another meeting about it today and I almost had a melt down in the middle of the meeting. It took everything I had to keep myself from expressing how insanely upset and angry I was.

They revealed a new part of the plan today and now they are moving into the realm of doing things I consider unethical and they want to make me a part of it.

Currently, whenever I get to the point where I have done what the customer asked me to do, I contact them and ask them to review it and make sure its correct and if they need any additional tweaks or changes. After they have approved the work, then I submit my time so they can be billed. If there is a problem, I want to address it with them before billing them.

I guess the people in the other departments haven't been doing that. They do the work and then just bill people, without even necessarily letting them know its been completed.

So they've decided to take this out of our control. In order to get paid and bill people, when we submit our time it automatically sends people an email asking them with a survey asking them if they agree that the task is done. Once I add my time like that, it is entirely out of my control ... the ticket is taken out of my queue ... if the customer says something back, I only get informed if the 'services coordinator' decides to inform me.

So now I am expected to stop letting people review stuff before billing things. I'm not okay with this.

They also flat out said at the meeting that some of this stuff is specifically to control my behavior. There are several things I do to prioritize clients that they don't like and they are doing this to resolve that. They specifically said they are concerned what would happen with those clients if I left, since they wont talk to anyone else but me. So they want to 're-train' my clients to deal with the rest of the staff and part of that is deliberately distancing me from the clients and taking client relationships out of my control.

Just the way they talked about customers during the meeting drove me crazy ... anytime the customer side of things came up, they openly talked about making customers do things our way instead of doing it their way because it is the only choice. They also said 'if a customer has a problem with this new system and can't be forced to change to do things our way, then we don't want them as customers'.

So, I think I'm done. I'm still going to sit on it for a little bit before I really make a decision ... I never make decisions fast ... but I think I'm just done. Right now my thought is to stick around and put up with this nonsense for a few months ... see if I can make it work or if I can adapt ... maybe customers will hate it and it will go away ... i wouldn't hold my breath ... but ... if I can't adapt and they insist on forcing me to do this stuff ... then I'm just going to have to quit.

The main question right now is whether nor I warn them first ... my desire to be up front and honest with people makes it hard for me to just spend the next few months planning to quit without letting them know first ... on the other hand, if I tell them there is a possibility I'll quit ... they might just tell me to leave now, while I'm in the middle of various projects ... on the other hand, since I am the ONLY developer they have and I'm the only one who has ever put up with them for any amount of time ... if I quit ... that department will have to close... so maybe if I warn them ... they'll decide making me do this stuff isn't worth loosing me.

I just hope that if I do have to quit they let me finish whatever projects I'm currently working on ... I don't want to leave clients high and dry.

 

[Judge]

Sadly budgeting goes hand-in-hand with major reorganizing for the sake of enhancing efficiency. Processes that tend to lack compassion or loyalty for a past job well done.

One former independent contractor to another: Be prepared to lose your job because someone wants to pare the budget, which may involve more expendable workers who aren't technically even employees. I didn't have any benefits, but I was compensated very well. When the big change came and another entity bought our division, no one even approached me to explain that my contract no longer existed. That's how valuable I was to the firm. One of the saddest days of my life.

Would you still be agonizing over trying to adapt if you knew your days were numbered? -They probably are.

At the very least, try to develop a "plan b". "Been there, done that, got the t-shirt." My condolences.