DW is in the throws of the final week+ of tax season.
This week her boss, the partner who leads their business unit, told DW that she has worked the most hours of anyone in the regional office. Followed by the managing Tax Partner, and my DW's boss. This is out of a couple of hundred people. Last year DW worked more hours than anyone in the business unit company wide and they were worried about burning her out. She worked a number of 80hr weeks last year. This year she has worked on effective delegation and leveling her schedule.
The tax season policy in DW's office is 55hrs/wk minimum. DW set her schedule for this tax season at 65's every week and has not worked any more than that. Still, she will work significantly more than anyone else in the entire regional office regardless of what business unit they are in. She has worked 11 x 65hr wks in a row. Sticking to 65s DW will work about half a dozen fewer hours this year than last.
DW's boss, the managing partner for her business unit relies heavily on my DW to lead recruiting, manage the interns, lead various community initiatives, lead various client development initiatives and manage the department. Including DW there are three managers in the department. One who focuses on managing accounting services (Bookkeeping, developing accounting statements, etc.). That manager is entirely remote. Two who are supposed to manage taxes, tax planning, and some of the accounting services. DW is a rockstar. Her supposed counterpart is decidedly uninvolved in managing and leading though they are a manager and get paid as a manager. The firm has a hybrid work model where people must work from the office a minimum of 2d/wk. When the other manager does show up, they leave early. They are rarely active for a full work day when working from home. The work software shows what everyone is doing all day. That manager's DOT goes inactive for most of every work from home day.
After DW was notified that she is once again working more than anyone else, her Partner/Boss assigned her three additional high profile high value files, and two key meetings, one a community networking event, and one a client development event. When this was added, DW told her boss that two other files had to be reassigned to another manager as DW's work stream was fully loaded.
Her Boss/Partner asked a manager from another department to pick up those files. No. She then asked another who rather than answer replied with that departments manager assigned files spreadsheet. Then DW's Boss/Partner sent an email to a third manager. "(DW) is behind can you pick these up?" DW lost her damned mind over than and is extremely irritated that her boss threw her under the bus. Not "The department is overloaded, please take these." Which would have not pissed DW off in the least. Her boss is great. I do not think it was an intended slight. The boss is stressed too. However, IMHO, at the Partner level, Director level in my profession, what is with the asking? There are times for asking. Then their are times for telling. Knowing the difference is part of executive level leadership. Though I digress.
DW will do as she always does. She will chew on it, re-center, and kick ass as the professional she is. When the time is right she will have a professional conversation with her boss. It will be fine.
So, how have I helped?
After she did the major venting, I recognized her frustration and was supportive, she was in the grumbling phase, I sneaked up behind her and and started nibbling her neck. Her very sexy neck. That of course got me swatted away playfully with some amplified grumbling. Then, I stood behind her, quietly pulled out my phone and said. "Hey Siri. Show me your boobs!! After a pointed pause Siri very hoitily responded. "I will not dignify that with a response."
DW has been laughing with tears rolling down her cheeks for a few minutes and had to run to the bathroom to pee..
Hey, I'm here to help. I also cooked lunch BTW.
Sadly, no one has shown me boobs. I'm so deprived.
It may not have been intentional but I would have been upset at the way the assignment of DW's projects was made.. saying "she was behind".
No boss, I'm not behind, but you just assigned me several projects on top of my already full load.. so if you need me to take on those.. someone else needs to take on the other.
I might have sent a note to my manager that
"Hey boss, Thanks for trusting me with the new high importance projects XyZ. There may have been some miscommunication though. I'm not behind on my original workload but when you assigned me several new important project... well, that was what pushed my workload over the limit. Again, I appreciate your confidence in getting the high profile work done, but I would hate for people to think I am not able to manage my own priorities.."
What I see as a bigger problem is her management's poor ability to assign tasks. If she was giving up 3 projects.. and there are multiple people who could take those on.. why not just hand out "one" project to a person vs asking someone to take on "all" of them because taking on multiple caseloads could be too much.. but ASSIGNING (Not asking) one project is not necessarily heavy handed.
I know her hands are tied.. and grousing is probably all she can do.. but geeeez
The firm has a stated people value stance. So much so that they coddle non performers and abuse the performers.
What you advised is nearly verbatim what DW replied to her boss with. I will be interested to hear about her day. We talk during her commute and catch up on eather other's day. That way once she gets home it is our time for us.
Though during tax season, once she gets home it is several hours of work from home time.
8days!
Then DW says I get my wife back. Her words. I always correct her that we have each other no matter what. But, it will be nice to get back to our normal daily schedules.
Comments
O/T Decompressing stress. Hey, I'm just here to help.
DW is in the throws of the final week+ of tax season.
This week her boss, the partner who leads their business unit, told DW that she has worked the most hours of anyone in the regional office. Followed by the managing Tax Partner, and my DW's boss. This is out of a couple of hundred people. Last year DW worked more hours than anyone in the business unit company wide and they were worried about burning her out. She worked a number of 80hr weeks last year. This year she has worked on effective delegation and leveling her schedule.
The tax season policy in DW's office is 55hrs/wk minimum. DW set her schedule for this tax season at 65's every week and has not worked any more than that. Still, she will work significantly more than anyone else in the entire regional office regardless of what business unit they are in. She has worked 11 x 65hr wks in a row. Sticking to 65s DW will work about half a dozen fewer hours this year than last.
DW's boss, the managing partner for her business unit relies heavily on my DW to lead recruiting, manage the interns, lead various community initiatives, lead various client development initiatives and manage the department. Including DW there are three managers in the department. One who focuses on managing accounting services (Bookkeeping, developing accounting statements, etc.). That manager is entirely remote. Two who are supposed to manage taxes, tax planning, and some of the accounting services. DW is a rockstar. Her supposed counterpart is decidedly uninvolved in managing and leading though they are a manager and get paid as a manager. The firm has a hybrid work model where people must work from the office a minimum of 2d/wk. When the other manager does show up, they leave early. They are rarely active for a full work day when working from home. The work software shows what everyone is doing all day. That manager's DOT goes inactive for most of every work from home day.
After DW was notified that she is once again working more than anyone else, her Partner/Boss assigned her three additional high profile high value files, and two key meetings, one a community networking event, and one a client development event. When this was added, DW told her boss that two other files had to be reassigned to another manager as DW's work stream was fully loaded.
Her Boss/Partner asked a manager from another department to pick up those files. No. She then asked another who rather than answer replied with that departments manager assigned files spreadsheet. Then DW's Boss/Partner sent an email to a third manager. "(DW) is behind can you pick these up?" DW lost her damned mind over than and is extremely irritated that her boss threw her under the bus. Not "The department is overloaded, please take these." Which would have not pissed DW off in the least. Her boss is great. I do not think it was an intended slight. The boss is stressed too. However, IMHO, at the Partner level, Director level in my profession, what is with the asking? There are times for asking. Then their are times for telling. Knowing the difference is part of executive level leadership. Though I digress.
DW will do as she always does. She will chew on it, re-center, and kick ass as the professional she is. When the time is right she will have a professional conversation with her boss. It will be fine.
So, how have I helped?
After she did the major venting, I recognized her frustration and was supportive, she was in the grumbling phase, I sneaked up behind her and and started nibbling her neck. Her very sexy neck. That of course got me swatted away playfully with some amplified grumbling. Then, I stood behind her, quietly pulled out my phone and said. "Hey Siri. Show me your boobs!! After a pointed pause Siri very hoitily responded. "I will not dignify that with a response."
DW has been laughing with tears rolling down her cheeks for a few minutes and had to run to the bathroom to pee..
Hey, I'm here to help. I also cooked lunch BTW.
Sadly, no one has shown me boobs. I'm so deprived.
It may not have been
It may not have been intentional but I would have been upset at the way the assignment of DW's projects was made.. saying "she was behind".
No boss, I'm not behind, but you just assigned me several projects on top of my already full load.. so if you need me to take on those.. someone else needs to take on the other.
I might have sent a note to my manager that
"Hey boss, Thanks for trusting me with the new high importance projects XyZ. There may have been some miscommunication though. I'm not behind on my original workload but when you assigned me several new important project... well, that was what pushed my workload over the limit. Again, I appreciate your confidence in getting the high profile work done, but I would hate for people to think I am not able to manage my own priorities.."
What I see as a bigger problem is her management's poor ability to assign tasks. If she was giving up 3 projects.. and there are multiple people who could take those on.. why not just hand out "one" project to a person vs asking someone to take on "all" of them because taking on multiple caseloads could be too much.. but ASSIGNING (Not asking) one project is not necessarily heavy handed.
I know her hands are tied.. and grousing is probably all she can do.. but geeeez
Exactly.
The firm has a stated people value stance. So much so that they coddle non performers and abuse the performers.
What you advised is nearly verbatim what DW replied to her boss with. I will be interested to hear about her day. We talk during her commute and catch up on eather other's day. That way once she gets home it is our time for us.
Though during tax season, once she gets home it is several hours of work from home time.
8days!
Then DW says I get my wife back. Her words. I always correct her that we have each other no matter what. But, it will be nice to get back to our normal daily schedules.