My profitable observations were not (yet) rewarded

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My ego is quite bruised.

I increased the productive hours of the workday for 80-ish agents by 37.5%+ of the day (3/8 hours in the day, sometimes more) or 160%+ (8 productive hours when we had 5 before, sometimes adding more than 3-productive-hours to the day). This implementation was made before the six busiest weeks in the year. This was not taken into account when calculating who would win the MVP (that comes with a paid week off, a trip to Cancun, an award, and a raise).

I found that the client was not paying us for some of our work, and has not been for 3-4 years. So money will be collected for work done in the past and will mean being paid in the future for this type of work as a result. This was not taken into account when calculating who would win the MVP (that comes with a paid week off, a trip to Cancun, an award, and a raise).

There are other contributions, but these were the major contributions.

I learned that I need to point these things out in the future, because assuming that others will take contributions outside of my job description into consideration when entering numbers into a formula for my job description is something that I should have not done. Doing extra things, that simply must have made impressive profits, were simply not part of the formula that they used. I do not think that it even occurred to my managers to notice or mention that my extra contributions were not in the formula.

People do not question rules or procedures. This behavior is quite something I do not understand. I think that people are just crazy bad at resource management and/or do not care.

Not only do I want to point out ways to be more profitable, but I then also have to remind others that I did so, and remind them that my profitable observations should be taken into consideration. I need to remind people that my contributions should be part of the formula, or they will just plum forget about all of the value that I added that is beyond my job description. Apparently people just do not notice that the formula does not have an "other" entry.

Else they will completely and utterly forgot to add my contributions . . . entirely . . . 100% of them. I suppose in the future, before the formulas are calculated, I need to bet my chest like some gorilla in order to remind people of the value outside of my job description that I added. It seems like a huge jerk move, but else I will not get ANY credit.

Frankly, I was stunned. There is a snowballs' chance in hell that anyone added more value than I did this year. I am a little upset about this, as you can tell.

I was quite sorry to hear this. I hope that posting about your experience helped vent your emotions.



Well done! Although I have worked in a corporate environment before, I now teach Culinary Arts. By MVP were you referring to a Minimum Viable Product?

How were you able to increase the productivity of 80+ agents by a factor of 37.5%? That sounds amazing.



Ah ... did you DOCUMENT this billing shortfall? Did you document how you were able to increase productivity by 37.5%? From what you've said, it doesn't sound as though management was aware of your contribution.



So what can you do to address this oversight without causing offense? Is it too late to approach management over this year's award and promotion? It's admittedly different to vent on this board and another thing entirely to go to management and to angrily shout about this oversight.

Thinking ahead to next year, how could you make management aware of your contributions?



Hmmmm ... well, I'm autistic and I don't question rules or procedures. I don't know about you but rules and procedures serve in part to provide the parameters within which I may function.

The other day I submitted the names of three students for denial of credit because by district policy, they had missed over 10 days of school with unexcused absences. A denial of credit means that regardless of their GPA in my culinary class, they will automatically be failing at year's end.

The AP (assistant principal) came to talk to me about this. He observed that sometimes we have to be flexible in understanding why students from disadvantaged (low income) families can't always attend classes.

When I asked if he was telling me to disregard district policy (which in itself would be a violation of policy), the AP backed off.

I am not entirely sure why he came to talk to me. I did tell him that if he wanted me to withdraw my applications for denial of credit, I would be willing to do so if he could then tell me what revisions to existing policy he wanted me to follow. I would not have had a problem with following a revised policy as I readily understand that the one size fits all district policy doesn't always work and must sometimes be adjusted to fit local conditions. I would have been perfectly happy to follow a revised policy ... but I needed the AP to tell me what this revised policy was. Since the AP was unwilling to do this, I did not withdraw my application for denial of credit.

And really .... I'm a Career and Technical Education instructor. One of my jobs is to prepare my students to enter the work force and I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't hold my students to high expectations. District policy says that students will receive denial of credit for 10 or more unexcused absences. In the real world, anyone who was a no call no show would likely be fired. I don't know of ANY employer who would tolerate TEN OR MORE DAYS of unexcused absences.



Please don't take offense. I don't know you. All I know about your situation is what I read in your post. With this being said, it's been my experience that people who go around tooting their own horn sometimes create a lot of resentment. Are there other ways you could get credit for your contributions without having people think that you're a show off?



Metaphorically pounding on your chest would probably backfire. Some could accuse you of bragging. Others might accuse you of being a glory hound who was trying to steal credit.

Why don't you do this?

Surely you have meetings? Why not go public at these meetings and share some of your ideas for increasing productivity. If you air these thoughts at a meeting, everyone will know that you originated these ideas. You won't need to talk yourself up.

Here's another idea. Anticipate the directions of these meetings. Some employers don't encourage a lot of discussion. Some managers will insist upon leading these meetings but instead of soliciting ideas, the managers will basically outline their thoughts regarding what they think your department should be doing for a coming project.

If you can anticipate what the manager wants, you could quietly gather data and statistics and then wait quietly for the manager to finish. You could then present information that your boss hadn't covered and if you do this well (especially if you're seen as supporting your boss and not making him look ignorant or foolish), you'll come off as a subject matter expert.

In terms of getting credit for everything you've done, that's probably not realistic. You are after all, part of a team and as the Titusville Herald first observed in an editorial that was published in 1960, "There is no I in team."

Sometimes you have to choose your battles and sometimes you have to know when to let things go otherwise like Don Quixote, you'll be forever tilting at windmills.

Be well!

David

Most Valuable Player (MVP).

I am going to a promotion ceremony tomorrow, and they may mention my contributions then.

It is also a good idea to ask if they can add my contributions into the formula for next year.

Well for 3-4 years the call forwarding from my team's client's numbers were turned off at 4:00 PM, we worked until 7:00 PM, and during the busy season sometimes until 9:00 PM or 11:00 PM. It took me talking to five managers, in turn, to find one that believed me. I am glad that the fifth one did. The first four dismissed the idea out of hand saying something like people are eating dinner or something crazy like that. Exactly at 4:00 PM the call queue would go from calls to no-calls . . . well it dropped something like 90%, or more. Effectively to zero for most people. We still got calls that were not forwarded to us by the client. I joked that I could take a nap from 4:00 PM on, and that I should bring a pillow and blanket. I could have seriously napped from 4:00 PM on, only to be awakened by the rare stray call.

Sometimes I have good ideas. I am good at efficiency. I notice these types of things often-ish. Likely never one this profitable. Likely never one this easy to measure with math. This observation absolutely made quantifiable profits. This was real money.

Flipping that switch turned 3+ hours of the day from unproductive to productive . . . across 80-ish insurance agents. This must have been truckloads of calls, sales, and profits. Sales calls go to the client first . . . so a great deal of these were profit that we would not have seen IF they were to call back. Just the brute force of 3+ hours of more productivity, per person, in the day is something huge.

Efficiency seems to be my thing. I am good with managing resources. The client requested a copy of every observation I make, and by bosses seem to forward on observations I make to other bosses. I was stunned to not be thanked for something that was so easy to measure. Something that was, to me, so blatantly obvious. It should have been obvious, right?

I have Asperger's Syndrome and sometimes overestimate what people know or what they will do with the information that I give them. Frankly I think that my managers forgot. At the same time people will often want to share or take credit on this or that idea. I just need to roll with it. I am grateful to have a job. It can be hard to keep a job with Asperger's Syndrome.

I need to find out how to point out my achievements so that they will be measured. I did not pound my chest, and I was not rewarded.



I think that I do this in meetings and in emails.

I may have lost it a little. I think that I saw this coming. I pounded my chest like a gorilla. It may or may not have worked.

Don't toot your own horn but also make sure you aren't invisible to higher ups.

It is likely due to my inability to sell myself.