How to express righteous anger at work
October 3, 2017 7:47 AM   Subscribe

I'm starting to train classes tomorrow and I need access to printing to do so. My manager knows I (and my colleagues) need access to printing, and has known that we are short on toner/paper since last Friday. My first class is tomorrow and we don't have a printing solution.

We've been told (the trainers) in no uncertain terms that if we go outside our organization to print we will not be reimbursed. Does anyone have any idea of what I can say to get my manager to take my printing needs more seriously without being insubordinate?

Again: the manager knows the situation with the printing and has asked one of our admin staff to order paper and toner, without giving us a time when it will be delivered except to say "it's a rush order."

I'm furious and stressed out. I need exercise booklets, quick start guides, tip sheets and sign-in sheets (as well as my lecture notes) printed TODAY so I can train tomorrow. Help me?
posted by Dressed to Kill to Grab Bag (16 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
How are you incentivized? I would be tempted to view this as a case where the company priority is just different than mine, and that's OK. In this case it would mean that printouts are not done, and the first day or two of the class is a mess because your company could not resolve this printing issue sooner. I guess what I'm suggesting is to remove your "self" and let the company make the decision and take the consequences.
posted by machinecraig at 7:57 AM on October 3, 2017 [35 favorites]


Is there a way you can get it on record (with HR or similar) that you could not print your materials due to the lack of ink and paper?

In these circumstances I would expect the first classes to be a mess as machinecraig says. That will not be your fault and don't beat yourself up about it. Instead just do your best while teaching, and find a way to make sure it is on record (however that works) to make sure it is clear that you are not responsible for the problem.
posted by Crystal Fox at 8:09 AM on October 3, 2017


Can you read your lecture notes from a laptop? Is there anything you can use as a projector?

Hand around any sheet of paper (it's ok if it's used); people can sign in on that. If you use it to get their email addresses, you can email materials to them as well.
posted by aniola at 8:29 AM on October 3, 2017 [4 favorites]


Letting the class be a mess because of a lack of materials is a waste of people's time and mental energy....especially yours. You can write HR all the memos you want but it doesn't change the short-term view from your coworkers when this goes down.

Can you ask your manager to postpone the class? When he/she asks, you explain that you don't have the necessary materials to make it successful and you'd rather wait. Let them witness the conflict you are facing.

If they say to just go ahead without it, then you have confirmation from management that the half-assed job is ok. And it goes without saying to GET IT IN WRITING.
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:30 AM on October 3, 2017 [24 favorites]


We can't really know what else the manager has been juggling and can't say whether this is a one time slip up or bad management.

It sounds like the order will come in today, but later in the day. Can you take a lunch offsite to cool off and get the printing done at work later today? Then tell manager you'll be leaving early on Friday (or other day that suits) as you've worked X extra hours today. That would help me mitigate the annoyance and stress somewhat. You could also just go offsite, do the printing yourself to reduce your stress, and focus on what you gain by sucking up the cost this one time.

Tell manager that it's important for trainers to be able to print their materials well in advance of classes, and between that and avoiding rush service fees manager should be motivated to keep on top of ordering supplies in the future. Ask them what can be done going forward so that trainers can do their printing in a timely manner (like when do office supply orders occur, who keeps track of it, what is the latest order time for X dates), and if it's possible to have extra paper and toner on hand for situations like this. I would err on the side of nice to them if you want to get their cooperation going forward as frustrating as it is.
posted by lafemma at 8:43 AM on October 3, 2017 [1 favorite]


Email the files to your students so that they have them. Explain that there was an issue with the printer that you hope will be resolved very shortly. Then improvise. Use your laptop for your lecture notes. Hand around blank paper if you're doing in-class exercises, and let people write the answers/do the work. Whatever would work in your environment.

In future, print stuff up WAY in advance so you always have at minimum a whole class worth of copies on hand (especially anything that isn't going to change regularly, like exercises).
posted by clone boulevard at 8:58 AM on October 3, 2017 [18 favorites]


How do you get your manager to take this seriously? Depends a bit on context, but assuming these are outside customers coming into your company for the first time for this event, and you're hoping to interact with them again, then explain to him that it reflects badly on the company to host an event that is lacking basic information/amenities. Explain why it's valuable to the customer/students to have printed materials rather than written. Suggest that the cost of your time while you're trying to find workarounds is large compared to the Kinkos bill of just getting this stuff printed externally. State clearly what solution you want from him - is it the short-term permission to get externally printed, or the long-term promise that he's going to stay on top of ordering office supplies in future (why is it your boss's job to order office supplies?), or simply the dignity of his recognizing your stress and apologizing?

In any case, know what you want from him, and ask for that clearly, otherwise it can just sound like you're just complaining/venting. "Expressing your anger" is for relationships, "identifying problems and finding solutions" is for the office.
posted by aimedwander at 9:25 AM on October 3, 2017 [3 favorites]


Sounds like you need to postpone the training session. Better to postpone it than have it be a mess.

Don't express anger at the office. They don't care who's righteous. They want problems solved, that's all.
posted by fingersandtoes at 9:49 AM on October 3, 2017 [3 favorites]


I think at this point, a good presentation should be your priority. This is where you get to show you can be flexible. Make a plan B for a paperless presentation in case the rush order doesn't come through.

Paperless presentations are where it's at these days anyway-- you email the materials ahead of time, get the word out that participants need to bring their laptops or tablets (or make printouts themselves if they wish to follow along that way), and you project the materials during if possible. I don't know your industry, but nobody in mine wants to cart around paper and we're pretty old-fashioned in most other regards.

If this is material that truly cannot be successfully presented in a more modern way, and the rush order doesn't come through, postpone the meeting.

If management does not provide what you need to do your job (in general, rather than this being an unfortunate one-time glitch), then you can calmly approach management about this issue with this presentation as your example, and ask how your manager can help you prevent this sort of thing in the future.

Take "righteous anger" out of the equation. It won't solve anything, and it will seep into your presentation and you may come across as unprofessional or odd if you let bitterness and anger come through.
posted by kapers at 10:06 AM on October 3, 2017 [2 favorites]


Just cancel the damned class.

Hey it happens. If the pool has no water, can't teach swim class. Now, it may be that the training can be converted to paperless, but that won't happen by tomorrow.
posted by cyclicker at 10:34 AM on October 3, 2017 [1 favorite]


Your company is telling you how important this training is to them. Cancel the class due to "unavailability of supplies" and document the requests you made to get supplies in plenty of time, and then go do the rest of your job.
posted by COD at 10:47 AM on October 3, 2017 [1 favorite]


I would follow the fine advice above to do what you can with what you have for now and either postpone the class, or go ahead with the class and get creative with distributing your materials, or (if truly dire) pay to print some of the key things you know you'll need.

Then later, at a time when there aren't a lot of deadlines looming and/or you're less stressed out (and therefore less likely to lose your cool at a bad time), schedule a meeting with your manager to talk about your concerns over the consequences of delaying orders of new office supplies, especially re: printing materials. Ask what the current system is for ordering new paper and toner, and if that process could be tweaked to prevent future dire situations while remaining on budget.

Try not to convey your personal annoyance as much as possible--keep the focus on workplace efficiency and office harmony. Who's going to get mad about an employee who cares enough about his or her job to want to change things for the better in such a reasonable way? Only jerks. Document as much as you can, see if your boss is willing to work with you, and if they're a jerk about it, well hey, now you know for sure they're a jerk and can carry on accordingly.

Good luck. This sounds very frustrating.
posted by helloimjennsco at 10:58 AM on October 3, 2017 [1 favorite]


Is the question how to express anger, or how to make your class a success given the situation? Becuase if it's about expressing anger, I don't think you can without coming off poorly and I don't think it will help resolve your current predicament.

If you're looking for tactics to resolve the issue, I suggest you push it back onto your boss by offering two possible solutions. "I can't print the materials required for class because we're still out of supplies, and there's no guarantee the order will arrive today. Should we postpone the class, or can you authorize reimbursement for third-party printing this time so the class can proceed?"

If the answer is "Absolutely no reimbursement!" I'd say "Alright, we'll postpone the class." If boss pushes back on that, ask "How do you suggest we get the necessary materials printed?"

Instead of coming across as angry, you'll be offering solutions, the sub-optimalness of which will hopefully cause boss to associate the conditions (no supplies) with the business-based bad outcome (therefore no class) instead of the interpersonal bad outcome (therefore employee is yelling at me).
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 11:49 AM on October 3, 2017 [5 favorites]


without giving us a time when it will be delivered except to say "it's a rush order."
They likely don't know exactly when the delivery will happen and won't give a time so that no one gets even madder when that time passes without a delivery.
posted by soelo at 12:47 PM on October 3, 2017 [1 favorite]


Agree you need to push this back to your boss in a "well, here are our options" way, and ask "what's our priority?".

I totally get why you're angry, but expressing anger in this situation won't accomplish anything. Your job right now is to get your boss on board with (and taking responsibility for) whatever the next step is. Then you can take a lesson--make sure the next time around you've accounted for this kind of potential delay in your project timeline, etc. And if this is a regular feature of this job, consider whether it's a good fit for you.
posted by msbubbaclees at 3:18 PM on October 3, 2017 [1 favorite]


The anger isn't going to help; finding alternative solutions will. So for the exercise booklets, quick start guides, tip sheets and lecture notes:

1) Assume that printing will be done, but not in time for the first (or first few) classes.

2) Put the documents you want to students to be able to see in Dropbox or Google Drive. (It helps if you make them into PDFs first, but it's not essential. Printing to PDF takes a matter of seconds.)

3) Get the link to them. If you want, us bit.ly to create your own personalized shortened link so the students can get to the link easily, like http://bit.ly/DressedToKillTrainingDocs. (It's super-easy and takes less than a minute.) You can write just that link on a chalkboard or overhead.

I attend professional conferences where the only thing were are given is a bit.ly or other shortened link to all of the materials, and attendees who want printouts are responsible for printing their own if they absolutely have to have papers.

4) Give the link to your students to pull up on their phones/tablets/computers during class.

5) Teach from your own laptop/tablet; put the document on a thumb drive and put it on the overhead projector if you have one.

With regard to the sign-in sheets, go to your public library or pretty much anywhere, spend the dollar to print/copy the sheets, and "cheat" your employer out of the value of whatever dollar or two you spend by taking a longer lunch or whatever, so you feel you've gotten your own back.

Or, create a handwritten sign-in sheet.

The important thing to remember is that the content is far more important than the style of how it's presented, especially the first day. You can explain it as "We're trying to be more eco-friendly" or "We're modernizing our approach and going tech-only, but if you want a printed copy, feel free to print for yourself" or even, "If you want a printed version, please pass your business card [alt: name/email] to the front of the room and we'll have paper versions for those who order them by next Wednesday."

As far as your irresponsible co-workers? There's nothing you can do now, so you can approach it in one of two ways: babysit them the next time by giving them way-ahead deadlines and harranguing them if they don't meet your deadlines next time, or finding someplace else to work. Sartre said hell is other people, and it's especially true for responsible people surrounded by irresponsible ones. I went the babysit-and-scream way for a dozen years, then started my own business where I can only complain about myself.

Control what you can control (what YOU do) and know that we fellow responsible people share your frustration.
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 3:37 PM on October 3, 2017 [2 favorites]


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