I’ve been thinking about writing about some of my past job experiences but something came up at my current job that made me wonder. I’ve been employed at my current company for five and a half years and have always received glowing reviews. My boss left a few months ago and his boss took over running the department.

Our department tries to be on the cutting edge, changes happen fast and some employees of the company do not like change. I will also admit that sometimes when our department introduces something new, there are many bugs to work out. In my department I am pretty much the sole support person who assists the employees so I am often the one on the firing line between my department and employees, the middle man, the one the employees turn to for assistance. It gets stressful for me and it gets stressful for the employees.

I try to be very positive in my dealings but sometimes an employee gets negative and I try to do what I can to quell the situation. My bosses boss called me one day to schedule a sit down with him to shoot the breeze. I’m nervous about this because I’m just not sure what to expect. The day of the meeting comes and there is two VP’s in the meeting and my boss who is also a VP… I’m thinking “this isn’t a -shoot the breeze- meeting”!!! On the most part, the meeting was productive but one of the VP’s mentioned my “attitude” and that I should walk the production floor atleast once a day so the employees can see me if they have any questions”. I said “of course I can do that but when it comes to attitude, it would be helpful for me to have specifics so that I can assess that particular situation”.

Truth be told, I walk the production floor 3 or 4 times a day. I interact with the employees. I can see where an employee may be unhappy with changes or they are having difficulty with those changes and I share their frustration and try to assist as best I can. There is another VP who see’s that I walk around and he appreciates it because he is one who always has issues! I mentioned this to him and he said he would let them know THIS is what I do. Actually, I practically sit smack dab in the middle of the production floor!

I think it is entirely possible that I do get frustrated at getting hit from all sides, there are days I skip lunch to help others and often my suggestions are often ignored. But if my company or a VP is seeing or hearing something from others, then perhaps it is something I need to reflect on. I think I’m feeling more blind sided because just a few months ago I had a sterling yearly review. I just found the feedback unusual and I hope it’s not a sign of things to come.

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