New mgr time management issues.

blushingbride_08 · September 2013

I'm starting a new job tomorrow. It is an independent contractor position with flex hrs working from home and occasional meetings at the office. I told my mgr that i would need 3 days notice for meetings and he agreed. My new mgr and I also agreed that my start date would be tomorrow.. However he did not tell me what time we would meet tomorrow. On fri I asked him what time we would meet and he did not respond. I sent a follow up asking him today (Sunday) what time and he responded that he would call me tomorrow (mon) before noon and let me know what time. I dont want to be waiting around for him to call. plus i need to arrange for childcare if I go in.I'm thinking about sending him an email asking if I should just start latter this week. Since I would just be waiting around for him to call. I need to plan in advance for days I need to go into the office since I need childcare. I like this job but i see my mgr has time management issues. I dont want to start off on the wrong foot and be anal. What would you do?

daisy662 · September 2013

Ummm...so you don't plan to have child care when you are working from home? Good luck with that.

blushingbride_08 · September 2013

daisy662 said:

Ummm...so you don't plan to have child care when you are working from home? Good luck with that.

Of course I will have childcare. I just need to arrange for it in advance.

blushingbride_08 · September 2013

PrivacyWanted said:

daisy662 said:

Ummm...so you don't plan to have child care when you are working from home? Good luck with that.

Of course I will have childcare. I just need to arrange for it in advance.
From what you wrote it sounds like you only have childcare when you are going into the office. It's not workable for 99% of wah jobs to not have normal regular childcare even when not going in

I guess im the 1% then bc when I work at home I won't need childcare since I would be working when dh is home from work. I would only need childcare when I go into the office which is not often.

Nechie122 · September 2013

For your first day, I would arrange childcare for the whole day and just suck it up. It's your first day! He doesn't have "time management issues;" he probably has a full schedule and isn't sure yet what his day will look like.

If you agreed that tomorrow would be your first day, then you also agreed to be available to work, and that means childcare arrangements in order. If you send that e-mail, I guarantee it will not go over well.

blushingbride_08 · September 2013

Nechie122 said:

For your first day, I would arrange childcare for the whole day and just suck it up. It's your first day! He doesn't have "time management issues;" he probably has a full schedule and isn't sure yet what his day will look like. If you agreed that tomorrow would be your first day, then you also agreed to be available to work, and that means childcare arrangements in order. If you send that e-mail, I guarantee it will not go over well.

Ok thx. I will still talk to him since we did have an agreement of 3days notice for meetings and he's not following that. And I know for a fact that he has time management issues since that is part of the reason why he hired me to help with that!

LoCarb · September 2013

Agree with @Nechie122. Also, does your employer know that you will be WFH and caring for your child simultaneously? As an employer, I cannot imagine you can be focused 100% on work if your time shared. Finding childcare, is not your employer's issue. I would not bring this up as an excuse to not working. It only makes you look like a bad employee.

Make a good impression your first week and have childcare arrangements set up.

bethenh · September 2013

Bump burp

EastCoastBride · September 2013

Nechie122 said:

For your first day, I would arrange childcare for the whole day and just suck it up. It's your first day! He doesn't have "time management issues;" he probably has a full schedule and isn't sure yet what his day will look like. If you agreed that tomorrow would be your first day, then you also agreed to be available to work, and that means childcare arrangements in order. If you send that e-mail, I guarantee it will not go over well.

Along with this - your boss might have also assumed you'd be coming in as it's your first day? Or was it explicitally stated that you'd be WFH your first day?

Plus, when does your DH work? Are you planning on only working at night? Does your boss realize this? You're saying today is your first day, and that you don't need child care because you'll only work when your DH is home, but yet clearly you're not prepared to work today because you're scrambling to figure out how to deal w/ this meeting.

It's your FIRST DAY. Maybe your boss will suck w/ planning meetings, OR maybe he simply assumed that for your first DAY (or even WEEK) - you'd be fully available.

I honestly put this on you. You're starting a new job - YOU need to be 100% ready to be present and available and IMPRESS them. You go into this w/ an email to your boss about "I NEED 3 DAYS NOTICE!!!! THAT WAS OUR AGREEMENT!!!" on your first day, he may walk away w/ a negative impression of you and be questioning if this is really going to work.

I think you need to decide how important this job is to you, and I think you also need to figure out if working only when your DH is home is actually going to work (and again, does your boss know that this is the plan?). But then again - I question if that's really your plan or if your plan really was "Oh- I can work while my kids are here....".

Nechie122 · September 2013

Nechie122 said:

For your first day, I would arrange childcare for the whole day and just suck it up. It's your first day! He doesn't have "time management issues;" he probably has a full schedule and isn't sure yet what his day will look like. If you agreed that tomorrow would be your first day, then you also agreed to be available to work, and that means childcare arrangements in order. If you send that e-mail, I guarantee it will not go over well.

Ok thx. I will still talk to him since we did have an agreement of 3days notice for meetings and he's not following that. And I know for a fact that he has time management issues since that is part of the reason why he hired me to help with that!

Fair enough, but I still wouldn't go in guns blazing today because he's "not following" the three-day rule. He probably assumed that when you agreed to today as your first day, he was giving you the required notice. I would wait to see what happens from this point forward before you confront him about this. When you meet with him today (either by phone or in person), you could ask about the expectations for the rest of the week, but I wouldn't push harder than that.

blushingbride_08 · September 2013

Thx everyone. Just to be clear i totally get that it is impossible to work without having help to watch lo. However I won't need childcare when I work from home since dh and I would work opposite schedules. I would only need childcare on days when I go into the office which won't be frequently. My manager said he would set up meetings with 3 days notice when I did need to go in the office which is in our contract. This is a part-time job and I won't be clearing my whole day to be on standby for an hour meeting. This week I will let it slide but I will speak to him about it. He seems very disorganized which isn't cool but that is why he hired me for help.

*sparky* · September 2013

I agree w/ECB and Nechie 100%. Since this is your agreed upon 1st day, I would have arranged for childcare for the day and been prepared to work as needed. And, esp, when Friday came along and you did not have a time for your mtg I would have lined something up for today.

Starting a new job with complaining that your boss is not in compliance with your agreement, or by asking if you can push your start day back a few days since you have no childcare, is not a good idea, IMO.

EastCoastBride · September 2013

blushingbride_08 said:

However I won't need childcare when I work from home since dh and I would work opposite schedules. I would only need childcare on days when I go into the office which won't be frequently.

This is a part-time job and I won't be clearing my whole day to be on standby for an hour meeting.

I'm still a little confused. I'm assuming, based on the above, that your DH works during the day and when he's home, at night, is when you plan on working. Is this correct?

If so, then I'm going to go back to what I said earlier-does your boss realize that this is the plan? I ask because it also appears to me that the company's core hours are daytime- "9 to 5". Do they understand that although their core hourse are "9to5" (or whatever close proximation), you'll be working at night?

I'm pushing on this because details are missing! And I'm personally wondering if you were entirely upfront w/ them. While you've put it in your contract that you need 3 days notice, are YOUR core hours also in that contract? Do they know that on a regular basis, you actually won't be available during the day?

cecilyandgautam · September 2013

If he said he'd call you at noon and you were only planning to work part time days, then I would have set up childcare for noon til close of business. You need to be available to work on your first day, even if it's part of a day.

blushingbride_08 · September 2013

EastCoastBride said:

blushingbride_08 said:

However I won't need childcare when I work from home since dh and I would work opposite schedules. I would only need childcare on days when I go into the office which won't be frequently.

This is a part-time job and I won't be clearing my whole day to be on standby for an hour meeting.

I'm still a little confused. I'm assuming, based on the above, that your DH works during the day and when he's home, at night, is when you plan on working. Is this correct?
If so, then I'm going to go back to what I said earlier-does your boss realize that this is the plan? I ask because it also appears to me that the company's core hours are daytime- "9 to 5". Do they understand that although their core hourse are "9to5" (or whatever close proximation), you'll be working at night?
I'm pushing on this because details are missing! And I'm personally wondering if you were entirely upfront w/ them. While you've put it in your contract that you need 3 days notice, are YOUR core hours also in that contract? Do they know that on a regular basis, you actually won't be available during the day?

It is a job with flexible hours. I have occasional meetings in the office but mostly the job is work from home making my own Schedule. My mgr fully understands this! He's the one who explained it to me. He doesnt care when i get the work done as long as it is done by the deadlines. I'm choosing to work opposite shifts from dh. My biggest concern were days when I have meetings in the office bc then I would need to arrange for childcare in advance plus i have other obligations during the day. so i cant simply clear my day just to wait for a last min meeting to be set up due to lack of planning. I ended up speaking with him and he actually forgot about our contract of informing me 3 days in advance for setting up meetings. He's that disorganized and was looking for suggestions on how to improve the process. I offered to help schedule things and he was very happy. Thx everyone for the advice.

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