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Hi everyone. After typing this I realized it is very long. I apologize. I might have rambled a bit too much.
I recently began working in a small department of three program employees, about 15 direct service staff and a few bachelor's level interns. We work for a larger non-profit which has many different programs. We are just one small one. The interns are in the office during the school year, so they have just left. We have the summer to get things organized and ready to be functional. Right now we are working in what I see as a crisis mode, struggling to reach deadlines, jumping when people say jump and attempting to fix things.
From the moment I started i could tell me boss was one of those people who gets very excited about things and gets really focused on that thing, but then when something else comes up he jumps to the next project, abandoning the other. He also waits until the last minute for everything. We were assigned to provide breakfast and lunch for a community event last week. I, and the other members of the larger organization, were reassured everything was taken care of and that no help was needed. The morning of the event I arrived when I was asked and told that I had a table reserved for outreach. I had no materials, no flyers, no posters, nothing. I had no idea. So I sat at this lonely table with no materials, whereas other organizations had giveaways, handouts, etc. I was not informed of this information. Instead of apologizing for the lack of preparation he shrugged his shoulders and ran off to his presentation (side note....that I prepared for him). This was not the only downfall of the event, we ran out of breakfast, had to run to the grocery store to get utensils and order lunch at like 10 in the morning to pick up at 12. He also forgot to put water in a slow cooker for the lunch and some of the meat burned. He also was frantically asking my other co-worker if any of the direct staff could come and help (he could have actually scheduled them to come in and help). I am a very go with the flow person so I just let this slide by, but was very embarrassed when I heard other members of the umbrella organization we are under being sarcastic and complaining about my boss's ability (or inability) to plan for the event.
Another one of his projects is getting a digital version of our forms. He has tried several different programs and i have assisted in getting things together with this, but now it is just sitting there because he has lost interest in it...it's not working the way he would like it to.
Another piece of my job is to assess the well being of our clients. I began the job in late March and observed a few of the bachelors level interns before I was handed clients to go visit. He did not observe me, I did not observe him. I am still slightly nervous that I am missing things or not saying the right things. He does not seem to be concerned about this. I have even brought concerns about a few visits I have gone one to his attention. I have invited him to these appointments and I have reminded him of these events and he has completely forgotten about them as he has "forgotten" and was on the other side of town. He has even forgotten appointments of is own. We were in the middle of planning for the next week when he casually said, "Oh I have an appointment tomorrow..." as he thought it was Thursday and not Friday. Ironically, a few minutes later the appointment called him to see where he was. He just got up frantically and left the meeting stating he thought it was Thursday and not Friday.
I am unsure what to do at this point. Do I stick all this out and hope that once we get everything organized he gets better? Do I begin looking for another job? Do I bring all this to his attention (he is very open and approachable..I'm just not sure how to say all these things). Do I talk to his supervisor? All of this makes my head spin. I am not to the point where I want to quit or am depressed/angry/super frustrated, but I feel like it could get that way if something does not change.
know the saying birds of a flock fly together? you are a go with the flow person? Take charge and direct that flow...
None of these actually seem that hard to solve individually, why not put together something that helps the boss? I'm sure a good secretary could do this, not sure what your position is though. Secretaries are good project managers to me in that they know the time line for it, the boss just wants the end result so the secretary find the people to do it. IE they organize the food/items/even the forms can be contracted out to the IT department or one of the interns (MS access/visual basic are fairly easy to learn and can make basic databases, it's taught in computer classes so the interns may have the know how for it).
know the saying birds of a flock fly together? you are a go with the flow person? Take charge and direct that flow...
None of these actually seem that hard to solve individually, why not put together something that helps the boss? I'm sure a good secretary could do this, not sure what your position is though. Secretaries are good project managers to me in that they know the time line for it, the boss just wants the end result so the secretary find the people to do it. IE they organize the food/items/even the forms can be contracted out to the IT department or one of the interns (MS access/visual basic are fairly easy to learn and can make basic databases, it's taught in computer classes so the interns may have the know how for it).
I am a social worker. He is the director of the program. The third person is a service coordinator that schedules and works with the direct staff. We are in charge of our own budget and thus the digitizing of things so it's not really something IT would do. They can care for our computers, but developing programs for us is out of their scope. Our interns are bachelors level social workers, so they are more familiar with powerpoint and word (and I'm not sure how creating databases would apply to their learning objectives).
But thanks for the response! And if you can find us some funding for a secretary then that would be great.
how does someone become a director without a secretary/or similar position? I mean, what is he directing? When I think of directors, I tend to think of 4 or 5 degrees of hierarchy, otherwise it's a manager/supervisor or boss. And with that many different people to direct, having an assistant/secretary is important.
I still wouldn't put it past the interns to know how to do a database on either of those two or another one. College kids like to tinker, and if they like to tinker on computers, they will at some point or another tinker at coding. That will involve SQL if webpages, or other databases. Try to ask them anyways. It'll look good on their resume as well, if you need to "bribe" them into doing it. I don't remember how to do it myself, but at some point in my college years, I did take up a basic interest in it so I'm sure one of them would too if you have several.
I'm incline to say he isn't scattered brained but stretched too thin to remember the "common sense" things like the water/etc because he "checks" it off list as done (food was accounted for) and moves to next item. Again, an assistant would help with this
edit: maybe you could move into that spot? I mean unoffically? and with a pay raise?
OP, I'm just wondering how you start out a thread with a post saying you realized it was too long and you rambled a bit, but clicked Post anyway without editing.
It's like sending someone a card and writing in it, "I wanted to include a check, but I already sealed the envelope."
"I wanted to include a check, but I already sealed the envelope."
I do that with emails I send only the subject line, then send body in the second, and maybe a 3rd for when I forget something, all because I dont want to recall the 1st email lol
Not to throw the cliche in there, but you need to "manage up". Especially if you want to stick this out. But even if you leave, you'll find situations like this throughout your career. Just because you have a manager doesn't mean you just sit there an only do what they tell you to do. They are actually there to support you. To get you the resources you need to do YOUR job.
In essence, you need to start taking charge of certain things. Especially those that impact your work. Take some of that stuff away from the director so you have more control. Like eyeb mentioned, basically look for ways to help out as much as you can. For things like that community event, offer to run the logistics. And setup meetings to make sure all areas are covered. If you need him to support you in certain areas, you need to speak up. If you are still unsure of the client visits, you need to voice that now. Explain to him that you'd like more guidance.
If he won't help (or just aren't cut out to do his own job), you can try to figure it out yourself while looking for a new job. If you find a new job, great. If you stick it out, at least you'll be picking up valuable skills.
how does someone become a director without a secretary/or similar position? I mean, what is he directing? When I think of directors, I tend to think of 4 or 5 degrees of hierarchy, otherwise it's a manager/supervisor or boss. And with that many different people to direct, having an assistant/secretary is important.
I still wouldn't put it past the interns to know how to do a database on either of those two or another one. College kids like to tinker, and if they like to tinker on computers, they will at some point or another tinker at coding. That will involve SQL if webpages, or other databases. Try to ask them anyways. It'll look good on their resume as well, if you need to "bribe" them into doing it. I don't remember how to do it myself, but at some point in my college years, I did take up a basic interest in it so I'm sure one of them would too if you have several.
It's non-profit. You do what you can with what you have. With a budget of $500,000-$900,000 a year you do your best. Adding in all your overhead and benefits, etc it adds up. (We found that adding in benefits for our direct staff, while we're paying them $10/hr comes out to about 59k a year...can you imagine what that would be for me with a masters degree who makes 36k a year?) FWIW, there's the CEO, a VP, and then his position.
You would think that everyone is required to take some type of computer class, but with social work it's a liberal arts degree where many schools prefer to have their students take philosophy classes over CS classes. You may take some more admin related classes as you move towards your masters, but the BSW internship program focuses more on interactions and interviewing/working with clients then sitting behind a desk doing computer things. I would have cried if someone said, "Here, google how to do SQL to make things work better for me while I go see a client. It's just not good practice in social work. Maybe in business, but not in social work.
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you are a go with the flow person? Take charge and direct that flow...
