First of all, I want to say thank you to everyone who commented on my earlier post today. It’s nice to know that people notice and care when something bad happens, even if it’s just shit at work making me crazy. Because I didn’t have time to post during the day and was uncomfortable writing about it while AT work, I’m a little behind on commenting on my friends’ entries, so:
reebert, your new haircut is flattering and gorgeous! 🙂
jes6ica, isn’t proofreading fun? Chemical intelligence sounds like what most drunks have.
jema, we’re reading Lovely Bones for book club at my house next week, and since I recommended it, I can’t wait. I couldn’t stop reading it either, despite the horrific beginning. Have you read Lucky, her first book?
carrieb, wanting to pop your own eyeballs out of your head is definitely not normal, but I can certainly understand the wish 🙂 I’ve wanted to remove my head when I’ve had migraines, but remembered just in time I’d probably need it later.
same_sky and totte, you two crack me up! Thanks for the much-needed laugh today.
ozswede and tallefjantand idahoswede, what a nice morning you must have had! Makes me wish I lived closer to Stockholm (or Örebro) so I could have scored some muffin like Lambi!
It’s really too long a story to get into here, but recently a colleague of mine was given the choice of either being let go in the latest round of cuts or moved out of the marketing department and basically demoted to an assistant while still retaining her work as manager of events and internal communication (read: intranet). The move was handled very poorly by the head of our department and her new boss, who is the HR manager (a consultant, mind you) and the biggest pompous ass I’ve ever had the misfortune to meet. He has the empathy of a cockroach and the people skills of a potato. A bintje potato.
The HR assistant who is a yam (one small step up from a potato) when it comes to the same matters, didn’t say anything when given the sjukintyg except “thanks for making a copy of it.” No questions about what was wrong, was she okay, did she need anything. (This is the 3rd person this has happened to in the last year when going on sick leave). Another person, who, incidentally, is on the management team, walked into my colleague’s office, found her crying and proceeded to ask his questions and leave without a word or any sign of concern.
So, after a couple of months of being treated like crap, she hit the wall, as the Swedes say, and was put on long-term sick leave for stress and depression by her doctor. Leaving the company without an internal communications officer. Meaning that the intranet wasn’t getting updated. It took SIX days for Mr. Potatohead to notice and only then because the IT manager brought it to his attention.
On Friday, Mr. P came into my office and asked me if I would take over the intranet. Without asking my boss or my department head. Because I’m one of 4 people who took the class on how to run the new intranet platform. Because I used to have the intranet responsibility before they decided that it wasn’t really a marketing responsibility and took it away from me over a year ago. Because I’m a woman and any woman will do when it comes to administrative work, right?
I told him no. I have too much to do as it is, and I don’t particularly feel like helping him out of the hole he’s dug himself. He asked the Executive’s assistant (who is doing the work of 3 people already) and she told him no as well.
Today, in our department meeting, it was implied by my boss and the department head that I should HELP OUT by taking over the intranet while V is on sick leave. I told them I didn’t agree, and the reasons why. I don’t agree that it is the marketing department’s responsibility to fix the HR department’s problem especially one that could have been avoided. This escalated into a near-shouting match on the way to the cafeteria with my boss. 🙁
After lunch, where I was silent and obviously upset, I shut the door to my office to work in peace and immediately my boss came back in to talk to me and semi-apologize. He agreed that they didn’t want me taking on the intranet on top of the extra work on top of my regular work that I’m already dealing with. The problem is that because we lost half the department in the last round of cuts, EVERYONE is extra busy and tempers are short. He apologized for making it sound like I wasn’t helpful, and agreed that Mr. Potatohead was a complete ass. But admitted that he didn’t know what to do or what to say.
I feel like this extra work is a freight train coming at me and I’m tied to the tracks. I can see the ugly trend of the same thing happening to me the next time they have cuts if I don’t stick to my guns now. There is something bent about this company and the way they treat their employees and this time I don’t intend to let them get away with it. I think they need to know that their attitude and behavior is WRONG.
And now I’m sick of talking about this and I can’t believe anyone else except the people at work are even remotely interested. If you’ve hung in there this long, go take a valium and lie down now.
This was NOT what I was planning on writing about today.