A little something about nothing

Assistants

I have been having this ongoing problem with a girl at work who is kind of my assistant. There are only 4 1/2 of us that work here...1/2 meaning one is part-time. They hired this part-timer, Laura, to help me since we had just taken on a new plan last March and it was very, very, very unorganized. She started with getting files put together, filing and simple things like that. Not because we were mean, but she has no insurance background and we figured seeing the different documents would help her get familiar with the terms and such.

It is now almost a year later and we are about 80% done with that whole project and feeling on top of things for the most part. Oh and December and the beginning of January were extremely busy with everyone trying to get their year-end work done. It got to the point I was working over-time, well I'm salary so I guess it just means I was staying late, and Laura was working full-time. Since March she has completed the files and has not taken on the monthly billings and occassion premium payments and dealing with certain service forms for policies.

Now that we can breathe once again, we are noticing errors popping up. I am not saying I am perfect by any means, but it appears we are having communication problems. She takes notes...pages and pages of notes; however, she doesn't use them. I swear I have told her the same information at least 3 or 4 times...UGGHHH!! Also, we rely on the information we have in our files; however, she has a habit of letting her filing pile up until it is at least the size of a ream of paper or more. So when I pull a file and go off the information in it, it is not always accurate as the up-to-date info is sitting on her desk. Don't worry, I won't go listening every little thing she does.

The problem now is that some of the errors have gotten back to our boss. Even though Laura and I both know what truly happened our boss doesn't and I feel it is a reflection of my work. There are a lot of things I can be a slacker on, but when it comes to my work I tend to be a tad anal and over organized. Part of me feels like being a 5 year old and running in to tell him it was Laura's fault not mine, but the adult in me keeps pondering over how to solve this ongoing issue.

I did come up with the idea to set procedures between the two of us and made a list for her to review. I made it generic so it wasn't pointing out flaws from either of us. It has been 3 days and she still hasn't gotten back to me. I am so not good with sharing my work with others...this is why I will NEVER be in managment...I like to do it all myself!!!