A pig in a poke: Work Related Stress 5

After meeting with the trade union rep, he sent me some material that he thought would be helpful. Looking through it now, I wish I had taken more note. The leaflets were :

• Appealing against performance appraisal
• Harassment and bullying
• Work-related stress

I used one of the notes and wrote a counter statement on my appraisal.  I asked for a written list of my responsibilities.  I also state that experience of working does not equate to experience of managing projects.  I would like training in this.  It's surprising how noone reads these things.

I got signed up to one of the tougher projects I have been involved in. Communication was a real issue on this project. The first thing I did was change that. There were still a few blips. Most notably being told I had achieved nothing at the end of an afternoon of crisis. I was so motivated I got up and walked out. Glen Livet was my drink of choice that night, kindly given by the customer in appreciation of our good work. The next day I improved the atmosphere in the team and decided to take a stance as team leader.

In my next "Improvement Plan" meeting, I was given a little more notice so was able to organise the rep from the union,  much to everyone's surprise. It made very little difference however as the outcome had been decided at a meeting just before this with HR which you aren't invited to. Each point in the plan is gone through. Overall you are gradually improving:

• Speed - I successfully delivered two projects and impressed the customer.  To read the book that was suggested, I could stay behind after hours unpaid and read it in the meeting room.
• Accuracy - I had put together testing plans before starting out which worked very well.  Only one issue with a project delivery and this is unacceptable.  
• Colleague Communication - I found it difficult to tell a colleague that I was busy and they would often come over for a chat about the project I was on.  I needed to get better at saying I was busy.
• Customer Communication - I got much better at keeping the customer informed, although there were a few instances where I should have said I was going to come back to them later.
• Problem Ownership - I had successfully delivered a few projects since the last meeting and taken charge of them.

Overall this seemed OK.  My union rep asked if there was any set procedures for delivering projects.  No was the reply.  There are too many procedures already and having procedures would slow things down.

I was progressing!