Question - Can You Trust Your Co Workers?

[Ladskater]

The last little while I have been having problems with my co workers or at least it would seem that way. It all started when our new supervisor came on board. He was not an employee of the College but was hired "outside" and knew absolutely nothing about the job. Anyway, I have had a hard time getting used to him and find him a bit on the heavy handed side. He is very authoritarian. I thought my two co workers were in agreement with me as far as all the changes at work go, but my new supervisor talked to me today and told me someone is complaining about me. I have eight years experience at my job and because we are short handed at the moment have been trying to help out in all areas. I was told by him to "not pay so much attention to detail" and just concentrate on receiving and shipping the books. Considering it is a small bookstore and I am expected to do everything when needed it is a very frustrating position to be put in. Now I don't know if I can trust my co workers or if it is just my supervisor who is saying all this. I have never had any complaints before from anyone I work with. It's very strange.

Anyone here ever feel their co workers are untrustworthy? Or are complaining about them?

 

[Dee4707]

I don't think the question should be...Question - Can You Trust Your Co Workers? I think it should be..........Should you trust your co-workers??

I very much try to keep personal life & feelings away from work. I don't say anything about my bosses that I wouldn't say to them directly.

I think if it's really a busy, busy time, I don't see what was wrong with his directive to you.

Dee

 

[sillylionlove]

Wow sorry to hear that you are going through such trouble at work. I know that I talk to everyone here in my office. However, only a few people are friends that I talk to outside the office. Most people in offices tend to gossip the first chance that they get!!!

I guess you could ask politely if your coworkers have a problem with you or maybe your supervisor was just saying that.

Regardless, good luck with everything.

 

[Kwanford Wife]

My first question is this: have you examined your feelings about not being the boss yourself? Speaking from experience, sometimes its hard to play underling when you envision yourself as the person who should've been in charge... (just a thought...)

My advice:
ya know, change is hard and I would hazzard a guess that its less about trust than looking out for number one... I would worry less about the trust issue and more about attempting to develop a better working relationship with your boss. Its hard sometimes to understand that a big part of the whole boss / employee dynamic is making the boss look good. As the senior person on the team, you should make sure that your boss doesn't feel undermined or threnghted by you and your experience and understand that you are an excellent resource to assist him in the running of the bookstore. Blaming your co-workers and allowing their gossip to interfere with your role in the store isn't going to make your life easier...

And if all else fails and you feel unappreciated and defensive - I'd use that 8 years as a selling tool to entice a new employer - perhaps in a supervisor role... cause at the end of the day, its still just a job and people move on all the time (says the obsessive workaholic who is convinced that her office would fall apart if she takes a day off...yes, I'm modest too...)

 

[Tonichelle]

I like KW's advice...

and no you can't always trust your co-workers... I learned that the hard way. But sometimes you DO get into a situation where everyone is pretty much completely trustworthy. It doesn't sound like your job is that way.

That being said I'm with KW, it doesn't sound like you've given your new boss much of chance... and complaining about it or being unhappy about it isn't going to fix the 'problem'... gotta get in there and show your boss just why you're a valued employee and forget what others are saying/thinking.

 

[Ptichka]

Lad, I have the same problem - I often misinterpret working relationships as true friendships. I know that the base advice ever is to keep the two separate. If that's impossible for you (as it is for me), then just try to keep it separate as much as possible except with the specific people you know are your friends.

 

[Ladskater]

Wow!!! Thanks for the response. I talked to my new supervisor and turns out I misunderstood his intent. I sometimes am paranoid when my supervisor takes me for coffee and has a little "talk." I always assume I have done something wrong or someone is complaining. Anyway, my fellow employees were not complaining about me afterall. We are a good team and work well together. I was worried however, because of all the new changes and a new supervisor that things were not getting done and did try to cover all the areas a little too much. Sort of spread myself a bit too thin. The worst is over now. The rush is finished and everything is back to normal. As for the new supervisor, it's taken a longer time than normal to get used to him. We are all still struggling with this. I certainly am not one who is wanting to get ahead and looking for a promotion. He was just making me feel uncomfortable, because he is not a good communicator. I think the whole thing will settle soon.

Thanks for your comments.

 

[Dee4707]

Lad, I am really happy things aren't as bad as you may have perceived them to be.

Dee

 

[heyang]

Sometimes, the new guy is concentrating on figuring out his relationship with his new boss and how things work to consider his impression on the people who work for him. My current boss has been around for 10 years now and I've been at this job about 13 yrs less 4 months. When he 1st started, he did one-to-ones with everyone except me because I was supposed to move to a different team once I finished my project. Since our next project turned out to be Y2K, I ended up staying on that team because it didn't make sense for me to go to a new team when my expertise was needed (we had a lot of turnover during our Y2K project - only 3 out of 10 employees on our our team had more than 3 years with the company at the time.) Well, I thought he must not like me because he never bothered to do a one-to-one meeting with me. A lot of other team members felt that he didn't like them either. We all just behaved professionally and did what we needed to.

Once the 'new' guy had been on the job for about 4 months, he started to loosen up. I got to know him better and became his left hand (my other co-worker was his right hand already.) As the months passed, my other co-workers got to know him better too and, for the most part, everyone enjoys having him as a boss.

I do trust some people at work enough to ask for advice on personal decisions. I even trust my boss on this stuff. However, I don't 100% trust anyone to protect me if something major fails in the system - no one will throw someone else under the bus, but they would consider pointing the finger of blame if possible to avoid some of the heat.