Conflict

My point of view: My conflict is my boss. She is not at the center on a daily basis so that she doesn't understand the personalities of the employees or the families we have. She sits at home (although she tells me and the other director how extremely busy she is) and calls us all day long (like we have nothing better to do than sit around the daycare and wait for her phone calls) about stupid things. She sits at home, dreams big unrealistic dreams, and then calls me and expects me to carry them out. She will not deal with anything that involves conflict. If a parent has a problem and tries to talk to me about it I will work with them, realistically, to fix the problem. I call her and tell her what is going on and then she will tell me if she likes the idea or not. If she doesn't she expects me to go back to that parent and change things. The parents look at me like it is my doing and get upset with me. Then I tell them this came from the owner and they are welcome to call her if they don't believe me. Many times they do call her, and because she avoids confrontation, she gives them what they want (which is usually very similar to what I agreed to in the first place). She then calls me and tells me what she has agreed to and makes it sound like it was her idea in the first place. Or when the parent calls her she only hears their side and (of course gives them what they want) then gets onto me for not agreeing to it in the first place. When I finally am able to tell her my side she says that I was right in the first place and to tell the parent she changed her mind (again repeating the first scenario). She calls at the most inappropriate time. You would think that since she has experience (she has been in my shoes before) she would know when to call and when not to call but I think she has forgotten. When I tell her things that the center needs fixed/repaired or about something that would she could do to make things better she looks a the bottom dollar and says no there isn't enough money for that.

My boss' point of view: Why do my directors not understand how much work I have to put into owning two daycare centers? There is a lot of things that have to be done for two centers and I feel under appreciated. Jodi is sometimes short with me when I call her. I call her because I just thought of something that I feel is very important at the time, I don't have time to look at a clock to see what time it is, I just know that I have just thought of this and she needs to know about it or she needs to do something about it. I don't necessarily want my business to grow bigger but I do want it to grow better. Everything I do I do it for my business and my family; however my family comes first. If don't like to disappoint people; I don't like people mad at me; I don't like to be the bad guy when it comes to conflicts. Jodi is not in a classroom everyday so when I call her with something to do she should have no problem getting it done. If she is having a problem maybe she needs to delegate a little better. Maybe some of her problems with me are not really with me but with the fact that she doesn't delegate very much. I have been in her shoes before. I know what kind of paperwork needs to be done. I never had a problem getting it done; I know that she had lots more kids now than I had when I did the work but its not much so it shouldn't take her that much more time to get it done.

The fly on the way: This is all very interesting. Every time Jodi hangs up the phone with Heather her face turns red and she stomps her feet like a two year old. She then takes a deep breath and proceeds to complain about Heather and everything she does to upset Jodi. Jodi talks to the wall in her office. She knows that everything going on between her and Heather have nothing to do with the other employees so she can't confined in them so she just sits at her desk and complains to the wall. I find this very humours. It's almost like she is talking to me about all of this. Jodi thinks she does it on purpose...just to make her life miserable. ~ When Heather hangs up the phone with Jodi she looks like she is about to cry. She turns toward her husband and tells him that even though Jodi never said anything she can feel the distance over the phone. She tells him how worried she is that Jodi is upset with her and how she doesn't understand why Jodi is upset. If she only had to do as much work as I do for the business then she would understand. Pick the kids up from school tomorrow I am going to the daycare tomorrow afternoon to talk to her face-to-face. I would feel so much better if I could talk to her in person. I really hope she isn't mad at me. It's not my fault. I don't want to loose another client. If we loose another client then next year we can't afford to drive to Dallas to see another Cowboys game, we will just have to settle for watching it on tv.