work getting me down

[suzie1]

im p*ssed off coz i have been working in a certain office for 6 months now and the lady i work with goes right through me.........when i answer the phone, she will listen to what im saying and then interupts and confuses me, i can not speak to the person on the phone and listen to her at the same time.....she wont let me finish and thinks im telling the person on the phone the wrong thing, even when she doesnt know what the person asks me to get my reply.

if you know what i mean,

she set this thing up as just her, and now i have been employed to help her out, she just hates it that im younger and more calmer than her when dealing with people, she admitted she felt a little threatened by me at first, but she still undermines me, just coz im 2 grades lower than her, but that is by my own choice, i was a higher grade than her in my last job and i decided to apply for this as i hadn't worked for a long time, i dont want to mention it to the manager coz i like the prospects of this job and dont want to work in an atmosphere.what should i do?

[WhiteBear]

start a fight!

[suzie1]

not funnny

[ladyalex]

I think you have to deal with this as I suspect that waiting and hoping that it will get better will not work.
Next time she interrupts your phone conversation , excuse yourself to teh person onthe phone, cover the handset, look your colleague firmly in the face, smile if you can, and say something like 'please dont talk to me when I'm on the phone to a customer/client/colleague' .
If she continues to 'correct' you, simply repeat 'Please don't talk to me when I'm on the phone etc' then keep on doing this. It's hard to do, but she will get the message.
Do not engage her in any other conversation until you have finished the call, then ask her what she wanted to tell you etc.
This is awfully hard to do, but it will work.
As for 'atmosphere'...you're already in one.
Good Luck.

[dothawkes31]

At work I find that if a junior member of staff answers the phoen and then attempts to answer the query without referring to any of the management, they invariably make an error and cause problems, I would imagine this has happened in your place of work in the past and that is why this person is anxious that you are handling the callers query correctly. You need to discuss the situation and clear it up otherwise this will escalate.

[suzie1]

yeah, but she knows more about the job than me and says oh you shouldnt say this/that to the person on the phone, u shouldnt promise them this coz it may not happen, and i dont promise anything, i have me own way of dealing with issues relating to customers and she makes me feel that i have done/or said something wrong, but i know i havent, she is 50 and im 29, i have a bit of experience in dealing with complaints and i have a good relationship with some of the customers.......i dont think she likes it. she feels insecure, she wanted to manage me, but my manager said she cant, thank god

[suzie1]

if i speak to her what should i say without upsetting her?

[dothawkes31]

suzie why have you felt it relevent that she is older than you? If your manager has made those comments to you about your colleague then you have an appalling manager.

[suzie1]

my manager hasnt made comment about her..she doesnt know about this, but when i first started this job, this colleague of mine wanted to manage me and be my mentor, but my old manager said that she would still be managing me. so i thought maybe i should mention it, but i didnt want it to go out of hand, if you know wat i mean, age doesnt matter to me, but i think as shes older, she thinks she can treat me like this

[Canary42]

Why not just hand the phone to her each time ? I'm sure she would soon stop.

[joko]

yes, just say 'one moment, ill just hand you over to my colleague' and let her deal with it...saves you the bother, and you can get on with something else and it will up her workload
(unless its importnat that you take calls yourself for some reason, like sales or somnething)