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Hi, I would appreciate advice from other people regarding my situation, as I have little work experience. I've started working quite recently at a company. It's a relatively small office (branch of a big company in our state) and has a friendly atmosphere. My main duty is gathering documents (invoices, contracts etc) and checking them, then they are approved and the clients get a payment.
The thing is, before I came, they had people coming and going, so over the months, if not years, they had a backlog of these documents and the clients started getting annoyed, so the person who I've taken over from didn't have the time to check them properly and processed them fast (bosses in my branch knew about this, head office probably didn't). With audit looming, they've been meaning to start checking these documents properly and I was hired specifically to sort out these huge stacks that had accumulated. Now, I have no work experience in this area (something my boss knew), so my colleague had to teach me everything - I have to add, she herself didn't know how to do it properly (since the person before her didn't...). So all I had was this short checklist (check price here, signature there etc). Since I didn't know any better I've been churning out these payments and all was well. My boss knew we had to start doing things correctly some time, but the clients were annoyed, so we didn't. I thought it was a huge mess, but since I was pressurised, I followed the orders (as I said they've been doing that for years, so who am I to argue). Then we had a new branch head appointed, who's hellbent on following the procedures and checks every tiny step with the compliance. I don't think she's aware of the mess I'm in. My job is not difficult, but it includes big sums of money. I recently found out how many documents other offices gather before they issue the payments and it's just insane how lenient our system was. We basically took clients' word for it. Moreover, the idiotic contract we have with the clients allows us to ask only for a minimum package of documents - a new one would take months to sign.
My problem is that my immediate boss is pressuring me to issue these payments, but I have to get the approval of the branch head, who just assumes we know how to do it. I don't, nobody does. My boss tells me I have to figure it somehow, but I can't, cause I don't have the experience for this. Even I had the experience, it requires a complete overhaul of the procedure, involving all the bosses, legal and compliance (latter two aren't in our branch and don't know about our situation) - moreover, we need to renegotiate with the clients, who obviously wouldn't be happy with a new strict procedure. As I said it's a big deal, cause it concerns huge amounts of money. My boss keeps telling me "Well, read the contract and figure it out, if it's applicable in our case" - the problem is I don't know what I don't know! For all I know, I'm overlooking something serious. I told her this a million times, I think she knows it's potentially something catastrophic, but for her paying the clients is a priority. And I also can't write to the legal team, since their advice on how to do it properly would be binding and we couldn't feign ignorance later on... So what do I do? I have huge stacks, every time I check a document I'm not sure if I'm going to get our company in huge trouble during the audit and would have to lie to the branch head when I get her approval (as I said she assumes I'm doing everything correctly - I have to add I'm the only one who checks all these documents, my bosses just sign them, so in a way I'm solely responsible) . Everyone is annoyed with me becuase I'm stalling the business but I'm not sure what to do! Should I "come clean" to the branch boss? But this involves going behind my boss' back and in this case, she would raise hell and stop all payments, until the procedure is ironed out. Basically it's a mess, nobody wants to sort it out but we have to make these payments fast.
Anyway, I don't think anyone would be able to follow this story, but if anyone did, thanks. I needed to vent. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do. My more experienced colleague thinks it's my responsibility to offer a solution - what do you think? I always thought that at least my level (level entry job) I should be given rules to follow.
PS I'm not a native speaker, so apologies for any mistakes
This does sound very concerning, and with lots of people coming and going as you say, it's also worrying as they don't sound serious about a long term plan. Given how important your responsiblity is, and how untrained you are, you could easily be enlisted to take the blame if things go wrong.
You have already tried with your boss so I would see no qualms about going to the branch boss if you're not having any luck. That at least keeps you safe, and the company, which are good priorities to have. At the end of the day the clients won't care if you lose your job because you've not done it right.
This is huge, and you could all get in serious trouble when this comes out. The whole point of your job is compliance, but you don't know how to make it compliant.
You ARE responsible, and the fact that you know right now that you aren't doing it correctly makes you culpable. Honestly, I would quit ASAP. But before you do, you need to tell the branch manager the actual situation so they can fix it. Don't keep acting in ignorance.
Thank you. I'm relieved that you say I have a reason to be concerned about this, because no one seems to understand why I'm procrastinating on my job (I just don't want to do anything anymore before I get an all clear on the entire procedure - am I wrong in this?) and pressure me. Otherwise it's a nice place and I really don't want to go. Do you think it would be stupid if I refuse to do anything before we get an approved procedure? And would I be held liable if they are the ones who are signing/approving and I'm just the one checking the docs? I really don't think my boss would backstab me but I don't know how audit rules work (wouldn't it be their fault that I wasn't trained properly?)
Btw it wasn't really people coming and going, I shouldn't have written that - it was maybe 3, they quit without handing over properly, but the fact is, my boss is too trusting and she didn't know that those people didn't know their job correctly. I have no idea why they weren't audited earlier. Overall, I think they are nice people, just too trusting.
Last edited by delilah11; 06-26-2016 at 09:07 AM..
For some reason can't edit my original message - what I meant to write that if I go to the branch head, SHE would raise hell, not my immediate boss, and cease all payments before we figure out a procedure - that's why I can't do it easily, everyone will hate for me stopping the payments (they are vital for keeping the business going). I have to add she seems to care more about compliance than the business side (i.e. clients and financial losses from not paying them on time) and I don't think I could confide in her without huge repercussions for myself
From what you have written, if I were your branch head, I would raise hell as well. And you're immediate boss would be in some serious deep stuff for having let this problem develop and, it seems, encouraging it to continue. Sounds like you are in a situation where there could be "huge repercussions" for you regardless of whether you go to the branch head or not. The only question is whether they happen now while there's a chance to fix things or later after an audit finds the problem and that you knew about it.
If the situation really is as bad as you describe; you sort of have two main choices: either bring it up to the branch manager along with a plan to fix it and accept the risk/reward ratio that comes from that or find another job and get the heck out of the there with maybe an anonymous note to the auditors as you head out the door.
I would start looking for another job as soon as possible.
The only thing I can say is, you could potentially be in a lot of trouble, as this involves a lot of money and shady accounting practices. There's a reason why so many people have quit. They would rather wash their hands of it and pass it onto someone else.
You have to ask yourself, if something happens, do you think your bosses are going to say, "oh my bad, the mistakes are all my fault?" Nope, you being low on the totem pole means you'll be the one taking the blame. They're going to blame it all on you.
At this point you might consider getting legal advice just to protect yourself.
Thank you everyone! I just wanted to add - I've described the situation differently than it is, it seems. It's not shady, it's reckless - I don't want to go into detail, but the people in my position or my boss or anyone in my company couldn't have profited from these payments - these payments just had to be done fast and no-one bothered to gather all the docs. People before me left for personal reasons. So, it's not some semi-legal place with money laundering or anything - so (hopefully) I'm not going to get into legal trouble, just maybe fired (not an ideal situation either).
Isn't auditing a legal requirement that you get into potentially much more serious trouble ie. A criminal record? No wonder nobody wants to get their hands dirty with it there.
I think you have tried to be reasonable and there isn't much else you CAN do except go over your boss's head. Yes, sales are important for a company but so is ensuring you stay out of jail! And if everyone hates you, that won't be fun either, but you've not been left with many options.
I had a compliance issue at my former job that went on for years. With every new boss I had, I'd bring up the issue and let them know we were required to ensure we had a procedure in place to comply with the regulations. They just didn't care, and didn't want to go through the hassle. If we were audited, the blame would have fallen squarely on my shoulders since that area fell under me. However, I was not authorized to implement a huge enterprise change in procedure and reporting, so it was a catch 22. Finally, after having had enough of this, I went to the VP of human resources and layed out a presentation detailing our requirement to comply with a Federal law, the penalties for not doing so (pretty hefty), and a plan to implement the procedure, including traing, cost and resources. She asked why it hadn't been implemented before, and I advised because even though I had made this know to leadership, they were not interested in creating employee discord (one of the major reasons I was given). I didn't name names. She said since we now knew about it, it was incumbent upon the otprganization to implement it. With her backing and support, it was finally put into place. Sometimes you have to be brave enough to elicit the help of someone with the right kind of pull, and be prepared to substantiate your claim.
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