I work in a small company (10-20 people) with little to no hierarchy. On my current project I'm working with a person whose job it is to distribute the tasks among us, and they make mistakes on a daily basis.
A) I get a task that has not yet been completed by previous departments so I can't start it. B) I get assigned to do procedure A for a task that requires procedure B. C) Tasks will be assigned twice to different people and therefore being done twice.
- I get a task that has not yet been completed by previous departments so I can't start it.
- I get assigned to do procedure A for a task that requires procedure B.
- Tasks will be assigned twice to different people and therefore being done twice.
In all these cases I report back to get the answer "Oh well, it happens sometimes" paired up with praise for my "keen eye". Note that the person is much older than me with a lot of experience and I've just gotten beyond the "starting out" stage.
When I asked them if they could please check if a previous department has completed the task before assigning it (Case A) they responded "Oh I can't track all of this" to which I thought isn't exactly that your job? Also no one I worked with before in the same conditions had an issue with tracking. Another answer was "I give you a lot of tasks at once so I anticipated the previous dept would be done by the time you get to it" and then praising me for being a fast/efficient worker. Overall they never see it as an issue when I have to return tasks.
The only person above them is CEO who cares more about not spending money than improving situations, so I think escalating wouldn't help and only damage reputation.
As far as I can see I'll just have to live with it, but maybe you have an idea how this could be improved?
