Would it be greedy of me??

[Mermaid Summer]

I've been thinking about writing a training manual at work and a lot of my co-workers have voiced that they would really like it as we have a lot of products that can get confusing.

This would be no easy task, so far I have made 20 categories of product types (4 of them have 3 sub-categories) to write about, the oral training has to be written down (it the only training we have), our rules and refund policy and finally how to cross sell or upsell. Plus pictures , herb list and their function. If I was to complete this, I would want to be repaid for my work.

Would it be greedy of me to ask my manager to be paid extra for doing the manual? Part of me doesn't want to give it straight to her because the last time I made something with the store, she took the credit (and the raise but that was straighten out later) Would it be wrong to go above her head to her boss after what happen last time???

[SeaGlass Siren]

i dont have too much experience with this... but i think you should talk to her boss about it... but at the same time i dont know if it'll be considered trivial.. so maybe ask your manager. just ask if you'll be compensated for the work? @_@

[AniaR]

If you're in some way working for the company, even if it's just putting together a manual- you should be paid for it. When I'm a teacher I am paid for assembling lesson plans and unit plans. This should be no different, in my opinion. No, you're not greedy. People deserve to be paid for their hard work :)

[Gem Stone]

for one thing, I know bosses (at least mine) don't take your credit. if you do something, you get rewarded for it. however, I wouldn't overstep your manager. it might cause hard feelings. and that's about as far as my advice goes. sorry!:p but I would make sure I got paid for any work I did

[AptaMer]

I've been thinking about writing a training manual at work and a lot of my co-workers have voiced that they would really like it as we have a lot of products that can get confusing.

This would be no easy task, so far I have made 20 categories of product types (4 of them have 3 sub-categories) to write about, the oral training has to be written down (it the only training we have), our rules and refund policy and finally how to cross sell or upsell. Plus pictures , herb list and their function. If I was to complete this, I would want to be repaid for my work.

Would it be greedy of me to ask my manager to be paid extra for doing the manual? Part of me doesn't want to give it straight to her because the last time I made something with the store, she took the credit (and the raise but that was straighten out later) Would it be wrong to go above her head to her boss after what happen last time???

Here are my thoughts on the matter Elaina-Wednesday,

Creating the materials are partof your job, since you're an employee, and if you are assigned the work you should do it, but you have to make sure it doesn't turn into a mess where you work long hours without getting paid, because of assumpitions by your boss and others.

If you get assigned the work, talk to your superiors about doing it one of the 2 possible ways:



Some or all of your regular work gets delegated to others, so that you can spend the time you need during work hours to do the special assignment.
If reassignment of your work would overload other people and cause resentment. talk about bringing in someone like a temp worker to do the excess.
If they want you to keep working full time on your regular tasks, and do the work in the evenings or on your breaks, or whatever, then they should arrange to pay you extra, either overtime salary, or perhaps a freelance contract, to pay you for the work you put in outside regular work hours
Your boss may give you some line about this "looking good" for you and being worth doing for free to advance your career
If they do that, ask for a written commitment, or ask for a metting to discuss this with one of your boss's superiors. In the meeting don't complain about your boss' past credit grabbing (high-level people hate this kind of thing, and besides, the higher up may be very well aware of your boss's credit grabbing and you look classier if you don't bring it up) but just talk about how you would like a verbal committment form the high up on what the benefits would be.
Have an idea about specifics of what results you would like before you go into that meeting.


It's funny you mentioned a boss who grabbed credit for your work. Just a couple of weeks ago I watched an old move Working Girl that was about exactly that. Anyhow, don't do an end run around your boss, i.e. go up the chain from your boss, no need to get into office politics yet. Going around an unethical boss can lead to nasty stuff developing.

When you do the work, be sure to put your name on every draft you submit. Whether it's needed or not, attach a title page that clearly states "Created by Elaina-Wednesday" on it, and name the Word files with a file name that includes your name, something like: Training Manual-Revision 1.1-Elaina-Wednesday.doc

If your boss starts taking your name out of the printouts, or the filenames, this makes it very clear that credit-grabbing is going on.

Also, take advantage of any casual contact you may have with your boss's superiors to mention how enthusiastic you are about the new materials you are creating, and slip in details about the creation that only you could know, so that they're aware that you're the person doing the creative work, and it's not the boss doing the creative work and directing (micromanaging) you.

Hey, and you might get some ideas if you pick up Working Girl (with Melanie Griffith) on Netflix or at the video rental store and give it a watch :)

[Mermaid Summer]

Here are my thoughts on the matter Elaina-Wednesday,

Creating the materials are partof your job, since you're an employee, and if you are assigned the work you should do it, but you have to make sure it doesn't turn into a mess where you work long hours without getting paid, because of assumpitions by your boss and others.

If you get assigned the work, talk to your superiors about doing it one of the 2 possible ways:



Some or all of your regular work gets delegated to others, so that you can spend the time you need during work hours to do the special assignment.
If reassignment of your work would overload other people and cause resentment. talk about bringing in someone like a temp worker to do the excess.
If they want you to keep working full time on your regular tasks, and do the work in the evenings or on your breaks, or whatever, then they should arrange to pay you extra, either overtime salary, or perhaps a freelance contract, to pay you for the work you put in outside regular work hours
Your boss may give you some line about this "looking good" for you and being worth doing for free to advance your career
If they do that, ask for a written commitment, or ask for a metting to discuss this with one of your boss's superiors. In the meeting don't complain about your boss' past credit grabbing (high-level people hate this kind of thing, and besides, the higher up may be very well aware of your boss's credit grabbing and you look classier if you don't bring it up) but just talk about how you would like a verbal committment form the high up on what the benefits would be.
Have an idea about specifics of what results you would like before you go into that meeting.


It's funny you mentioned a boss who grabbed credit for your work. Just a couple of weeks ago I watched an old move Working Girl that was about exactly that. Anyhow, don't do an end run around your boss, i.e. go up the chain from your boss, no need to get into office politics yet. Going around an unethical boss can lead to nasty stuff developing.

When you do the work, be sure to put your name on every draft you submit. Whether it's needed or not, attach a title page that clearly states "Created by Elaina-Wednesday" on it, and name the Word files with a file name that includes your name, something like: Training Manual-Revision 1.1-Elaina-Wednesday.doc

If your boss starts taking your name out of the printouts, or the filenames, this makes it very clear that credit-grabbing is going on.

Also, take advantage of any casual contact you may have with your boss's superiors to mention how enthusiastic you are about the new materials you are creating, and slip in details about the creation that only you could know, so that they're aware that you're the person doing the creative work, and it's not the boss doing the creative work and directing (micromanaging) you.

Hey, and you might get some ideas if you pick up Working Girl (with Melanie Griffith) on Netflix or at the video rental store and give it a watch :)


That sounds perfect.