My boss is driving me mad.....

LegacyUser

I work in a very high pressure job. I have several bosses.Lately, I'm beginning to seriously wonder about my time management.
I have one boss in particular who rings and expects me to drop everything I'm doing and jump on to what he's looking for. Now I have said several times that I've no problem doing whatever job it is, but I need to finish what I'm doing first. That's okay, but then I get a phonecall every hour on the hour until it's done. Somedays I come in to an email from the evening before, asking me to do something. This is then followed by a phonecall (I'm usually in early),maybe half an hour later, asking me did I see the email, will I get the job done. Until the job is done, I don't get a minute's peace.
None of these things are vitally urgent - obviously if they are, they get done instantly. I'm there long enough now to recognise what's really urgent and what can wait an hour or so. But is it me or is it my boss that's wrong here? I'm thinking I'm either really bad at my job, really bad at organisation or really bad at time management. I'm pretty sure I'm not too bad at my job, and I'm a fairly organised person, so that leaves time management.....obviously, yes I do occasionally forget stuff, but most of the time I think I'm fairly okay.
What do I do here? I'm having serious doubts in my own abililty, because I end up dropping stuff to look after what he wants because I get so harassed about doing it. The end result is there's things half done and not followed up on because I've been interrupted so much. Which then annoys somebody else that I work for. I just feel like everyone is constantly on my case, and that I'm doing the best I can, but I can't keep anyone happy. Plus I'm beginning to really lose my temper with the guy who keeps nagging at me.
Sorry about the long post, but can anyone give me some advice? Mine is not the type of job that you can plan a day in - there's a lot of solving problems as they arise, so it's hard to tell what you'll be doing from one day to the next. But I have to keep other work up as I go along too, and I feel that a lot of things are suffering because of this. Plus my temper is badly tested at this stage, and if I don't figure out a way to deal with it, I'm going to lose it one day. Which would not be good.

Deadeyes

Too many chiefs eh? It seems you have the experience to know what your doing, so when a boss asks for something to be done give them a timeframe. If you tell them it'll take three hours and they're hassling you after one, just point out how long you said it would take. If they want you to drop something your doing for another boss then tell them to go to the other boss first and they can sort it out amongst themselves.
If the boss refuses to accept your timescales, then things get a bit more tricky, but your knowledge of the job should tell you whats reasonable and what is not and then it's just a matter of standing your ground, probably easier said than done.

Giblet

If you are assigned tasks, log them. Any requests need to be sent via email etc. Then you can bring up a list of stuff you are working on and send your estimates back to them along with all the other stuff you have to do.

LegacyUser

Hi,


I know exactly how you feel. I have a manager and an MD and the phones and 10 other staff to deal with and my manager is a lazy fecker who keeps trying to 'delegate' to me and it ends up that I am chasing my tail - so Tuesday I had enough and I cracked. I took yesterday off to collect my thoughts and came in this morning. Collared my managing director and with everything wrote down and examples etc I let loose.

I was calm and articulate and had back up but my god, he did not see me coming. Since then, only 2 1/2 hours ago there have been 'new measures' implemented that from 09-12.00 every morning, even if the building is on fire I am not to be disturbed and after that I'm all theirs.

The weight that has been lifted is amazing, but I had to do it like that, or like you I would have cracked. You need to catalogue your time, see who is monopolizing it the most and then go to the most senior manager with everything and highlight issues you have and let them deal with it.

I understand you have to prioritize you jobs, but at the moment this guy knows if he harness's you the most and nags the most and shouts the loudest he is going to get his work done first - a form of bullying really.

Sort it out before you crack, and good luck.

miec

Hi Op

The advice given by the two posts above are excellent and I would follow their advice. Also when you receive an e-mail from that boss from the previous evening, respond with a timeframe if possible and that way he/she shouldn't ring to say have you got my e-mail. I had a similar job to yourself in that I worked for a few people as well and I set priorities of each job and let each boss know what job was being done first and when they could expect their work to be done. It sounds to me that you are doing fine time management wise but that this person wants their work done first and asap, they may be impatient, you will have to find a tactful way of teaching them to learn patience and that you only have two pairs of hands.

LegacyUser

Hey Op here.
Thanks for all the advice. Miec I should have said that the emails I receive in the evening tend to be at a time after I have left the office, and the phonecall the next morning comes very early - I barely have time to read the email!!!!But thanks anyway, there's some good ideas there. It got to the stage in the last few days, that on the 7th or 8th phonecall on a particular task (don't want to go into specifics), I ended up saying the job was not done, but it would be done for when it was needed. Probably not the best approach, but there haven't been quite so many calls since then.
Anyway, thanks again for the advice. I'm feeling a little less stressed, good to know that I'm not actually going mad....!!!