The "this isn't the board for personal issues" thread

[Canadian_watcher]

I'm not sure if this will be deeply, deeply frowned upon but..
well...
I respect the opnions of the ppl here and I don't want to ask a bunch of jackasses out in internet-land for their takes.. and truth is I don't have a lot of social outlets these days. so..

would it be okay if I asked a job-related question? as in "i just got this job and I think I might be getting seriously railroaded here" type thing??

I'm going to wait for the go ahead before I ...um .. go ahead with the details

PS - I accidentally posted this on the old board and was feeling sooo lonely.

[Maddy]

I don't see why we can't be supportive of one another, but perhaps some may not agree with me.

[Canadian_watcher]

Thanks Maddy (my daughter's name btw) - and I'm also encouraged by 82_28's post about his job.. here i go with the very short version.

Backdrop: I was hired as Tech Support for a branch of the Government on a Full time Permanent position in November. Believe me when I say that these opportunities are so rare that there are people telling me I've "won the lottery" ... it's almost true. However,

I read the job description, applied, took a LONG test, had a LONG interview and another test... and got the job. At NO point whatsoever in that process was Materiel Management discussed.

Now they want me to look after the materiel management for a HUGE facility on top of my Tech support, which is BUSY, involving off site calls, etc.

Aside from the ridiculous assumption that I'd have time for this are these facts:
1. I have no experience in this, and when I looked into it it's a subject matter expert field requiring a lot of training.
2. The place I work was called onto the carpet less than 6 months ago on the very issues they want me to undertake
3. They are offering a 2 hour online course for 'training'
4. - and this is the big one: There are firearms and other highly regulated controlled substances involved which means, if I fuck up at ALL, they can fire me outright, even though I am part of a mighty mighty union.

Since I'm new to the job though I have no idea who my union rep even IS - I've made some inquiries but no one can tell me. (wtf???) And I don't want to look like a shirker.. I"m a very hard worker and was SUPER excited to move from Admin to Tech Support where they told me I'd get to be 'very creative.' In fact, what got me the job over other cadidates was that I am an artist...

so... do I outright say "I cannot take on that responsibility?"

or what?

[Et in Arcadia ego]

would it be okay if I asked a job-related question? as in "i just got this job and I think I might be getting seriously railroaded here" type thing??

I don't see why not. Its not that personal, as long as you leave out details like where you work, what branch, etc, which even then is no big deal, but don't do it anyways.

Now, if you wanna ask us to help you identify a curious growth on your penis, you're pretty much on your own, dude.

[Cosmic Cowbell]

Watcher...

I hope your able to pursue the union angle on this. Normally duties are well defined by the contracts and if the task your being asked to perform now wasn't in the original job description, then get your rep involved. Follow up and find out who represents you.

Guns, Drugs and Tech Support...sounds like fun.

Good luck with it.

[Nordic]

Wow. I don't want to be a bummer, but it sounds dangerously close to what I call a "no win situation", which when they happen in the work place can really be ... a bummer.

I'd say stall as much as possible while you figure out what's really going on and talk to as many people as possible and try to figure out how it happened and who is behind it.

Don't commit to anything one way or another for as long as you can.

Just my two cents. Good luck!

But think about it. Should you take advice from this guy?:

<--------------------------

[Canadian_watcher]

Thanks for the advice CC, Nordic.

Today I'm going to find out who my rep is come hell or high water.
And I'll stall.

Hopefully this will all work out with the help of the union.

[Canadian_watcher]

Ooooohkay.
I got in touch with the rep this morning, and she was very responsive, which was good.
she told me to fax her my job description - I did.
She told me to ask for a complete list of the 'new duties' management was asking me to do. - I did so via email, CCing the union rep.

A meeting was immediately called wherein management produced two additional pages of job description never before seen by me. Surprise!

I had never seen these and therefore never signed them.. so I don't really know what that means. I also have the original job posting and 4 witnesses as to what was on the testing. No materiel management listed anywhere, of any sort.

so I don't know. They want me to sign the new-old job description now.
Their new training plan includes 3 hours with someone who hasn't ever done aspects of the job before.

There's a part of me that just wants to say screw it and do the friggin job. But then there's a part of me that really fears that shit will hit fan - or that I simply will not be able to balance all of the duties ...

[Sweejak]

I'd refuse the extra work for the reasons that it's an expert position and you haven't been trained for it. If they can't see the clear logic in that, then I think you're going to have trouble, if not here, down the line. OK, now they are going to give you 3 hrs "training". Something seems way off here. They have already deceived you. Watch out.

[Nordic]

Sounds like trouble. My advice would be to play up your "safety" concerns, make it clear you're happy to do this new job (even if you aren't) because you're such a team player, rah rah rah, but at the same time you really want to do it extremely well and you're concerned since it involves things that go "boom" and you are worried you don't have the proper training, and this three hour course doesn't give you the confidence you'll need to be the expert you WANT to be to do it, because if you do that, you want to do it really really well.

In other words, try to couch your trepidations in a positive light. Keep it about them, how you want to be helping them as much as possible. And keep stalling. And try to demonstrate how BUSY you are with the other aspects of your job that you were actually hired to do, and maybe they'll figure out that they need to hire someone just to do that.

[chiggerbit]

Part of their job is to help you be successful in your job. Tell them that you've researched what the qualifications are for doing these new duties, and in your opinion, three hours just won't do it, so how much training are they willing to provide to get you up to a reasonably functioning speed.

[Canadian_watcher]

Thanks everyone.
I respect the opinions of each of you and will try to watch my back on this. What a shit situation.
You know, there are so few decent jobs ... has it always been this way? Have people always been - in general - such assholes?
I had high hopes for this position but meh.. same old same old.

Once I hear back from the union and if developments are interesting, I'll post again.

[Nordic]

Thanks everyone.
I respect the opinions of each of you and will try to watch my back on this. What a shit situation.
You know, there are so few decent jobs ... has it always been this way? Have people always been - in general - such assholes?
I had high hopes for this position but meh.. same old same old.

Once I hear back from the union and if developments are interesting, I'll post again.

Sorry it's been a letdown. That sucks.

I hope it works out favorably for you. Yes, there are most definitely very few decent jobs. I miss the one I used to have. It's looking pretty damn good right about now.

[Canadian_watcher]

I heard back from the union and they pretty much told me all I could do was document my requests for training in order to guard against any possible negatives in future performance reviews.

Seems the old "don't-mention-the-task-in-the-job-ad-don't-test-for-it-don't-say-word-at-the-interview -about-it-and-conveniently-leave-out-the-first-two-pages-of-the-job-description" trick works.

remember that next time you take a job. Think of everything... I mean, I cannot believe that as I was interviewing for TECH SUPPORT I didn't think to make sure that I wasn't also responsible for the multi-million dollar assets of the entire facility! I also didn't think to ask if I'd be in charge of cleaning up the dog shit from the dog handling unit.. luckily they have not tasked me with that yet.

I mean seriously, I feel completely taken advantage of.

I applied for two other jobs today. Hopefully something else comes up - I can't trust these people.

[sw]

Please explain more about "materials management". Does that mean you are doing inventory for the Tech equipment like desktops, laptops etc?

Are you talking about the U.S. Federal govt? Just wondering. If you are on the Law Enforcement side of the house you are not covered by a union. That would be non bargaining unit.

If the place was written up before your hire on as being a mess, I don't see them putting it on you as it is documented that the problem existed prior to your placement.

Request training to better address your job. Even if you don't get it...it will be in writing that you requested training to do your job and was turned down.

Firearms are tracked and stored just like any other item except for the disposition of the firearm. If you are talking explosives then you do have a huge problem if they expect you to develop the set up for storage so that your office is in compliance with storage as in what not to store together and things like table of distances where you cannot have something stored so far from a school etc. Also storage of things like explosives would be a bitch because of the type of storage containers, locks, depth of cement etc. If you are talking explosives, you'd have to have a lot of training.

I don't see the problem with firearms unless you are also responsible for learning the disposition files to track who purchases the firearms to make sure you don't get held personally liable for allowing a felon of something to get a gun.

In the U.S. Govt, I don't think this situation is uncommon. But, most govt IT people have been outsourced so that the agencies don't even have IT support on site. Are you an off site IT person? If that is the case, I have other suggestions.

Hard to answer without knowing more but govt is different than private sector for sure.