Frustrated (and ticked): work related

[Doctor P]

The Vice President to whom I report called me in Thursday to express concern over the finances of a major project I just took over (to make a long story short, the fund from which the people are being paid has a huge deficit and is not being funded--much to my surprise). She directed me to get some answers that will allow us to make some decisions about if and how we must cut our losses and meet our obligations without going further into debt. I made the inquiries and was set to put together the documentation to get back to her. Then, I was REFUSED the information by the director of the unit in which my project staff is employed. He said that he could not see any reason why I would need financial records on the unit since I was not its director, and even refused to release the time records related to my project so that I could see how much time the staff was spending on the project vs. how much we had budgeted and paid. I will eventually get the information, but it is tough to be caught in the middle of this and frustrating to not be able to do the job I was assigned. I don't think he sees that I am actually out to preserve, and not destroy, the unit. AAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!! The other thing is that I was put on the project two months ago partially because I am a nonpracticing CPA (I think) and there were some funky things going on in the unit's finances (indeed, the light suggestion made a couple of days ago was that I needed to do a little bit of forensic accounting).

 

[helenabear]

UGH! That sounds like a real pain to have to deal with. I wish you the best of luck in trying to get all that information! I do hope that you won't hit too much more "trouble" when trying to get it!

 

[olena]

Sounds a little fishy....maybe it isn't though. Hope things get straightened out.

 

[Serena]

I don't like the sound of that. It does seem fishy. Hopefully not, but I hope you get the cooperation you need.

 

[Doctor P]

There appear to be a few fishy things, but the director postdates any of the fishiness in any case so I don't think he is directly trying to hide anything. Finances are very tight right now and everyone is watching their back--he and I are both being made accountable for this unit's problems, so we will need to work together and I need to be sensitive to not stepping on his toes while I try to do MY job, but I MUST have his full cooperation.

 

[Doctor P]

WOW!!! Apparently the Vice President spent this Saturday morning intervening and the clear direction was sent that he and his staff were to cooperate with me and give me any and all records I requested (which were actually not very many). As of this afternoon, things appear to be resolved, but I lost a day's worth of work on this high pressure, fast deadline project. Oh well, it certainly could have been a way worse outcome (and I did not have much time to spend on it as it turned out during the meat of the day).