tracking work tasks for boss

[Zoe Girl]

Hey all, in my last wonderful conversation with supervisor he wanted to help me be more efficient, and his idea was to shadow me one day. That sounds pretty miserable, and my days are so different I am not sure about how that works. However I did think about having him come on one of the days I cover morning program and stay until 6 pm just to be mean!

Instead I suggested to give him an idea of what I was working on throughout the day. Now I need to track my work and tasks in some way and I don't know if you have any brilliant ideas. I do have a daily to-do list that is paper and goes into my small notebook. It is pretty cool because it is also a bookmark that you can pop in and out. During the afternoons when I am not at my desk I can easily carry it around on my clipboard and then put it back in the notebook. I already have a page in the notebook for basically how many hours I work daily and any travel I could charge mileage for. I am thinking that I can put notes in hour-long chunks in a spreadsheet of some type.

[iris lilies]

Sorry, you did this to yourself. I would have chosen having him come on the worksite because anything else means you have to write long swaths of text, you have to present a day in the life of ZG through written means. That is a lot of additional work. I would not have taken on the additional work. Onsite visit is more effective, too, in showing him That Day in the Life.

Please reconsider your choice. He may not be able to see, through your written narrative, what you think he should know. Sure, it will be uncomfortable for both of you. And inconvenient for him. It may be so inconvenient that he wont even stay an entire day if he evens schedules a day with you at all.

What do you envision he would do during a long, onsite visit?

I do think it is possible that he wont have helpful comments on the day and will not learn much from the visit, who knows.

[Zoe Girl]

Yes I did this to myself, sigh. At the time I suggested this he had been there and went over our meeting time so I was having a hard time getting things done and meeting my deadlines. I kept telling him in different ways that I needed to end the meeting, that meeting my deadlines affected other people and that I was learning from a mistake earlier in the year. I couldn't imagine an entire day and how I would get my work done. There really isn't anything I do during the day that I would not want him knowing about, I stay focused, take some breaks a couple times a day to walk laps around the building, and sometimes call my mother to say hi. However I didn't consider that it is really unlikely that he will show up or even schedule it. He does visit already, he does not seem to have a better understanding of my job from his current visits however.

The narrative may not work either, I am not sure anything will work. I am thinking about just scanning my work hours I record already and my daily task list and sending that to him. It does not break down how much time each item took but it is a good representation of how many tasks I do outside of active programming hours. Then I am not doing any additional work besides what I use to organize myself.

[herbgeek]

I don't think logging your hours will be at all effective here. He wants to shadow you so he can see HOW you are accomplishing things, not necessarily what tasks you are doing, and if there is anything constructive he can help you with. Getting a piece of paper with: did task x 3 hours, task y 2 hours, task z 1 hour is not going to help him help you. He wants to understand does task x really need to take 3 hours, or could she do it differently and get it done in 2 hours instead.

He still may not help you by observing you, but you have taken that opportunity away from him.

Worst case is you are no better off. Best case is he finally understands many of your constraints and does a better job of helping you staff etc.

[nswef]

Zoe, I think the idea of copying what you already have is excellent. He won't read a long explanation, he's unable to understand your work and would never last from 6:30-6:00 but you could give him that option too. Maybe even ask him to help with something while he is shadowing....make him deal with children! Or aides! Or parents! Good luck.

[Tybee]

Remember, you said it very well yesterday, you can't fix him; you have to let go of the idea that you will fix him.

Tell him that you have reconsidered and yes, you want him to shadow you and of course make it one of the long days. That;s not being mean, it's being realistic. This is how he has scheduled you by not scheduling adequate trained staff for the job.

Do not do this recording project--it will not help. You are trying to train him and fix him, and it will not work.

Call him and tell him you have reconsidered, his shadowing idea was excellent, you have changed your mind and you want to do it his way.

That is my advice, anyway.

[Yppej]

I would love someone to shadow me so I could show them all the inefficient, outdated things about our computer system that slow me down.

[mschrisgo2]

Oh Yes, Yes!! Let him shadow you! He needs to experience a long day himself. With any luck, someone will also call out, so he can literally feel "long day already, not enough staff."
Yes, it may feel uncomfortable, for the day, but could be invaluable in the long run. (regardless of a positive or negative outcome)

And by "shadow" I'm assuming, he means literally being by your side, and I would insist on it, so that you can explain as you go along, both foreshadowing and following up on interactions. i.e. "We have 10 minutes until x group arrives, so it is time to set up, here, could you push/carry, whatever, it needs to go there." When you have a minute or two extra because you had (his) help, use it to talk about how you will work to meet client needs, i.e. "I will need to check in with (disabled boy) to see how he's doing today, I need to let (whoever) know that they are being picked up early and remind them where they will be at that time" etc. No sit down, no face-to-face, just literally at your side, unless he actually scheduled meeting time with you and it is scheduled in your day ahead of time.

You might want to give him the overall schedule for the day on paper first thing in the morning. Be sure to note any tasks scheduled to meet deadlines. But, if it were me, I would not even explain any of it, just "this is our day." He may use it or not, his choice and not your concern if he doesn't.

Good Luck! and have fun with it, LOL!

[Side note, I was a master teacher for a nearby university for many years. They sent all prospective candidates to shadow a "real teacher" for a whole day before they allowed them to enroll in the credential program- because they wanted them to have a realistic idea of what they were signing up for!)

[Zoe Girl]

Great ideas, i can tell you know programming ms chris! Sounds like 20 minutes of my day,

[Tammy]

It's a good idea to go with the boss' idea rather than doing it differently. For many reasons. And when he shadows you don't talk to him. He wants to see what you do, not listen to you talk about what you do. Let him watch as if he's invisible. That's the whole point.

[rosarugosa]

I would love someone to shadow me so I could show them all the inefficient, outdated things about our computer system that slow me down.

Yes! That is something considered critical in my workplace, for managers to sit with employees as they go through the work. We call them "Process Walks." The idea is to go to where the work is actually done, and hear from the people who do the work if there is a better way. I've had it happen that I drafted a process that looked good on paper, but then sitting with an employee who was trying to follow the steps showed me there were elements that needed changing. One time there was a process nobody was following as they were supposed to be, and I sat with each employee, learned from them, made changes and then sat with them again. We eventually ended up with a decent process that everyone was happy to follow, and it pulled in ideas and best practices from everyone. I found it a very useful tool when I could find time to make use of it. Haven't gotten to do much of this in recent months, unfortunately. I will also say that we all felt awkward about it at first, but it became something that we all liked and employees would save certain things that they wanted to go through while I was with them.

[razz]

This is really good advice! You have a job to do and he can shadow without interruption. Only then can you arrange a discussion time. Your day is already full, set the schedule and follow it.


It's a good idea to go with the boss' idea rather than doing it differently. For many reasons. And when he shadows you don't talk to him. He wants to see what you do, not listen to you talk about what you do. Let him watch as if he's invisible. That's the whole point.