JOB DESCRIPTION:
We are seeking an Operations Support person extraordinaire, this is a full-time Monday – Friday role based in (small NZ town) central
ABOUT THE ROLE:
- Are you a Jack or Jane of all Trades?
- Do you assume the best in companies and still believe hard work is rewarded?
- Do you lack the boundary control to say no to work assignments?
- Can you execute projects to a high standard with zero budget and no support?
- Are you happy with being paid under $60,000 per year for the next 5-10 years of your career?
- Can you field sexist and degrading commentary from Day 1 of employment?
- Ideally, you are straight, white, male, and conservative
Then we want you!
The role requirements are vast and the rewards are minimal but don’t let that stop you from applying for this fast-paced but somehow equally stagnant role.
We consider ourselves a family here, and much like a family, no good deed will go unpunished and the deeply toxic culture will suffocate you.
You must be equal parts creative and analytical as this role is a straight shot between the 2 and be capable of jumping from one mode to the other at a moment’s notice with zero understanding from management as to why this is challenging.
Be pared to be constantly interrupted and to field direct complaints with no leadership back up when you try to set boundaries to work undisturbed.
While our Sales Team is only small, be prepared that 2 out of the 3 are boys-club farmer-Style “Sales Guys” with zero respect for women, your intellect, or boundaries. Be able to handle targeted bullying by one legacy Sales Guy who wishes you would get back in the kitchen where you belong. And one Team Leader who pinpoints one woman at a time to bully, once you feel the tide turning against you again (for no discernible reason) be sure to execute something in their favor so you’re not in the firing line.
Be ready to fight for fair treatment for the Team Leaders favorite target who is both female and disabled only to have your Directors agree with you and do nothing about it.
A background in all the following areas is extremely advantageous:
- Customer Service
- Event Management
- Finance
- IT Services
- Wellbeing
- Employment Law /HR
- Facilitation and Public Speaking
This role reports to the Operations Manager and the Managing Director, the company has 3 Directors and 1 Operation Manager, Director works part-time as the Business Manager and one Director works part-time as the CFO, the rest of their time is spent being technical engineers to be prepared for them to be so time poor and their focus so torn that while they want everything now, nothing ever happens.
ROLE DUTIES:
1. Adhoc invoicing
There is daily adhoc invoicing to monitor, almost every job completed by the technical team will need to be checked by you and billed accordingly. Be sure to accurately match the completed work to the Clients' Products. The Products are all heavily customized by the Sales Team so expect to get this wrong 99% of the time.
2. Monthly Invoicing
Do monthly recurring invoicing, but do 3 on 3 separate dates of the month, for no reason other than we like to constantly band-aid our inefficiencies as opposed to handling short term pain for long term gain. This is a process that is set up to fail, handled by multiple legacy Excel Spreadsheets, and requires ongoing manual intervention and reworking, so having excellent resilience is key.
3. Reporting
Compile the majority of internal and external reports, all in Excel, these are prone to breakage due to legacy issues and require much manual intervention. Expect to get this wrong every month. Propose on many occasions that it could be streamlined and to use updated software instead, spend 2 years having that ignored as the Operations Manager loves to control and hates change. Expect it to then be his idea 2 years later.
4. Fleet Management
Be responsible for a fleet of 20 cars, ensure the drivers are upholding the Vehicle Use policy that Directors insist on having in place.
When faced with a driver not upholding it, be prepared for the Director to shake his head in disapproval while doing nothing about the issue, be comfortable with having no authority to manage issues yourself.
Get monthly KM readings for each driver, do adhoc visual inspections of the condition of the vehicles, expect the drivers to ignore every request to prepare the cars for this, and rarely show up.
4 of the vehicles are not subjected to any company rules as they are driven by the Directors and the Operations Manager, so please be capable of turning a blind eye to this when it suits them.
Arrange all servicing and repairs, the driver drops off and pickups, and Vendor relationship management, be expected to use your personal vehicle for this with no reimbursement. Expect your Operations Manager to not understand how doing this running around affects your work schedule.
5. Order groceries
One of the benefits of working here is the company provides breakfast daily! Be sure to work hard to provide variation in options and field whinging from almost the entire team about the things you buy. Also, be prepared for the CFO to constantly disprove the cost and ask you to buy cheaper options, buy cheaper options and then field the team being mad at you about the cheaper options. Then have one Director go ahead and buy all the things you were not allowed to so that he’s the hero and everyone’s BFF.
6. Pick up coffee.
Once a month-ish drive to another part of town to collect large bags of coffee beans, get to know the people here they are lovely, and chatting with them is a welcome break in your day, expect to use your own car with no reimbursement.
7. Attend after-hours monthly meetings that have no relevance to your role, be told it is a contractual requirement to attend, do not expect to be paid for this time and when others consistently do a no-show, expect zero discipline.
8. HR
Being well versed in NZ employment law is critical to this role, while, no, your role isn’t technically HR you will be expected to consult on most HR matters and be the Director's sounding board for all HR matters within the business. Expect to be told things that massively overstep the reach of your role, and enjoy being alienated by the rest of the team as it becomes apparent to them that this is what is happening. Be sure to very carefully drawback from this as this Director is known for playing favorites.
While this is “technically” a Mon-Fri 8:30am-5pm role when HR issues happen that no longer apply's. It’s important to have a background in managing escalations as the Director will need help talking down more than one at-risk employee, this may take until 1 am, but that’s ok cause you won’t get paid for it either. Be able to turn a blind eye to inappropriate behavior, bullying, and sexual harassment as it suits the business, however, it’s important that when these things occur to talk sincerely with the victims and give them the impression something will be done.
9. Recruitment
Excellent business writing skills are a must as you will be writing all our job recruitment ads, field all the applicants, recommend ones that look good, and do pre-screening phone calls. Be ready to advocate for the great ones and be ready to handle the disappointment that anyone who is Asian, Indian, or on a Visa will not be hired no matter how good they are. Be ready to answer the door when they come for their interview and give feedback to the interviewing manager on their physical appearance prior to the interview starting.
10. SharePoint
This role is not only creative and analytical is also technical! Obviously, you will have a background in IT services as that is our bread and butter. Ideally, you will have 5+ years of experience in SharePoint administration and front-end customization. A bespoke SharePoint hub that was built by the outgoing Operations Support Role will become your responsibility to manage, keep updated, train others on and be the go-to for the Service Desk team when they have technical challenges. This skill set will be dismissed as valuable until the business realizes SharePoint services are something they can sell to clients.
Please then be prepared for the business to expect to sell your SharePoint services as a product, despite this not being a part of your role, do not expect to be paid anything additional for this service. Expect extreme backlash and a massive guilt trip when you say no.
11. Wellbeing
Along with what you already know about the role the business will also want you to manage a robust wellbeing strategy that includes monthly themes, prizes, motivation techniques, relationship management, and an extremely low budget. You will have zero buy-ins from leadership but be ready to navigate their rage when the annual survey shows that the team is still stressed out, overworked, and underpaid. Expect half the company to refuse to respond to the survey as they feel the business is too far gone, know they are right, try to be upbeat about it anyway.
13. Sponsorship coordination
We love our Community! That’s why we sponsor a Marathon every year, part of your role will be compiling the prize packs for this, please submit your budget request for these 8 months in advance and be ready to execute the purchase of these prize packs 2 weeks before the event as the Directors will refuse to confirm or deny the prize budget until the very last moment. This Marathon event is on a Sunday and will require 6 hours of your time, you will be expected to attend as the business representative, help as needed, take official photos and speak publicly on behalf of the business. Do not expect to be paid for your time.
14. Social Media
You will manage all social media channels, the Directors would like technical updates and general IT facts to be published on the channels, expect them to never provide you with content.
15. Renovations
Our office is not only old, but it’s also extremely poorly designed and depressing!
One of your jobs will be to take over the renovation design and plans, while these have already been re-jigged in excess of 40 times but we’re sure the 70th time will be the charm! Good luck finding any contractors that are willing to deal with you though! Our previous Operations Support person has asked for so many quotes from so many different businesses, most refuse to deal with us now! But never fear the Directors will reject any quote above 5k anyway 😊
16. Training
We believe we’re the best of the best and we train all our people to provide Gold Class Customer Service! The training, which you will have to design and deliver, will be signed off by the Operations Manager who loves it but doesn’t bother actually enforcing it for those who are trained. Your KPIs are heavily linked to customer satisfaction however you are allowed no mechanism to help improve Customer Satisfaction.
17. Quality assurance
Off the back of the Customer Service Training, you will be expected to listen to and Quality Assurance Test 2 randomized calls from each employee person once a month, for maybe once every 2 months, or maybe just as needed, or maybe just don’t do them for a while. The leadership's view on this changes at pace, they will then ask you how they are going. Any negative results will receive a head shake from leadership, but no real action for consistent underperformance.
18. Coverage – all
At any one time, in addition to your current role requirements will also have to provide coverage for the following roles: Operations Manager, the Procurement Manager, and the Service Desk Team Leader. Expect to receive little to no training on how to cover these roles and be crucified over any mistake. Over the Holiday period expect your Manager to schedule themselves and the other 2 off all at the same time leaving you to cover your job plus 3 others, expect to be thrown under the bus for any mistakes made during this time.
19. Internship
You know how we said we love our Community?
Well, another way we show that is with our internship program! We seek young bright people who want a career in IT and help them get trained and experienced, this requires you to go to school career days, host public speaking sessions and put candidates through a custom-built internship recruitment process. It’s paramount that you have the unique ability to connect with teens and are emotionally invested in this program. Know that it’s mostly about looking good to the public but be as genuine as possible.
20. Misc
Your contract has a clause that says “and any other reasonable request” this can mean anything from arranging flowers for the boss’s wife; to booking people's appointments, researching general business needs, to buying booze. They will use this clause to request all manner of things from you, for a time you will think doing everything asked is helpful, and “being a team player” after a while you will realize you are a fool.
WHAT'S IT LIKE TO WORK FOR US:
I’m sure by now you’re thinking “WOAH! This job sounds intense, but I bet it pays amazing!”
We’re pretty lucky here, the structure we work on gives almost all employees the ability to do paid overtime and work towards a quarterly bonus. However, you will be only one of 2 people who are not eligible to participate in this program.
You will have to insist on Annual reviews as the business prefers to ignore them and all requests to increase your salary to market value will be ignored. While this role does pay JUST above minimum wage, we do expect you to be grateful for that and not require a raise for a minimum 5+ years.
What other benefits are there you ask?
Well, we have an onsite gym! But don’t expect to use it during lunch as those who take their lunch breaks in full, anywhere but at their desk, will be frowned upon.
Almost…last but not least; you must have a bubbly and vibrant personality, most of the team are genuinely kind, hardworking souls that have worked here for over a decade however they are all burnt out and underpaid, try and make them forget about that by smiling a lot and organizing a monthly shared lunch.
Finally, we cannot stress enough how important it is that in this role you have no professional boundaries and naively believe the company Directors will manage their business appropriately and ethically. Be prepared that working here will make you consider every life decision you ever made and realize that you too are completely burnt out.
