Ugh, this story brings back some bad memories for me…

And it probably will for you, too!

Because most of us have had jobs where someone tries to push off work on us that isn’t our responsibility.

What’s a person supposed to do in that situation?

Maybe take a page out of this Reddit user’s book!

Check out what happened!

It’s “my job” to deal with it? Sure.

“I work in Public Services. It was a new role, and I am the first (and only) one of “me”.

Essentially, this means that my job scope can be pretty broad and I have a lot of fingers in a lot of different pies.

I have also gained the reputation of a no-nonsense problem-solver (cannot for the life of me think why…!) so when people have issues, they tend to come to me.

I was busily hashing out a few tasks last week when I get something else slapped onto my plate.

The name fits…

A manager of a service we commission with, appropriately named Karen, has apparently been working her way through people because she isn’t getting the resolution she wants.

So one of the managers in Finance wants me to “look into this” for Karen.

Now, a thing to note here is that every April we increase rates along with inflation, but she didn’t get it.

Thing is, it’s out of our hands – the services we commission from her are funded between us and another separate Public Service (PS2).

We pay half, PS2 pay half. But we haven’t paid the increase because PS2 haven’t agreed anything yet.

What can I say, it’s the Public Sector.

Here’s the deal…

Our Teams conversation goes something like:

Me: Hey Finance Manager, I can’t actually do anything about this because…

Finance Manager: (cutting me off) This is your job, it’s your department that deals with these contracts, so deal with it. I don’t care how, just get her off my back.

Now, that’s mostly paraphrased…except for that last sentence which he said verbatim “I don’t care how, just get her off my back.”

I write in chat “to confirm, I am to deal with this, and you do not care how?”.

Okay!

Finance Manager says “Yes, for Christs sake”. I crack my knuckles and get to work, sending her the following email and CCing in Finance Manager and my own manager.

“Dear Karen,

I apologise for the delay in the inflationary increase for [service], however as this is jointly-funded between ourselves and PS2 we are beholden to their financial timeliness.

As PS2 have not yet agreed to the 4.1% increase, we are unable to process it. Regardless of how many individuals you contact, this will remain the case until PS2 see fit to approve.

In instances such as these, our recourse should be to head down to the offices of PS2 and begin smacking naughty bottoms, but I fear HR would frown upon such action in these enlightened times. Might I suggest contacting PS2 yourself in order to expedite the process? I’m sure Finance Manager (finance.manager@myplaceofwork) would be happy to direct you to the appropriate contact and answer any further questions.”

Warmest regards,

MyName.”

That went over well!

I then immediately got a Teams call from my manager where for 30 seconds all I could hear was laughing, and he asked me what was going on – I sent him the screenshots of the chat messages between myself and Finance Manager and relayed the Teams call.

My manager told me that it was not, in fact, my job (how odd…!) and later that day Finance Manager apologised, but also warned me that “in the future you should probably hold back on the sarcasm, people might not find it amusing”.

I think I’m hysterical, personally.”

Take a look at what Reddit users had to say about this.

This person shared their thoughts.

Another individual shared their thoughts.

Another individual weighed in.

This individual spoke up.

This reader shared their thoughts.

Deal with it!

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.