Records Management: The Redheaded Stepchild of the Office
I work in the service center of a large multi-national company with several business divisions and offices all over the world. The office I work in takes care of the accounting for the business division offices in North American.
You'd think that a company this large would understand the importance of records management from a legal and financial liability stand point. Instead, records is treated like the red headed step child that is only thought about when something is needed and then forgotten about. I'm expected to drop all my other work and let it pile up when something can't be found. Until recently I was also expected to do the same when the document imaging department was backlogged to assist them even though the favor was never returned to me. Then when I'm serverly backed up it gets blamed on me.
There is no official filing standard. When I started we had some people under filing the "The" in a company name, or under a individuals first name, or filling by the first spelled out first letter of a Arabic number or the first letter of the word after it. You get the picture... There is no standard for organizing and classifying documents sent for off sit storage. I still get slips that are missing so much information that I have almost no idea what I'm looking at. I recently found some that simply stated A/P 20010. Umm.. What kind of documents? What number or alphanumeric range?
There are no procedures for keeping track of documents. People pull documents and then hang on to them for months, sometimes years or put them back in the wrong place. How the hell I'm I suppose to keep track of the whereabouts of records if everyone just has their way wily nily with them?
We keep growing and getting in more and more work but it has never occurred to anyone that were is simply not enough room to accommodate the increased influx of documents. We still print out nearly thousand page telecom invoices that take up 12"-16" of space even with CDs and USB flash drive readily available.
I've tried to bring up these issues conversations with my managers and supervisors and correspondence. I just get told ok and then brushed off. I've also brought up the issue with H/R. Again, no results.
I've brought up the need for more storage space.
Instead with the recent remodeling I end up with less space then I started with.
I've brought up the need for an official filing standard ( I even wrote one up based on ARMA standards and forwarded to my supervisor) that everyone should be aware of and be made part of admin training.
Ignored.
I suggested storing huge invoices as PDF files, burning them on to a disk, printing out the summery page and stapling it along with the payment stub if applicable to the slip case and filing that away in order to save space.
Again, Ignored
I've brought up the need for some sort of procedure in regards to accessing records and the implementation of a place holder system in order to keep track of documents.
Instead I have my emails to the office at the beginning of the current year requesting that unless in use to please go though their paper work and turn in the previous year’s documents so that I can file them away and prep them for offsite storage ignored and then end up with 5 + Iron Mountain boxes full of previous years previously misplaced documents dumped on me almost 5 months after the fact. Only because people were cleaning out their desks for the office remodeling and move.
I also get the tax department hanging on to documents that I've been digging through stacks of 30 lb Iron Mountain boxes for but couldn't locate. Well duh, no wonder! I also end up with range # through "As" of current year filing missing because it was packed up, mislabeled and sent off site because the receptionist/office manager was to stupid/hurried to take a quick peek to see what the files contained.
Most recently 10 boxes full of current year filing that I still needed to sort through has gone missing because the room it was being stored in was needed for a series of meetings and have to be moved along with boxes of documents that I had already sorted through and labeled. They swear up and down that there weren't any more boxes. So basically of 10 boxes worth of my work is lost!
I'm left dealing with the mess despite my attempt to be pro active in dealing with the situation. The only thing the supervisor managers care about is getting things paid. The only thing the receptionist/office manager care about is getting things out of the way. They don't care about where it goes until its needed and then the burden falls on me.
The only thing that makes me feel better when I get overwhelmed is looking for another job online or catching up my reading or writing for my class assignments so that I can finally get my BA on the company's dime. It least it gives me a slight feeling of having some control over my situation.
You'd think that a company this large would understand the importance of records management from a legal and financial liability stand point. Instead, records is treated like the red headed step child that is only thought about when something is needed and then forgotten about. I'm expected to drop all my other work and let it pile up when something can't be found. Until recently I was also expected to do the same when the document imaging department was backlogged to assist them even though the favor was never returned to me. Then when I'm serverly backed up it gets blamed on me.
There is no official filing standard. When I started we had some people under filing the "The" in a company name, or under a individuals first name, or filling by the first spelled out first letter of a Arabic number or the first letter of the word after it. You get the picture... There is no standard for organizing and classifying documents sent for off sit storage. I still get slips that are missing so much information that I have almost no idea what I'm looking at. I recently found some that simply stated A/P 20010. Umm.. What kind of documents? What number or alphanumeric range?
There are no procedures for keeping track of documents. People pull documents and then hang on to them for months, sometimes years or put them back in the wrong place. How the hell I'm I suppose to keep track of the whereabouts of records if everyone just has their way wily nily with them?
We keep growing and getting in more and more work but it has never occurred to anyone that were is simply not enough room to accommodate the increased influx of documents. We still print out nearly thousand page telecom invoices that take up 12"-16" of space even with CDs and USB flash drive readily available.
I've tried to bring up these issues conversations with my managers and supervisors and correspondence. I just get told ok and then brushed off. I've also brought up the issue with H/R. Again, no results.
I've brought up the need for more storage space.
Instead with the recent remodeling I end up with less space then I started with.
I've brought up the need for an official filing standard ( I even wrote one up based on ARMA standards and forwarded to my supervisor) that everyone should be aware of and be made part of admin training.
Ignored.
I suggested storing huge invoices as PDF files, burning them on to a disk, printing out the summery page and stapling it along with the payment stub if applicable to the slip case and filing that away in order to save space.
Again, Ignored
I've brought up the need for some sort of procedure in regards to accessing records and the implementation of a place holder system in order to keep track of documents.
Instead I have my emails to the office at the beginning of the current year requesting that unless in use to please go though their paper work and turn in the previous year’s documents so that I can file them away and prep them for offsite storage ignored and then end up with 5 + Iron Mountain boxes full of previous years previously misplaced documents dumped on me almost 5 months after the fact. Only because people were cleaning out their desks for the office remodeling and move.
I also get the tax department hanging on to documents that I've been digging through stacks of 30 lb Iron Mountain boxes for but couldn't locate. Well duh, no wonder! I also end up with range # through "As" of current year filing missing because it was packed up, mislabeled and sent off site because the receptionist/office manager was to stupid/hurried to take a quick peek to see what the files contained.
Most recently 10 boxes full of current year filing that I still needed to sort through has gone missing because the room it was being stored in was needed for a series of meetings and have to be moved along with boxes of documents that I had already sorted through and labeled. They swear up and down that there weren't any more boxes. So basically of 10 boxes worth of my work is lost!
I'm left dealing with the mess despite my attempt to be pro active in dealing with the situation. The only thing the supervisor managers care about is getting things paid. The only thing the receptionist/office manager care about is getting things out of the way. They don't care about where it goes until its needed and then the burden falls on me.
The only thing that makes me feel better when I get overwhelmed is looking for another job online or catching up my reading or writing for my class assignments so that I can finally get my BA on the company's dime. It least it gives me a slight feeling of having some control over my situation.