Discipline and trust

recently i had to be in charge of our or when the supervisor took the day off. she left me a list of things that had to be done that day. i had techs tell me no that they were not going to do different things i told them needed to be done. they were also telling me what to do and how to do it.one even told me i was not the supervisor. but to me if my suprevisor left me in charge didn't that make me responsibe for getting the to-do list she left done? the next day when she came back she asked me how it went. i said with a little chuckle please never put me in charge again. i would have perfered to leave it at that but she wanted to know what happened. she told me that she heard there was a shouting match in the back. i can't lie. i can't fudge things. i told her what happened. now a couple of the techs that gave me a hard way to go have been pulled into the office and disciplined. i didn't want to get anyone into trouble, but my dept. has be hard to work in lately. everyone is on everyone's back. clicks seem to have formed. i value the people i work with. i want to be able to trust them but fully believe that the techs will set me up for a fall. i don't know how to protect myself. i just was doing what i thought was right...was i wrong???

did the supervisor tell them you were to be acting supervisor that day? i think that the whole team approach is sadly lacking in a lot of places, and i guess your's is no different. it almost sounds as if she set you up, but that may not be the case. i don't think you were wrong to say what happened, but in the same vein, i think everyone should have been in the same room for the same discussion. the techs sound pretty uppity, from your description. i know how that works, and you were put in a tough position. some folks won't do what they're supposed to do unless they have something hanging over their heads (like, the boss!) sad.

Since your supervisor left you in charge for the day, you should have been given the respect of being in charge. I'm sorry you had a bad day.:) Sounds like you work with a lot of ill-mannered adults.

I found myself in this very situation about 6 years ago. I had a couple of people refuse to do their job. I went to personnel and obtained a job discription for their designation and showed it to them. They did their job. If they hadent I would have looked for replacements for them and I can tell you I wouldent have batted an eyelid. Everyone wants to be chief until the going gets tough and then you get the "I dont know how to do that, its not in my job description". You did well though, far more diplomatic then I could have been.