Hi.
I know I haven't posted on this thread for a bit, but it's a decent thread and I've gotten some helpful advice from some of the more experienced people here like "T" and Birdy, etc (there are a lot and I can't type you call but I'm grateful). Plus, honestly COVID has messed up my schedule just terribly, so if anyone is wondering about timing....
Speaking of timing, I've got some weird stress because I do not know how to tell my immediate supervisor something about a new situation that's developed with our productivity pipeline at work. Big issue, we are not adapting well to new changing metrics and a hopefully temporary road block that has come up. What we work on is divided into "units," and we need to more carefully manage these. I have no idea how to approach this with my boss to help him manage it better (for all of our sakes and I do not want to come off as out of my lane/place, etc.).
We had a massive damn backlog forever and we are finally clearing that up soon. Basically forever (years), we've had a sort of system in place where you were supposed to do a certain amount of "units" per week and you were rated at how many you did. More was better. This scale tops out at 15 units per week, and that is considered just freaking amazing.
That backlog is going away, and management is switching to a more time sensitive approach instead of productivity. So now they've added a new metric: % of units done within 60 days of assignment. The higher your percentage of units done within 60 days of assignment the better. They are allegedly going to get rid of the numbers requirement, but we'll see. Point is, the stuff is now time sensitive within 60 days of ASSIGNMENT.
Yesterday, my supervisor called me. He has completely run himself out of work for right now. We are the most productive team in the whole damn place and actually people (Including higher ups) are sort of ... low key upset at us for it. We are not getting assigned new "units" for right now. He does not know what to do with himself, because he processes those units before I/the rest of us do. Coworker and I have a personal assignment log of about 130 units each. However, they seem to have cut our team off "to balance us out with the rest of the teams." My boss has stated that we no longer have to keep up a breakneck pace, and that we have proved ourselves and should not run ourselves out of cases to "cut off our nose to spite our face." He has told me to slow down in this phone call because we can't run out of cases like this with the backlog going away and there is a temporary kink in the supply line (COVID).
OK, PROBLEM. Math.... New 60 day assignment deadline....
Division: 137/60 days = 2.28.
Division: 137/2 (months) = 68.5 per month....
68.5/4 (weeks) is about 17.125/week.
*The unit per week scale tops out at 15, but in order to get the stuff assigned currently we'd have to do over 17/week.
*This at a time when he's saying to slow down to stretch out work so we don't temporarily run out of it....
Slow down (but keep going faster)?
The management has told him we are not getting new units for a while to "balance us out" against the other teams....
Supervisor seems to be coming realizing (after he ran himself out of work) that we need to ration this a bit and spread it out to avoid burnout/runout of work (for a bit before they do it all over again). However, he is still devoted to the First in First Out, assigning it all right away.
He does not understand (or want to understand) that HE controls the assignments and he could plan this out so we stretch out the units as he is hinting at/saying on the phone (not in writing). I have no idea how to tell him this or suggest how to fix it.
If he actually wanted to smooth out these massive waves and valleys, he could assign X amount per worker per week and just sit on them for a little bit (like a week or whatever, these things have been sitting for about 4 years, and one more week isn't going to kill anything). Then he would end up with worker A assigned ... 10 per week, worker B assigned 10, etc, etc. That way we could work within the 60 day deadline and spread them out like he is saying. As of right now, I have 137 to do in the next 60 days, and as above, that is like 17/week. Co workers have about the same.
This is a fixable problem if he would just assign them to plan out a work week. He controls when they are assigned. He can set the date the assignment starts the 60 day clock. As it stands, my coworkers and I are going to have no choice but to disobey either him or the 60 day deadline, because we can't slow down and still meet the 60 day deadline at the same time. We did not create this problem. This is an administrative hiccup and we are the most productive team in the place that is being told to slow down (not given new units so we even out with the other teams). I suspect we also cannot "officially do anything" like slowing down work, even though everyone does it, because otherwise we end up with huge stop/start problems. I mean, even the management higher ups are upset and cutting us off from new units for a while to "balance us out." The unofficial nature of this policy/practice is something we can't say, but must do like everyone else. I can't go from doing 17/week for 2 months to 0 per week for ... 1 or 2 months? We need to adapt to this COVID hiccup.
I have no idea how to approach my boss about this. I do not want to be seen as stepping on his toes or otherwise not be respectful or something. I also can't "officially" do or suggest this (even though he unofficially told me to over the phone like I'm pretty sure everyone else is doing so there's nothing in writing). We have to be smart about this, because as things stand, a.) this is unworkable, b.) everyone is upset at us even some of the higher ups (cutting us off from getting new work units given to us to do, and c.) this will bite us later on.
How in the hell do I deal with this? I've seen (if you've read the thread parts before) angry customers, "Karens" demanding impossible things, etc. I have never had to deal with trying to guide my boss into doing something that will save the damn team (or at least fend off ruin for a bit). I can't do 17/week (or more) and the scale tops out at 15 anyhow, while slowing down to spread stuff out so we don't run out and look awful. (This isn't my job anyhow, and I don't get paid for this level of stuff but I can't let it mess us up bad).
How on earth to I approach this? Thank you for your consideration.
Edit: To be clear, supervisor could click a button, to "unassign" the unit, then click another button to "reassign" the unit and restart the 60 day clock over and solve this whole thing. Or just stagger out assignments....
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Topic: Problems with stress and being upset from dealing with people. How do you? (Read 74236 times)