A lesson learnt

Part of my job is to build trust between my collegues. As with any trust, it takes time to build. With a certain middle aged collegue, I had to spend just abit more time, to prove to him i'm not full of crap, i'm capable to doing my job and deliver on my promises.

It's not hard for people to undeliver. One of the many things I always make sure I do, is deliver on the promises I make. If I don't have time, I'll honestly say I don't have time.

During the past 12 months of my job, I've worked very hard to build a good communication, trust and respect with my referring peers. I have tried very hard not to let them down.

This certain middle aged collegue, took alot of my time to build trust. He initially didn't trust me at all and he expressed his concerns with financial planners very openly. I didn't talk myself up to be on his good side, I just told him that I can prove to him that I am capable and I can successfully do my job. Talking is rubbish, actions will show for itself.

I managed to do that, which lead him to send me a referral of great opportunities. An opportunity to assist a department of our bank who were getting made redundant, because their role was moving to India.

What I did wrong was ask my boss for support, because instead of being supportive, he took the opportunity away from me and gave it to some other collegues in the city because apparently the city is too far for me.

Just because the City planners are not meeting their targets and not busy, it really doesn't mean he can do that.

Respect is one of the most important things to me, whether it's at work or my private life. He didn't ask whether it was ok with me, he just did it. It really annoyed the s**t out of me, made me really really fustrated. Mainly because i've also disappointed the certain middle aged man. He passed me the referral because he trusted me and he knew that I would talk to the clients with care. Now, it's going to be dealt with by staff he doesn't even know.

Thank goodness his 20 years plus in the bank and his 5 years working with my boss, he knows my boss better than I. Instead of me apologising to him, he actually called to comfort me, said he knew that I would be feeling bad and told me I don't need to apologise.

It shows that one, my efforts and my hard work is evident, and secondly, i've learnt to keep my mouth shut and deal with situation between my collegues rather than letting my boss know.
Not the usual way of doing things but maybe that will be better.

I've learnt my lesson.