NotKelly Posted April 3, 2009 Posted April 3, 2009 Anyone out there work in a completely chaotic workplace? The kind where your boss is never around, work gets piled on you from here there and everywhere and nobody knows what the hell they're doing? This is the sort of bad job you know you have to quit because it's never going to get better, but (especially with the bad economy) you are stuck. I am sick of getting e-mails at 11 at night (I've learned to turn off my notifications and only check once per night at 7 pm - if it's something really important, my boss can get up the guts to call me) from snotty, demanding people who are no doubt being pressured by THEIR insane bosses. I used to feel guilty about this, like I was being a bad employee. But now, I realize it's me against the world. I will be overloaded to a nervous breakdown if I don't take care of myself. I have an employee to manage: ME. (Nobody else wants to be a manager around here!) Let everyone ELSE run around like chickens with their heads cut off. Except for a few tasks which are very important to do promptly, I am NOT ramping up my pace for these people. Nor am I responding right away to huffy emails sent after hours (for stuff that I did not do wrong, just stuff that prima donnas want). Screw you. Here's an example of what I mean. I am (unofficially - my boss never bothers to tell me this until I'm approached by some other department) doing a lot of huge emailing projects for people. The sort of thing that has to be done right the first time. I get all kinds of crap thrown at me - stuff that can't be emailed, stuff that needs redesigning, and of course they want it done TODAY when the first I heard of it was 2 hours ago, etc. None of this is in my job description but my absentee boss thinks I'm the company whore who can be farmed out to everyone and he doesn't even have to be involved. Anyhow, here is someone who did the right thing by me: He CALLED me on the phone so we could TALK about the project well in advance. He ACCEPTED that e-mail is not an exact science (everyone wants pretty emails but not everyone sees them the same way in their mail clients, etc). He UNDERSTOOD my workload and decided to have an outside designer create something to the specifications of our email handler program, which he knew about by talking to me first. I am always glad to talk to this gentleman and devote plenty of time to his project. I even contact him to follow up on the status, without being asked. See? I can be a dedicated employee if I am treated with professionalism and respect. Contrast this to the other department where some very haughty and high up director ... classic case of HIPPO (Highest Paid Person's Opinion) has directed her flunky to harrass me via e-mail after hours with all sorts of demands, because she's an expert on e-mail and wants what she wants when she wants it (oh and "yesterday" of course). NO ONE from this department has bothered to pick up the phone and call me. Guess what? I'm not responding to your e-mail for another couple days, bitch. And if you don't like it, you can call me, which is when I'll explain the situation to you and attempt to swallow my disgust with you. And if you don't condescend to call me, you can call my boss. Don't really care any more. I am NOT going to cringe under this chaotic company's idiocy any more. Not going to be defiant... just not going to respond. (and yes... I think I'm moving more toward being ready to leave this job after many many years.)
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