*ring!* *ring!*
Me: "[Golly gosh whillikers] is that my phone? Hello?"
G: "Hey, Tamara... I didn't wake you, did I?"
Me: "No." (<---This is a lie, by the way.)
G: "J. just called in sick. Um, would you be able to come in and close tonight?"
Me: "Sure, okay... Um, I'll need to go get my laundry from the cleaners and run a couple of errands; is it okay if I come in at 7:00?"
G: "Oh, 7:00 is fine; I'll see you then. This isn't a problem, is it?"
Me: "No, no, it's all cool." (<---This is also a lie, by the way.)
Argh.
Answering machine.
ReplyDeleteDon't get a rep for covering absent 'tards or you will be doing a lot of that.
As an unmarried male, I get this all the time. "Sue Ellen has to pick up the crumb crunchers at 3. Can you cover?"
ReplyDeleteMe: I didn't have any say in her having children. "Do I get her pay for the next 2 hours?"
"Sue Ellen needs to take all the neighborhood delinquents to their various activities. Can you cover for her?"
Me: Thinking fresh Soylent Green. "Do I get here pay?"
Etc, etc.
Just say no.
BTDT. A lot. Finally realized that there is no upside to doing it. Co-workers don't care. Means nothing to the bosses, it turns out. To management, you are not one of the players, so you don't count. STRONGLY suggest you find a couple of paperbacks: "Neanderthals at Work", and "Dinosaur Brains". By Bernstein and Rozen. Explains how management thinks, and why people do the things they do at work. Management types REALLY don't think like employees do. (might be pod people) 8-}
ReplyDeleteSince I am in management I resent the statement that we do not think like every one else!
ReplyDeleteI would not be were I am today without the people that work on my team.
I appreciate my folks very much. When they have to do something out of the ordinary for me, at my request I let them know how much I appreciate them. Sometimes only words but in other ways too.
It should always be your choice to step in but don't run down the mamagement because you can't say no.
"Galt. Got a tunnel leak under the Terminal. Can you cover it?"
ReplyDelete"Uncool, man. Bloggin' at Gulch.com."
Pitiable patsy, I went every damn time, right up to the day I disappeared. A nasty Russian bitch in the pit of my stomach just wouldn't let me drink in peace. We had an actual train wreck once,in the middle of the night. I was uninvited, and terribly hurt.
Where I work, they'll find somebody to cover you if they can, but since we're all there every day from open to close, the person who covers you is only losing their prep time.
ReplyDeletePlus, they get paid extra for covering someone.
One of the few upsides of the NEA.
dion - I manage personnel and like you, I strive to be fair, even-handed and appreciative, particularly when I'm asking for a little bit more. However, I'd venture there are more soul-sucking, insensitive managers out there than good ones - and sometimes the only sensible way to stay below the radar with such a tyrant is to never say "no."
ReplyDelete"I'm not even supposed to be here today"
ReplyDeleteA manager said "everybody works on Christmas." Have to "serve the customers."
ReplyDeleteBut of course, everyone isn't working on Christmas. He won't be in the office, he will be home with his family.
Why do you think most corporations have policies giving people time off for things like a death in the family? Because some jerk-off somewhere said "No, you can't have Tuesday off to bury your father. We have customers to think of." Or whatever.
I have worked for some great managers. And I have worked from some world-class creeps.
I was in middle management for a Fortune 500 company, had been through the training courses, and was on track to become a product manager after a certain person screwed up enough to justify terminating them. I was exposed to planning and decision making enough to understand what management was doing, and why.
ReplyDeleteI walked away from the career path when I was required to lie to my subordinates. There was a layoff coming, I knew who was picked (I didn't do the choosing, that was done by higher authority) but I was ordered not to tell anyone on the list they were targets.
One of my people was an elderly lady who was the sole support of her and her husband--he had a back injury, was having major problems being approved for disability, and they desperately needed her income. She came to me one day, told me she had heard rumors of a layoff, and asked me if she was on the list because if she was
she needed to start looking for a new job.
I thought of my wife and two kids who were solely dependent on my income, how difficult it would be to replace my income somewhere else, swallowed my pride (and integrity) and told her she was safe.
On layoff day, I was down in engineering chasing a compatibility problem on a product. When I came back to my office, I noticed that her sweater, normally draped on the back of her chair, the pictures and other personal items on her desk were gone. The viper in HR had struck while I was out of my office, sparing me the bloody task.
I never saw her again.
When a lateral position opened up in another location, I grabbed it.
I have been very suspicious of management's motivations ever since.
Been there, blown that.
For many years, I had a top manager who would not say 'thank you' to his employees, because he felt that signing their paychecks was thanks enough.
ReplyDeleteI outlasted him, and the next 5. The current one appreciates what we do.
Dion, if true, you are quite rare. And, I suspect you do not realize the fundamental differences between you and your peers and higher-ups. And that you will pay a price for that lack of understanding. Get the books. I'm not suggesting that you have to change, but most managers like you never make it beyond lower-mid level due to this handicap. Knowledge is power. If you do not consciously understand, what the others grasp intuitively, you will not win when it counts.
ReplyDeleteI'm a bad one about staying over after shift to work on paperwork, on the sly. I get in trouble if I answer calls and go on the clock without permission. So when someone comes to the door an hour after my shift, knocking on the locked door to the P.D., and I'm sitting there at the desk, in full uniform, typing away on reports, I can't bear to hear it and let it go.
ReplyDeleteSo I tend to answer the door with: "Hi. I'm not here. Is there an emergency? If not, I'll ask you to call the non-emergency number and sit down util someone who is here is here.
It gets a little existential.