Everyone makes mistakes.
We all try not to make errors at work, but sometimes it happens no matter how hard we work to prevent them. My position is a busy one and I am often given more work than my counterparts at other offices. We are busier, therefore, we have the opportunity to make more mistakes.
Rant ahead…
It has seemed lately that a coworker has taken it upon themselves to point out every small mistake I make and report it to a head supervisor each and every time. Normally, if an admin makes a mistake and it’s caught by another admin, you would receive an email or a call from the admin that caught your error so you have an opportunity to fix it. With this certain admin, this is not the case when it comes to my mistakes. I don’t know why this particular person has decided to target me, but they have and I do not know how to resolve the situation beyond what I’ve already done.
The person is question makes quite a few errors of their own, but I do not report each and every one of them. To me, this seems like a very trivial thing to waste a supervisor’s time with when the issue could be corrected with a simple email. The only reason I can think of as to why each and every mistake (all of them small and none would cause harm or money issues to the company) is reported is to get the coworker in trouble and/or fired.
This is what I’ve been dealing with for months. I get phone calls from a higher supervisor about a typo or about a date being missing in a log. These are all things that do not matter in the larger scheme of things and the information can be found elsewhere in the program we use internally. Yet, the supervisor sees fit to raise his voice at me and tell me the importance of not making mistakes.
I am starting to feel singled out and have felt that way for a while. I’ve noted several other admin’s errors and will only report them if I find a history of the same error being repeated over and over. However, when I report a slew of mistakes, I am made to feel like I’m being petty and nitpicking. It’s funny since that is exactly what I feel is being done to me since I’m called out on each of my minor mistakes instead of a recurrent theme of the same errors.
I am so frustrated right now. I feel like I’m being railroaded or bullied and even if I wanted to take the issues to HR I cannot because my company doesn’t have an HR department. Not that it would help since I have no tangible proof that someone is trying to get me in serious trouble.
It’s days like this that I wish I could have the means to quit and find either a job that appreciates their employees or a way to go in business for myself.
Here’s to hoping!
A for Assistant 