Ask a Manager

It’s “where are you now?” month at Ask a Manager, and all December I’m running updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past.

Remember the letter-writer whose boss was out of her gourd and threw a fit about the letter-writer’s coffee? Here’s the update.

I wrote in about 4 years ago about my crazy boss who freaked out and screamed about many things including bringing my own coffee pods to the office and was just a really awful person to be around. I updated about 5 months later saying I gotten “laid off” the day after returning from vacation when I started questioning about forcing me to change electronic medical charting for the Home Health aides that had charted incorrectly. I had reported her to the state and was just about to start my new job.

Well, it’s been 4 years since my last update and I am about to celebrate 4 years at my current job. It’s been a really great 4 years in life and at my current employer. I just received a $4 per hour raise my second this year, last week so I am making $10 more an hour than when I started 4 years ago. My boss couldn’t be more different from my old crazy one and I could go as far to say maybe he is TOO nice at times so completely opposite!

I have grown in my HR skill set, have become my company expert in our ERP system updating from a super old version and to newest one which was a 6 month process, learning to code in Crystal Reports to write custom reports for our company, transitioned to a new payroll and 401K providers to allow electronic import of payroll from ERP (They were doing it manually for YEARS!), streamlined the AP process to the point we were able to not backfill a third office position to save cost, helped hire some great machinist and managers, and overall just build a great rapport and trust with the entire staff to help with retention and trust in HR.

My boss as continued to let myself and my other coworker (we are both women with young kids) in the office to work from home two days a week, switching off with each other and we decided to do 4/10s company wide during the pandemic and so now we don’t have to work on Fridays. This has been life changing to say the least and my mental health has never been better.

It’s not all sunshines and rainbows and I have had to learn to navigate the manufacturing world as one of two women in the organization currently (though this fluctuates from time to time) which is really different than regular workplaces, many big personalities in management that my boss has struggled to handle and my HR suggestions are often ignored because my boss doesn’t like conflict but over the years this has greatly improved with a few challenging team members leaving and often I still struggle at times to explain to my boss and the production manager why we legally can’t do something like telling employees they CAN in fact discuss wages openly when they are told they can’t because they have never had an actually HR person for the first time. My boss and owner are both anit vax/ Covid overblown believers in general which drives me insane but they followed the state mask mandate and have followed all guidelines in regards to COVID and CDC guidance because myself and our production manager who was going through cancer treatments at the height of COVID were adamant about it. They also don’t openly push or share their views to the company and support those who wanted to get vaccinated with time off. Since most of our employees work production and we were deemed essential making medical and defense parts they worked through the pandemic every single day and we never had a COVID outbreak in the building and only 3 employees who have had it.

In regards to my old crazy boss I have had no contact with them but LinkedIn has shown they are on their 4th person in a role similar to mine since I left which seems about right! Also my inlaws mentioned seeing a local TV commercial with the owner starring in it claiming that the company was a friendly place to work! Their Glassdoor and Indeed reviews state otherwise with the owner being the main issue. Also the state followed up with a letter saying they would not be investigating which was disappointing. I struggled with some serious mental health stuff and some imposter syndrome for a while but as I got my feet back under me and starting accomplishing some major tasks at new company it got better!

Personally, we welcomed our second child just after my one year anniversary with my company and the company is currently paying for a prep course and my exam for SHRM-CP which I am taking in Jan 2022!

Thank you Allison for pushing out great content every week! You have really helped me with so many situations and what to say and how to say it and how to be direct in a male dominated field!