Sometimes I wish I'd just kept my mouth shut

I have a coworker that is struggling to keep up with her accounts. There are a lot of factors involved, including high volumes, limited training and poor organization. I've been trying to help her but she is so unorganized that she can't clearly give me things to help her with.

We started out with me helping her clean out her email box. She had over 800 emails in her inbox and we couldn't tell what had been done and what hadn't. I deleted the daily "garbage" emails that don't require review or action and filed those things that were sent to her as back up docs. I also marked loads of emails with follow up flags and added comments to each about what actions she needed to take. I then went to her desk to show her what I had done and ask her to look at the items with the red flags first because they appeared most urgent.

It took me 2 days...but I did it. I also gave her a list of tips on things that I did to keep my email box cleaned up and told her to let me know if she wanted me to show her some other things she could try. I never heard back.

Now, I can't stand to look at her email box because she's back up at 100 unread emails again. She's missed or nearly missed some orders that I've had to point out to her and she still can't clearly give me things to help her with. I think she is also worried about causing someone else to be stressed out so she holds back asking for help.

Last night, I approached my boss and expressed my concerns. I was told that my coworker wasn't worried about stressing me out, she was afraid I would organize her to death and she wouldn't be able to find anything. Um, HELLO!?!?! She obviously hasn't seen her work station lately! She could use a little organization in her life right now.

Then, she went on to say that my coworker felt she had missed some items because "someone" had moved or deletes the emails from her inbox. But she was quick to say she wasn't pointing any fingers. What's funny is, I'm the only one that has access to her emails so, obviously, she was talking about me.

I would bet $100 that the emails she "missed" are sitting in her follow up email box with a red flag and a note from me telling her what needed to be done. I'm sure that hasn't been done so I'm a little peeved that she would accuse me of deleting them. I will be checking that email box on Monday and you can bet I will be informing my boss of the situation if those are all still sitting there, untouched.

This whole thing just ticks me off. She's gotten tons of email complaints from the customers and I think at least one of them has actually called our boss to complain, yet they have done nothing to resolve the issue except tell me to help her...which I can't if she doesn't even know what work she has to do.

Monday we are having a meeting to find out what we can do to get her on track. If this doesn't work, I may have to tell the boss that I'm not going to take time away from my customers to clean up her mess when she isn't even trying to do anything differently. She obviously has no organizational skills at this point and won't take any advice on the matter.

It's not my nature to purposely let someone fall on their face but I guess that is what they want to happen. The environment is not the most ideal and some people just aren't cut out for it. I can't make her be something she isn't...but I'll try. I WILL NOT take people accusing me of doing something I did not!

And I will be removing my access from her emails because I will not be accused of causing her to miss something again!