[dewoun]

This morning started out very badly...a co-worker who had been on medical leave for 2 weeks was asked to create a manual about how to perform her job tasks (she has been in this position for over 3 years). She told her supervisor to take the job and shove it up her butt (but she didn't say 'butt'). Now here is the background.....

An executive assistant was told to perform the duties of this individual while she was on medical leave. The job is accounts payable. While the exec. assistant was resistant to completing these additional job tasks (complaining every day) she did them and at the same time while she was complaining about the tasks, she hated the filing system that was established by this person and decided to reorganize all her files, throw things away, etc-claiming that her office was disorganized. So when the medical leave employee returns her office is not the same and she becomes offensive. Her supervisor called her into the office and said to her, " Do not worry about the re-organization, for now just focus on writing the manual. Thus, the end result of the above.

Now, who is right and who is wrong? Is the employee who rearranged the employee's filing system after only being gone for two weeks wrong (by the way, the exec assistant was not asked by management to do the reorganization, but when she presented the issue to them they were all for the idea), or is the employee who has returned to a new way of doing things (without any prior notice) wrong for overreacting?

[lilysunshine]

I suppose I'd say they were both in the wrong (including management to some extent).

The EA who reorganized the office didn't really need to do that. She wasn't going to be taking care of those tasks permanently. She probably wasn't particularly well versed on what has to be kept, what should be kept, and what can be thrown away regarding the filing system, and frankly, it's just bad manners to rearranged someone's office without their permission. It would be like going into someone's home while they were on vacation and redecorating the entire thing.

The employee who returned to a new way of doing things could have handled the situation much better. Sure, work on the manual as asked, but take a deep breath and count to ten before telling anyone at work to shove anything anywhere. It's a crap situation to find yourself in, but there is always a civil way to handle things, including quitting your job.