by Ann
(Georgia)
I got a good performance review, but the workload increased significantly and I made the mistake of sending a fax to the wrong person (in house). Part of my job was to look at the faxes sent to the fax server, and then send them to the correct person. I hit the wrong j person. I was written up for that.
Later on I was written up due to not ordering enough napkins and paper towels and several mistakes that resulted from a shared spreadsheet being repaired. Some of the logins I had put on the old spreadsheet did not show up on the repaired spreadsheet.
If I should get fired would all this work against me. We go from being treated nicely one day to being ignored and treated badly the next for some unknown reason. It makes for an uncomfortable work environment.
Hi Ann,
I realize there is not much we can do about an employer’s decision to write us up for whatever reason they choose to, but this certainly does not prohibit us from counter documenting when this occurs. Of course this really only has an effect if the employer’s decision to write us up is questionable.
Almost every written warning I’ve ever seen has a space on it for your comments. It is my opionion that this space should never be blank and if necessary the space should be filled with “Please see attached for my response and reasoning as to why I believe the employer’s choice to document this occurrence is unreasonable .. or anything you like as long as you do this.
An employer documents verbal warnings, written warnings and final warnings. They use this documentation to prove you were warned per their policy, so you can’t get unemployment etc. Employees so seldom do the same and I don’t understand why.
Doing so, can have the effect of diminishing what an employer has to say. Just signing the form is like conceding the employer is right and you are wrong.
If you haven’t done this .. it’s not to late. You may prepare a response now to both write-ups and ask for them to be added to your personnel file. Of course you should also do this in such a way as so to be able to prove you did so .. just in case the employer doesn’t provide them to the state .. so I suggest email for this very reason. You can send it from home. Just because we’re depending on someone else for a living, doesn’t mean we need to act subservient. We are our own best advocate at all times. It only makes sense that we should be vigilant about protecting ourselves while at the mercy of employers.
Management can change at any given moment. We don’t know what goes on behind closed doors. We are not privy to secret agendas.
Who best to watch out for us, but ourselves?