Month: December 2018

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Was having a conversation…

I commented on another WordPress post

The original poster on Army Vet Chic was talking about office politics and that they’d been told, based on their social media that perhaps they weren’t the right person for the job.

I suggested that perhaps social media could be used to make people wonder and thereby figure out who could and could not be trusted.

Social media cutsThe original poster said they’d normally do just that but they’d already figured out the lay of the land and that they were going to just keep their head down and do their job.

As I wrote my response (below) I thought it might make an interesting post. So without further preamble here it is.

Got ya, and in times past I’d say that’s a great option.

I work in a company that is basically “Romper Room” too. What I’ve encountered is that from HR & upper management down, everyone is looking for something to hold over someone else’s head.

The environment is not about doing good job or rewarding a job well done. It’s about punishment.

Everyone is repeatedly punished for the “sins” of a few. I think this is because the company is terrified of appearing to be “unfair” to those that are taking advantage, so rather than address issues with the select individuals they make the entire department pay.

I’ve found that keeping my head down and doing my job well isn’t the way to promotion, it’s the way to be ignored.

At the same time when you’ve been maintenance free for a while, and then have any kind of issue it’s treated as a much bigger deal than it should be, or actually is.

Because I don’t post my life on every social media platform 24/7 it presents a problem, because my word isn’t good enough.

This new business model seems to expect your employer to be able to research your social media to verify that you’re actually taking time off to attend to family matters, they expect to see a timeline of posts that you or your loved ones have been diagnosed with some disease.

Only then will they be reasonable about letting you have time off without penalty. Which is why I have over 100 hours of vacation time and can’t get permission to take a few days off for personal reasons.

“Business Needs” are always cited.

I said to my supervisor, “So you’re telling me that the company would rather lose the investment they’ve made in my understanding of the product over the past few years, and have to pay out all my vacation time and current pay period, than let me take a few days off?“

My supervisors response floored me. The answer was, “Yes“.

I think it’s about to change, as companies and poor management come to realize that with a dropping unemployment rate they’re going to have to stop thinking of their employees as replaceable machines.

After I’d posted the comment I thought to myself, “This is why so many companies are in trouble.” This may also speak to why interviews have become “interview by committee” and have the same feel as becoming prom king or queen instead of being about whether you and the hiring manager can work together. 

A department that an employee will never interact with, should have zero say in another manager’s hiring decision.

And yet interviews have become popularity contests and about checking off irrelevant boxes instead of looking at what the potential employee can actually do.

I really miss the good old days when you sat down with the person you were going to work for and actually discussed the freakin job.

Social media may in fact be the worst idea ever. I have nothing to hide, but I also see no reason to stand naked on my front porch.

No-one is perfect and everyone needs privacy.

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I’m getting mean

Not intentionally mind you.

It’s just that everyone is so self centered and in their own little worlds that interacting with ANYONE is becoming so fraught with getting sucked into their shit I’m happier simply staying disengaged.

Almost everyone I’m forced to deal with at work are needy, whiny, people that want to drag me into their victimhood. Deal with that 30 or 40 times a day and add to it the situations where they’re trying to con free shit out of me. It’s only heightened my already suspicious nature.

People on the freeways, in stores, at the apartments are all ONLY about their needs and completely oblivious to the fact that other people are in the world, not to service their whims but to just try to live life.

In the past 45 minutes, I’ve been run over by a woman with a shopping cart who made eye contact with me and could plainly see that I had nowhere to go but she absolutely refused to stop before she hit me. WTF?

I said something to her, “You saw me here, you saw I could not get out of your way, and yet you ran your cart into me despite that. Just what did you think was going to happen? Did you think because I was a guy I’d take it and say nothing? Did you assume that I DESERVED punishment for some perceived slight, or was it just that I am a man and you could get away with it?”

She said nothing, abandoned her cart and fled the scene. REALLY???? Accept some responsibility for the situation that was of your own creation. For all I know she ran to the police or the store manger saying I’d hurt her feelings with harsh words.

Minor damage to my hip probably some bruising and now that I look at it, minor abrasion. I’ll heal. 

So then I walk back home from the grocery store, wincing with each step… Gee Thanks Lady!

I get home carrying my bags and there’s this man, not much older than I and he’s barking “Hey You!” from across the parking lot. I don’t know him, I’m not sure who he’s barking at. As I round the corner to my apartment, he raises his volume to a bellow. I ignore him, he’s yelling, now I’m sure that he is trying to get my attention.

I obviously have my hands full, I’m limping a bit, and he wants me to … WHAT? Help him with his shit??? 

Are you kidding me? I ignore him, I’m not in the fucking mood.

In what universe does anyone think that I or anyone should be obligated to drop their parcels, limp across a parking lot to carry your shit up the stairs for you when they’ve obviously got their own stuff to deal with.

I understand the need for help but how about using some common sense?

I need help sometimes, but I ask people that are able to help. I don’t ask people that are obviously unable to render assistance.

WHY would I place a burden on someone that obviously couldn’t help? That behavior is just bad manners.

Lately it seems that people are just checked out.

It seems that my reaction to it is to check out too.

I wonder if this is some kind of cascade, the “ME” generation of selfish humans has contaminated all the rest of us. We are all reacting to selfish assholes by becoming selfish assholes.