My manager told me that I've

[DorianRo]

What are THEY doing to help you keep focus and motivation? If there is no career advancement, job opportunities etc. they delusional believe someone is just going to stay on and give 110 percent every day year after year? And then these mismanaged companies wonder why they can't keep hard working valuable employees motivated to keep them on board.

If you got a problem with motivation as management the reason is probably because of the work culture you have created. And it doesn't help matters when they turn a cold shoulder to the valuable workers they have on board for non experienced people they bring in for the promotion from the outside because of connections. It's a slap in the face of the hard working, loyal employee

It's not realistic to ask someone to be a star performer their entire career with no career advancement. As these delusional idiotic companies are seeing now

[chb119]

Originally Posted by Passion4mb

Lost focus in the last couple of years.

I was surprised to hear this, I asked her what she meant and she gave me a couple of examples.

Now, here is my question -- how do you define "focus" and fix it?

Whether you had to tell someone to "get their focus back" or someone told it to you.......

It's not as if I only do 1/2 the work or make too many mistakes, she was comparing this me to a few years back when I guess I had all kinds of ideas on how to make things better and now maybe not so much.

The only thing to note (and my boss is well aware and very supportive) is that although both of my parents are still living, one is 80 with dementia and is bedridden and my dad is 88 with Parkinson's, I do have help for them, but I am an only child (unmarried) so everything including all the worrying falls to me and I do worry about them 24/7, but I also need to get back to where I was at work (in her eyes at least) a few years ago.......

So, I am open to hearing what others did in my or similar shoes.

Thanks!

I don't know what you are looking for. Random people do not have the full facts of your situation. Your manager had a critique, backed it up with examples. You have a decision, take the feedback and place effort into becoming the appealing employee you were, or stay your course and let the chips fall where they may.

[Passion4mb]

Thank you CatGirl, appreciate your kind words. Yes, my parents are declining and as the only child it is very stressful. However, I was not aware that I had lost focus on work. As for the poster who said my boss has to fix my mistakes and people higher up are noticing -- that is not the case. First and foremost, if/when I make a mistake, it comes back to me to correct, she does not fix my mistakes -- yes, I say this with 100% confidence since that is not how my company works.

Could higher ups be telling her they are seeing things from my reports? Sure, but she would be pretty open about it. She wants me to do well and I want to do well.

Last year I went from p/t to f/t and probably because I was now there 40 hours a week, there was more to observe, truthfully I admit my head wasn't in the game as much as it should have been. I'm always waiting for that phone call that my dad fell or my mom isn't eating and as compassionate and understanding as she is (and she is) we all still have a job to do.

Last year I recall when she gave me my eval, she was very generous with her scores, but truthfully I didn't deserve it and both of us knew that, she said she will start doing evals Monday and I am very worried that for the first time at this company (in various roles) I will not get exceeds expectations and if it's does not meet expectations, that will really hurt. In all of my years working at all different companies, I have never had does not meet expectations. It occurred to me that her talk last night might just be to lead up to a bad evaluation.

Examples -- I need to stay vague, but will do what I can. She says that I spend too much time in front of my computer when certain e-mails I sent out (for an example), she would prefer I do it face to face. I am an introvert and she would love to see me come out of my shell a little more. I said done, I can definitely do that. She said back when I started I had all kinds of plans on how to better organize certain parts of the office, my tasks, etc., and have indeed put some of those into play, but she never hears me come up with any ideas anymore. She is right, and I've already come up with a couple of thoughts to talk to her about on Monday. As I said in my earlier post I told her one of them already and she was very enthusiastic about helping me learn more about that procedure. It's a small part of my job, but when I am the only "manager" there it would give me more confidence to deal with things.

We do have EAP and I've actually been mulling it to see a therapist to help cope with the worries and stress, and yes, it will definitely get worse before it gets better. As for taking time away for myself, I would LOVE IT, but it is impossible. On days I work, I get to my parents twice (we live very close to each other, but not together), on days off, I try to go maybe 3-5 times, depending on how much help they have that day and what the current condition of both parents is. My dad is still up and moving, although just decided to give up driving, he seems ok with it. He has lots of retired friends who take him where he needs to go, plus the caregiver, plus me. I have FMLA to help my dad whenever I need it and my boss NEVER questions my use of it. I do not use it often, but I like knowing its there.

I can never unplug because my dad does fall (even with a walker) so I'm always "on alert".

But back to work, I need to and want to get my head in the game, but I am very concerned about this years evaluation. I'm worried that "does not meet expectations" translates to no raise.

[convextech]

Originally Posted by Passion4mb

Lost focus in the last couple of years.

If someone tells me I've lost focus over the last few years, I'm thinking they think I'm making a lot of mistakes and my performance has plummeted.

[PJSaturn]

Thread closed at OP's request.