was the supervisor right?

[package jockey]

In my work area there is another employee that I really don't care for because of past problems with this person trying to order me around (not a supervisor and has been on the job as long as myself) and always talking about me behind my back to others in my area.

I have spoken to my supervisor about this and he has taken action to make sure that this person doesn't bother me or harrass me in any way. Don't mistake me for a whiner because i'm not. The situation was just getting out of hand even though I told this person that I didn't appreciate them trying to act as if they were my boss.

I work in International so tonight at the end of the evening we were cleaning up some last minute packages. My boss came up and asked me if the packages had been done yet. I told him that one was part of a multi-pkg shipment and it hadn't been key entered yet. He asked me if I had asked the other employee if she had the paperwork for the shipment or if she had the rest of the shipment in her packages. I told him I had asked her and she had told me "no".He asked and she said she had the paperwork.So this left me looking like I was lying about asking her.

I made the comment to my boss-out of hearing of my co-worker- "what an a&$, she told me no" to which he replied that my comment was uncalled for and that I should keep my mouth shut. I'm wondering if he was within rights to say that? I'm not trying to cause trouble or anything just wondering if my boss was right in saying what he did.

There are some things that I still don't understand about the company and this is one. I just want to know what is right so I don't get into any trouble is all.

Please don't flame me or insult me..I would just like an honest answer from some of the more experienced UPS'ers here.

 

[pemanager]

In my work area there is another employee that I really don't care for because of past problems with this person trying to order me around (not a supervisor and has been on the job as long as myself) and always talking about me behind my back to others in my area.

I have spoken to my supervisor about this and he has taken action to make sure that this person doesn't bother me or harrass me in any way. Don't mistake me for a whiner because i'm not. The situation was just getting out of hand even though I told this person that I didn't appreciate them trying to act as if they were my boss.

I work in International so tonight at the end of the evening we were cleaning up some last minute packages. My boss came up and asked me if the packages had been done yet. I told him that one was part of a multi-pkg shipment and it hadn't been key entered yet. He asked me if I had asked the other employee if she had the paperwork for the shipment or if she had the rest of the shipment in her packages. I told him I had asked her and she had told me "no".He asked and she said she had the paperwork.So this left me looking like I was lying about asking her.

I made the comment to my boss-out of hearing of my co-worker- "what an a&$, she told me no" to which he replied that my comment was uncalled for and that I should keep my mouth shut. I'm wondering if he was within rights to say that? I'm not trying to cause trouble or anything just wondering if my boss was right in saying what he did.

There are some things that I still don't understand about the company and this is one. I just want to know what is right so I don't get into any trouble is all.

Please don't flame me or insult me..I would just like an honest answer from some of the more experienced UPS'ers here.

As I read it, you called someone at work a name you wont actually quote here. Your boss said that was inappropriate and, basically. not to call coworkers that name again. I do not see where your boss did anything wrong. It is there responsibility to maintain a professional work environment.

 

[JonFrum]

Yeah. Stop talking like you're the President of the United States speaking on national television.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

You were out of line.

 

[dillweed]

In the specific instance you relate, yes, the sup was right to keep you from attacking. Your sup knows there are problems between the two of you and that's the last thing he needs.

Right now is the time for you be stronger and better than your co-worker. Keep yourself above his/her crap. Don't let yourself get dragged into her nightmare. Do your job the very best you can, make sure to be polite to this person (yep, it's hard) when you must be near her. Don't need to like her or chit-chat, just do your job and try your best to communicate in order to get the work done.

Things like this will pop up when you least expect them. In the situation you mentioned, it would have been better to mention to your sup that you had asked for the paperwork and she hadn't given it over. It can be done in private and without anger. If your sup had allowed you to get angry and foul mouthed the coworker would have an excuse to blow this out of proportion.

UPS doesn't much tolerate employees going at each other. Doesn't always matter who is originally right or wrong. It's how you are able to conduct yourself in order to stay off the radar. If your coworker wants to be an a$%, let her. As long as you maintain control, the finger will always point right back at her. Let her have all the rope and maybe she'll eventually hang herself.

I've been in a situation where this type of behavior escalated into a nightmare. Things were not fair, nor were they sane. My coworker, for some reason, has had her butt kissed for at least two years in our building. She's a PIA who shows up if and when she wants, talks on her cell phone, pulls goodies out of her feed sack to eat and just sucks. All of my griping got me in the office and told I would be terminated if they heard one more word out of me. Killed me but I kept quiet and watched. Eventually they went after HER for attendance; probably the only thing they can get her on. I am off the radar and quietly enjoying the show of her trying to get away with more and more. Management has completely stayed off MY butt. I've finally conditioned myself to worry ONLY about myself and let the crap go. You can do it too.

This was a long post but I do want you to realize how dangerous petty situations and people can get. This not only applies to work but to most every annoying situation you come across. I've had many pt sups who understand frustration and have allowed me to come to them to vent. I have told them I don't want to vent on the a-hole and asked if I can come to them. They have agreed and I have often sounded off on them in private. It has worked well. I don't need to do it as often and the sup isn't put in a position of taking sides or not being able to control his people. None of this is personal, you don't suck but you need to make sure your behavior doesn't add fuel to this coworkers personal issues. Make any sense? Hope it somehow helps. Best of luck, keep mouth under control and I hope you get to quietly watch this person take herself down.

 

[grgrcr88]

Yes he was within his rights.

 

[UPSGUY72]

You are both in the union he is not your boss so if he tells you to do something just keep doing what your Sup has instructed you to. Stop engaging with this jerk either directly or indirectly (don't talk to other people about this guy it will just get back to him ) and sooner or later he'll find someone else to bother. However if you do continue to have problems I would find a shop steward first and voice your concerns to them. If you keep going to management they are going to think you are the problem and not this other chump.

 

[pretzel_man]

Seems like your supervisor took steps to keep another employee from harassing you. Imagine the situation he would be in if he allowed you to call that other party names. He would be condoning you harassing the other person.

So, what you really wanted to get across is that you were given inaccurate information by the other person and that you didn't lie. I think if you just stuck to those facts, the supervisor would figure out who the "a&$" was.

P-Man

 

[bigbrownhen]

All you had to say was that you asked her and she said "no". End of story. No need to insult anyone. Just do your job, cover your own backside. Employee's like this come and go, and they well eventually screw up enough to get fired. Slugs come and go, both in hourly and management. All you can do is take care of yourself. For all you know, this person will go into management and then have the authority to "boss" you around and really make your work enviornment miserable. Just don't do anything negative to draw attention to yourself.

 

[stevetheupsguy]

All you had to say was that you asked her and she said "no". End of story. No need to insult anyone. Just do your job, cover your own backside. Employee's like this come and go, and they well eventually screw up enough to get fired. Slugs come and go, both in hourly and management. All you can do is take care of yourself. For all you know, this person will go into management and then have the authority to "boss" you around and really make your work enviornment miserable. Just don't do anything negative to draw attention to yourself.

OR, the person with the real problem is the OP. OP, you said in your post...."There are some things that I still don't understand about the company and this is one." To which I say, that has nothing to do with the company, it's more the matter of you getting along with a co-worker. What your supe did was right, and you're lucky, because your supe could have written you up if they really wanted to. I think you, from what I read, that you are having problems relating to people you work with, and you may want to develop better people skills. Remember, you could have refrained from the vulgar response that you chose, but didn't. In the end, you actually control YOUR responses and what you posted says your response to the person initially "bossing" you around is what got you into this mess in the first place.

 

[over9five]

Yeah. Stop talking like you're the President of the United States speaking on national television.

+1!!!!

 

[22.34life]

At ups ten percent of the people do 90 percent of the work,thats just the way it is.I worked with a girl who was not a sup. but was like best friends with ours she did most of the sups work while the sup talked on the phone or whatever b.s she did.So since the sup didnt do her job the hourly would tell us what to do ,now heres a chick that hasnt been working for ups not even a year and just an hourly like me walking around like she owns the place,their was a time it got ugly between us and i had to talk to the manager about her and the buddy system she had with the p/t sup.My point is this girl was a real p.o.s never did anything spoke to people with disrespect and thought she knew it all,yet they treated her like she was the best thing since sliced bread,but i still managed to co exist with her.this is a common thing at ups,all you can do is do your job and not worry about anyone else.

 

[dillweed]

OR, the person with the real problem is the OP. OP, you said in your post...."There are some things that I still don't understand about the company and this is one." To which I say, that has nothing to do with the company, it's more the matter of you getting along with a co-worker. What your supe did was right, and you're lucky, because your supe could have written you up if they really wanted to. I think you, from what I read, that you are having problems relating to people you work with, and you may want to develop better people skills. Remember, you could have refrained from the vulgar response that you chose, but didn't. In the end, you actually control YOUR responses and what you posted says your response to the person initially "bossing" you around is what got you into this mess in the first place.

Oh dear, do you really need to criticize and turn your finger toward the OP? Is the UPS you work for totally unbiased and clean? Are there no favorites, no politics, no deals betwee management/union?

It doesn't sound to me as if OP has a problem with people, just this one bossy person who is most likely a pain in other peoples' butts too. OP is just trying to figure out what sort of a nuthouse he's working in and what the rules of the game are. To him I say there are no solid rules. The place is insane, the butt kissing is rampant and the only way I've learned to survive is to keep mouth shut and wait for the stinkers to go up in flames. It's vital to NOT be seen as a stinker, hence the closed mouth.

I've seen good people harassed for no reason. I've been harassed, threatened and written up due to the false accusations of a "quota" employee who is more protected than the damned polar bears. I've been in a meeting where she told three straight up lies in a row, each one proven false by a supervisor. After that meeting I was told by a union rep that the ft supervisor decided that one of those lies was the truth so the rep said that's all he heard and therefore it was indeed the truth. BA sat in the same meeting and also peed down his leg.

It's not about the company? Come on, be real. The place can be a real head game. Let's try to support the OP with some compassion and advice to help him stay off the radar.

 

[stevetheupsguy]

Oh dear, do you really need to criticize and turn your finger toward the OP? Is the UPS you work for totally unbiased and clean? Are there no favorites, no politics, no deals betwee management/union?

It doesn't sound to me as if OP has a problem with people, just this one bossy person who is most likely a pain in other peoples' butts too. OP is just trying to figure out what sort of a nuthouse he's working in and what the rules of the game are. To him I say there are no solid rules. The place is insane, the butt kissing is rampant and the only way I've learned to survive is to keep mouth shut and wait for the stinkers to go up in flames. It's vital to NOT be seen as a stinker, hence the closed mouth.

I've seen good people harassed for no reason. I've been harassed, threatened and written up due to the false accusations of a "quota" employee who is more protected than the damned polar bears. I've been in a meeting where she told three straight up lies in a row, each one proven false by a supervisor. After that meeting I was told by a union rep that the ft supervisor decided that one of those lies was the truth so the rep said that's all he heard and therefore it was indeed the truth. BA sat in the same meeting and also peed down his leg.

It's not about the company? Come on, be real. The place can be a real head game. Let's try to support the OP with some compassion and advice to help him stay off the radar.

WHOA, take it easy, sistah, I was just trying to make a point. Basically, the OP needs to just turn a deaf ear/blind eye to the drama and do their job. Who cares what smack people talk as long as you do your job? I was trying to say that this ain't High School, it's a job. If you don't like the people here, maybe you'd like the people somewhere else, or you could just do the grown up thing and go PFFFT, who cares. Why let someone make your life miserable, when you're actually the one in control of whether you are miserable or not?

 

[UnconTROLLed]

At ups ten percent of the people do 90 percent of the work,thats just the way it is.I worked with a girl who was not a sup. but was like best friends with ours she did most of the sups work while the sup talked on the phone or whatever b.s she did.So since the sup didnt do her job the hourly would tell us what to do ,now heres a chick that hasnt been working for ups not even a year and just an hourly like me walking around like she owns the place,their was a time it got ugly between us and i had to talk to the manager about her and the buddy system she had with the p/t sup.My point is this girl was a real p.o.s never did anything spoke to people with disrespect and thought she knew it all,yet they treated her like she was the best thing since sliced bread,but i still managed to co exist with her.this is a common thing at ups,all you can do is do your job and not worry about anyone else.

There's a female non-union hourly admin (doesnt matter that it's female, granted) and she used to tell people to "get off the clock, I don't pay you to stand around"....

LOL...this is some $10/hr scrub , NOT in management ( OMS, etc ) who goes around doing union work when shes done with her 1 hour of typing in the office. She actually lied about being in the union to our steward when she was caught working. He ended up looking through the seniority list and NO she wasn't anywhere to be found. Is that not a perfect example of how sad the state of affairs is in this company?

There are hourlies inside union and outside that are hired simply to union bust , rat out others, and generally kiss ass to persuade the favor of management. I am certain that somewhere in the hiring process, (I mentioned this previously) that the HR people decide whether or not the said person will be supportive of union activities and fully pro -company at all cost.

 

[package jockey]

OR, the person with the real problem is the OP. OP, you said in your post...."There are some things that I still don't understand about the company and this is one." To which I say, that has nothing to do with the company, it's more the matter of you getting along with a co-worker. What your supe did was right, and you're lucky, because your supe could have written you up if they really wanted to. I think you, from what I read, that you are having problems relating to people you work with, and you may want to develop better people skills. Remember, you could have refrained from the vulgar response that you chose, but didn't. In the end, you actually control YOUR responses and what you posted says your response to the person initially "bossing" you around is what got you into this mess in the first place.

...."There are some things that I still don't understand about the company and this is one."

Ok and this makes you believe that I have problems relating to the people I work with? Please. I have only been working for UPS for a couple years and am still learning the ins and outs of the company. This doesn't mean that I'm having problems relating to the people I work with. Several of my other co-workers have noticed how this person is towards me and have said that it isn't fair how she treats me.

I do my work and don't bother anyone.I've never done anything to this person,treated her badly or said anything mean or off-color to her so I can't understand why she has chosen to bother me and continues to do so even after our supe has told her to her to "knock it off"(even the supe doesn't like her whole attitude-which she gives to him as well).

Thanks for the advice Dillweed and yes you are right when you said all I'm trying to do is figure out what the rules of the game are. Thanks for sticking up for me .

Stevetheupsguy, not to be mean or anything. Maybe you should try to remember what it was like when you started working at UPS. You didn't have all the answers either and you had to find out how the game was played just like me. No hard feelings. I know you are just stating what you believe. Let's just agree to disagree and be friends

 

[22.34life]

...."There are some things that I still don't understand about the company and this is one."

Ok and this makes you believe that I have problems relating to the people I work with? Please. I have only been working for UPS for a couple years and am still learning the ins and outs of the company. This doesn't mean that I'm having problems relating to the people I work with. Several of my other co-workers have noticed how this person is towards me and have said that it isn't fair how she treats me.

I do my work and don't bother anyone.I've never done anything to this person,treated her badly or said anything mean or off-color to her so I can't understand why she has chosen to bother me and continues to do so even after our supe has told her to her to "knock it off"(even the supe doesn't like her whole attitude-which she gives to him as well).

Thanks for the advice Dillweed and yes you are right when you said all I'm trying to do is figure out what the rules of the game are. Thanks for sticking up for me .

Stevetheupsguy, not to be mean or anything. Maybe you should try to remember what it was like when you started working at UPS. You didn't have all the answers either and you had to find out how the game was played just like me. No hard feelings. I know you are just stating what you believe. Let's just agree to disagree and be friends

ups is a hostile place to work on the managment side and union,people get jaded after years & years of b.s .After a while you start to think that no one is innocent in any situation,either you screwed them first or you did something to bring this on yourself,this is stuff that people think including me sometimes.I know when i first started i thought to myself "man these people are real d***s" and i mean coworkers not managment and it seemed like the longer they had been there the worse they were but after i got to know em they were cool people just jaded and defensive.I have to remind my self to give the benefit of the doubt and remember there was a time when i didnt know how it works here and sometimes people are genuinely innocent.

 

[stevetheupsguy]

...."There are some things that I still don't understand about the company and this is one."

Ok and this makes you believe that I have problems relating to the people I work with? Please. I have only been working for UPS for a couple years and am still learning the ins and outs of the company. This doesn't mean that I'm having problems relating to the people I work with. Several of my other co-workers have noticed how this person is towards me and have said that it isn't fair how she treats me.

I do my work and don't bother anyone.I've never done anything to this person,treated her badly or said anything mean or off-color to her so I can't understand why she has chosen to bother me and continues to do so even after our supe has told her to her to "knock it off"(even the supe doesn't like her whole attitude-which she gives to him as well).

Thanks for the advice Dillweed and yes you are right when you said all I'm trying to do is figure out what the rules of the game are. Thanks for sticking up for me .

Stevetheupsguy, not to be mean or anything. Maybe you should try to remember what it was like when you started working at UPS. You didn't have all the answers either and you had to find out how the game was played just like me. No hard feelings. I know you are just stating what you believe. Let's just agree to disagree and be friends

Sorry, can't do that at this juncture. Let me point out some things to you. These things YOU said, not me.

I do my work and don't bother anyone.I've never done anything to this person,treated her badly or said anything mean or off-color to her You are correct that you didn't say anything TO her. You told your supe that she was an; What was the word you used? Is that the first time you did something like this? I think not. You probably blabbed like this to another co-worker, and that co-worker told the female in question. It's just like in High School, you talk smack about someone you don't like and eventually they hear about what you said.

Here's an idea! Why don't you just learn to keep your mouth shut, as far as people and their personalities and concentrate on what you're here to do.....WORK!!! Maybe then you'll find that you just blend in and disappear from anyone's radar. The couple of years that you've been here should have already shown you who you can confide in and who you should avoid.

 

[dillweed]

Sorry, can't do that at this juncture. Let me point out some things to you. These things YOU said, not me.

I do my work and don't bother anyone.I've never done anything to this person,treated her badly or said anything mean or off-color to her You are correct that you didn't say anything TO her. You told your supe that she was an; What was the word you used? Is that the first time you did something like this? I think not. You probably blabbed like this to another co-worker, and that co-worker told the female in question. It's just like in High School, you talk smack about someone you don't like and eventually they hear about what you said.

Here's an idea! Why don't you just learn to keep your mouth shut, as far as people and their personalities and concentrate on what you're here to do.....WORK!!! Maybe then you'll find that you just blend in and disappear from anyone's radar. The couple of years that you've been here should have already shown you who you can confide in and who you should avoid.

Take a chill pill buddy.

 

[package jockey]

Sorry, can't do that at this juncture. Let me point out some things to you. These things YOU said, not me.

I do my work and don't bother anyone.I've never done anything to this person,treated her badly or said anything mean or off-color to her You are correct that you didn't say anything TO her. You told your supe that she was an; What was the word you used? Is that the first time you did something like this? I think not. You probably blabbed like this to another co-worker, and that co-worker told the female in question. It's just like in High School, you talk smack about someone you don't like and eventually they hear about what you said.

Here's an idea! Why don't you just learn to keep your mouth shut, as far as people and their personalities and concentrate on what you're here to do.....WORK!!! Maybe then you'll find that you just blend in and disappear from anyone's radar. The couple of years that you've been here should have already shown you who you can confide in and who you should avoid.

Stevethe upsguy,

You are certainly entitled to you opinion but your opinion couldn't be farther from the truth. As I said I"ve never said anything to the co-worker in question or complained to others about said person. The only person I have talked to about the whole situation has been my supe.

But hey you know what? You've made up your mind that I am at fault and and that your word is the gospal. So if it makes you happy so be it.

Are you management by the way because you whole attitude and what you are saying definitely sounds like a page out of the UPS Managers School handbook. TAKE A CHILL PILL BEFORE YOU STROKE OUT.