Work - no, I think that's about it
Feb. 13th, 2014 07:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vicarzI've started a job search. I'm not sure this is permanent and I'm not making a big deal of it. I'm not mad right now and actually back to trying to calm my coworkers (who are also engaged in job searches).
About a month ago my boss went on maternity leave, and while there are 2 acting bosses, the boss as of now is the 2nd level boss.
This morning I'm having a tough time as I am asked to edit my long and overly formal email response draft to someone from about 10 days ago, which I had to resend because the boss lost the email, and by requested I mean ordered for his every offhand comment is an order, to make it even more formal and drawn out. It. Is. An. Email, and the original one was likely tapped from the john (i.e. it's not terribly formal). I don't think his suggestions are bad overall, but I'm so conditioned to minutia at this point it's hard to separate that out. For instance, I think the subject he emails me about, and the staff, more than any other, are the mandatory emails he asks us to send out every day we work from home. We all know what he orders is completely contrary to the spirit and intent of alt-locations:
Announcing you're not in the office highlights the issue. The better way to work is to...work, forward your phone, and be responsive. Guidance on the subject is contrary to what he does.
Similarly Dept. guidance is that we should work from the office at least 1 day a pay period (2 wks) while our max is 2 days a week out of office, unless we have medical. We worked for years under the condition of being asked to work in the office 1 day a week. Curiously claiming medical is card blanche to work location and hours as he does this so regularly.
But...even if I ignore the fact my boss has a huge control fetish, even if I get over the degrading mothermayi begging for every minute away from my desk, I have to face the fact that he has ballooned the workload with frivolous reports, micromanaged communications, a constant lack of understanding of the law and customs of employment law, and essentially a rejection of any information provided on the subject. If I get over the degrading bullshit, or his autocratic nature (not mean, just incredibly top-down, unless you so much as blink in which case he starts mumbling and barking out more orders mixed with some profanities), I wind up with the fact that my workload per case is far larger than it used to be with no tangible benefit.
That's not reason to leave on its own - the workload has been greatly reduced, so the increase per case still doesn't require me to do comp time anymore as the number of cases is so low.
No, a recent case exposed me to how unhappy our field managers were even at the top levels. While this top-down abuse is new to me, it's 100% the new issue in the workgroup I left (HR, who cancelled work at home entirely), and the issue as applied even to the highest levels of management. This is an abusive, follow my orders, autocratic mess over here. I've seen it for over ten years, and if I'm not happy implementing other people's orders and shorting my time, if I want to be treated with respect, if I want nonmonetary benefits such as freedom, and if I want a positive and respectful work environment - even if I find it here, it will not last as this is a whack-a-mole theory of management from the top. Most people who were demoralized just retired or otherwise left. Those who stayed echo a familiar wistfulness; the yes massah acquiescence that I bleat when I'm exhausted.
A decade of work is not a reason to stay - it's the reason to go.
The challenge? Finding a better work environment in a similar line of work. I LOVE what I do, but I should not make myself miserable for the space between the lines.
About a month ago my boss went on maternity leave, and while there are 2 acting bosses, the boss as of now is the 2nd level boss.
This morning I'm having a tough time as I am asked to edit my long and overly formal email response draft to someone from about 10 days ago, which I had to resend because the boss lost the email, and by requested I mean ordered for his every offhand comment is an order, to make it even more formal and drawn out. It. Is. An. Email, and the original one was likely tapped from the john (i.e. it's not terribly formal). I don't think his suggestions are bad overall, but I'm so conditioned to minutia at this point it's hard to separate that out. For instance, I think the subject he emails me about, and the staff, more than any other, are the mandatory emails he asks us to send out every day we work from home. We all know what he orders is completely contrary to the spirit and intent of alt-locations:
Announcing you're not in the office highlights the issue. The better way to work is to...work, forward your phone, and be responsive. Guidance on the subject is contrary to what he does.
Similarly Dept. guidance is that we should work from the office at least 1 day a pay period (2 wks) while our max is 2 days a week out of office, unless we have medical. We worked for years under the condition of being asked to work in the office 1 day a week. Curiously claiming medical is card blanche to work location and hours as he does this so regularly.
But...even if I ignore the fact my boss has a huge control fetish, even if I get over the degrading mothermayi begging for every minute away from my desk, I have to face the fact that he has ballooned the workload with frivolous reports, micromanaged communications, a constant lack of understanding of the law and customs of employment law, and essentially a rejection of any information provided on the subject. If I get over the degrading bullshit, or his autocratic nature (not mean, just incredibly top-down, unless you so much as blink in which case he starts mumbling and barking out more orders mixed with some profanities), I wind up with the fact that my workload per case is far larger than it used to be with no tangible benefit.
That's not reason to leave on its own - the workload has been greatly reduced, so the increase per case still doesn't require me to do comp time anymore as the number of cases is so low.
No, a recent case exposed me to how unhappy our field managers were even at the top levels. While this top-down abuse is new to me, it's 100% the new issue in the workgroup I left (HR, who cancelled work at home entirely), and the issue as applied even to the highest levels of management. This is an abusive, follow my orders, autocratic mess over here. I've seen it for over ten years, and if I'm not happy implementing other people's orders and shorting my time, if I want to be treated with respect, if I want nonmonetary benefits such as freedom, and if I want a positive and respectful work environment - even if I find it here, it will not last as this is a whack-a-mole theory of management from the top. Most people who were demoralized just retired or otherwise left. Those who stayed echo a familiar wistfulness; the yes massah acquiescence that I bleat when I'm exhausted.
A decade of work is not a reason to stay - it's the reason to go.
The challenge? Finding a better work environment in a similar line of work. I LOVE what I do, but I should not make myself miserable for the space between the lines.
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no subject
Date: 2014-02-13 11:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-14 12:07 am (UTC)I want to suck less at litigation, and represent the side that should win. Long term? I'll probably wind up in management but I wouldn't call that a goal.
no subject
Date: 2014-02-24 11:18 pm (UTC)That's part of why I stayed with my old job for so long. But my boss' boss was becoming more and more telework unfriendly, and we were reduced from "you can work from home at-will-ish so long as your work gets done" to 2 days a week max to 1 day a week max and she didn't want anyone to do it on Friday.
And so, when it came time to think about work after baby, I opted to leave. Because I can do my job from anywhere, at any time. I can just as easily communicate over IM or the phone or email or Skype. Occasionally we do need to be in person, but come on now. Add to that IT taking away more and more of our admin privileges (some of which we NEEDED to write code) and then fucking up my machine so bad* I basically couldn't work for the last 2 weeks before my maternity leave... feh.
So yeah. Take this as your sign. Micromanagement is enough to drive anyone over the edge, especially if you are used to, able to, and good at working unsupervised. Good luck with your search...
* there was a privilege issue on my machine. I knew what the problem was and how to fix it. I told her how to fix it. She wanted to do something else. I told her it would break things. She did it anyway. Head > desk.