I am working on my management stuff tonight. My assistant is making the type of mistakes that get you fired... She is leaving out critical information that can result in the loss of patent rights. She is a week behind on distributing incoming mail at humongo client and updating the databases. The law firms send their stuff through to humongo client and it is my assistant's job to make sure that stuff gets to me in a timely manner.... If she is dropping the ball with me - she is doing it with the other attorneys she supports... And once again - our work is all about deadlines - the day one of us misses a deadline b/c she didn't get the electronic mail distributed - she will get fired...
She volunteered to take on more work about a month ago for a slight increase in pay when her H was unemployed. I was very surprised at her decision given how overworked she is... but finances were probably a driving factor... She is pregnant w/no maternity leave and her H was unemployed at the time. If she hadn't volunteered - humongo client would have hired another assistant to support us...
Since her H found a job - she has just dropped the ball completely.
I empathize with her situation of being overworked but her performance is unacceptable...
Sigh...I am going to have to let someone at humongo client know next week - otherwise if I miss a deadline - I will be the one on the hook to explain why... And I will be asked to explain why I didn't tell anyone that my assistant is a week behind on her work... There are significant dollars at stake...
It is quite possible that she is planning on quitting... At one time I was prepared to hire her b/c of her work ethic - but I simply cannot afford to hire an all or nothing employee...
For now - well things are taking twice as long as they should... I still have PC work to review and comment on. I am getting very tired of working weekends.
BTW: I have decided to take the entire month of July OFF!! Other than the management stuff - which should not take more than a couple of hours a week by then. I am very tired and burned out. I need time to recharge my batteries.
