Hey all. I need some serious help with something work related. Its that lovely time of year known as review time. I have found out thru my immidiate supervisor that (apparently) my peers view me as essentually a smart assed jerk. This really tears me apart simply because its not true. I am a smart ass, but I am that way because I like to kid around and try to bring a smile to everyone else's face. However, my peers don't seem to see this. All they see is be being an asshole. Truth of the matter is (and every one of my immidiate supervisors has said this too), people don't know how to take me. I am very sarcastic, but again, I do it to try to bring happiness to my workplace.
The other day, I sat down with my supervisor that is going to be writing up my review. She had me to go over the pros and cons of my work performance. She agreed with everything that I listed. I tried to express to her that I am just trying to make our work environment a positive place when I say and do 80% or more of the things I say. She understood and again stated that 'people just don't know how to take me.'
In general, I love the people I work with. There are a few exceptions. Those few exceptions are the people that I believe seem to complain to management 99% of the time.
Ok, before I start getting long winded, let me get to the point of my post:
Since about August, my home life has been hell. As some of you know, I am a live in caregiver to my 92 year old grandmother, who has Altzheimer's. Her mental condition has rapidly been declining, and therefore my stress level has skyrocketed. She has gotten to the point where she will as the same question 5 times in 5 minutes. She's in poor physical health, and does things like crawl under the beds, climb up ladders, and other things she has no business doing. This, on top of the stresses of having the water heater blow up, the refridgerator springing a massive leak that has led to the floors rotting in the kitchen, and the washing machine going out, have almost driven me to my breaking part. If that weren't bad enough, I'm having to deal with my parents rapidly declining health. I found out my mother had a stroke, and in the process of finding this out, the doctors found evidence of early onset Altzheimer's (she's 57). She's got a ruptured disc in her neck that is putting massive pressure on her spinal cord, which is causing all sorts of other issues to occur. This is just a small list of the most significant things that have been going on with my family (this is added on to the other problems that I won't go into in this post).
So here's my situation. I am thinking about setting up an appointment with my human resources manager and the store manager to have a talk with them about my work performance. The primary purpose is to inform them of what all has been going on in my home life...and how sometimes the stresses of my home life have affected my work performance. Here's the problem: I strive to keep my work life and home life totally seperate, but its increasingly becoming more difficult to do. I just want to touch base with them and let them know that things have been far from perfect at home, but I am actively putting forth a great effort to keep home and work seperate. In past jobs, I have informed my employer of my home life situations (like when my mother was in hospital clinging to life for close to two years), and it has come back to bite me in the ass. My concern is, if I tell my managers this, will this come back and bite me in the ass?
Another problem that has arisen in the last few weeks is my working hours. I am one of the store's top performers as far as my work goes. I've never had any issue getting 32+ hours a week until now. Sales in our store have been bad since the new year started. This is due (primarily in part) to winter weather. Slow or bad sales equals cut in hours. In the past, I have always been the one who was last in line to get my hours cut. Now, I'm not so sure anymore. Something I want to stress to my manager is that work is essentially my primary escape from my home life. With my hours being cut, now my health insurance benefits are in danger of being cut or lost (and right now, there is a strong possibilty that I am going to have to have back surgery in the not-to-distant future), I am forced to spend more time at home with my batshit crazy hateful grandmother, and now face a shortage of income which means not enough money to pay my bills.
My question is, should I inform my employer of these things? Any suggestions, thoughts, comments, anything would be greatly appreciated.
Unabear.
The other day, I sat down with my supervisor that is going to be writing up my review. She had me to go over the pros and cons of my work performance. She agreed with everything that I listed. I tried to express to her that I am just trying to make our work environment a positive place when I say and do 80% or more of the things I say. She understood and again stated that 'people just don't know how to take me.'
In general, I love the people I work with. There are a few exceptions. Those few exceptions are the people that I believe seem to complain to management 99% of the time.
Ok, before I start getting long winded, let me get to the point of my post:
Since about August, my home life has been hell. As some of you know, I am a live in caregiver to my 92 year old grandmother, who has Altzheimer's. Her mental condition has rapidly been declining, and therefore my stress level has skyrocketed. She has gotten to the point where she will as the same question 5 times in 5 minutes. She's in poor physical health, and does things like crawl under the beds, climb up ladders, and other things she has no business doing. This, on top of the stresses of having the water heater blow up, the refridgerator springing a massive leak that has led to the floors rotting in the kitchen, and the washing machine going out, have almost driven me to my breaking part. If that weren't bad enough, I'm having to deal with my parents rapidly declining health. I found out my mother had a stroke, and in the process of finding this out, the doctors found evidence of early onset Altzheimer's (she's 57). She's got a ruptured disc in her neck that is putting massive pressure on her spinal cord, which is causing all sorts of other issues to occur. This is just a small list of the most significant things that have been going on with my family (this is added on to the other problems that I won't go into in this post).
So here's my situation. I am thinking about setting up an appointment with my human resources manager and the store manager to have a talk with them about my work performance. The primary purpose is to inform them of what all has been going on in my home life...and how sometimes the stresses of my home life have affected my work performance. Here's the problem: I strive to keep my work life and home life totally seperate, but its increasingly becoming more difficult to do. I just want to touch base with them and let them know that things have been far from perfect at home, but I am actively putting forth a great effort to keep home and work seperate. In past jobs, I have informed my employer of my home life situations (like when my mother was in hospital clinging to life for close to two years), and it has come back to bite me in the ass. My concern is, if I tell my managers this, will this come back and bite me in the ass?
Another problem that has arisen in the last few weeks is my working hours. I am one of the store's top performers as far as my work goes. I've never had any issue getting 32+ hours a week until now. Sales in our store have been bad since the new year started. This is due (primarily in part) to winter weather. Slow or bad sales equals cut in hours. In the past, I have always been the one who was last in line to get my hours cut. Now, I'm not so sure anymore. Something I want to stress to my manager is that work is essentially my primary escape from my home life. With my hours being cut, now my health insurance benefits are in danger of being cut or lost (and right now, there is a strong possibilty that I am going to have to have back surgery in the not-to-distant future), I am forced to spend more time at home with my batshit crazy hateful grandmother, and now face a shortage of income which means not enough money to pay my bills.
My question is, should I inform my employer of these things? Any suggestions, thoughts, comments, anything would be greatly appreciated.
Unabear.