| Saturday, October 15, 2005 |
| I've Hit the 200 Mark! (Sort of) |
OK. My counter has made it past 200. 10 of those are probably from you and the other 190+ are me posting, editing, and reposting. Grr arg! :-)
Although Brenda Bryce (hope you survived the stair stepping and aerobics, Bren!) hasn't commented on it, I know it must be on her mind that I've been lax again in posting. Mea culpa. I've had a lot percolating around in my head but nothing I could really commit here and bore you senseless.
I was, however, going to post a separate long and dreary commentary-slash-rant about corporate America, but I think I will add it to the body of this post instead. Yes, that's right: first a bit of faux celebratory news, then a few downer paragraphs. Who says I ain't weevil?
WARNING: CONTINUE TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. (No one but you bears responsibility if your eyes cross, then you zonk off while reading the following, bonk your head on your keyboard or desk or floor, and fall into a coma.)
All right. Because I am a paranoid case (it’s not paranoia if it’s true!), I am composing this separately, then pasting it here. I’ve already lost 2 long posts because of some weird timing thing that goes on with this blog (*shaking fist at screen*), I’m playing it safe…that is, unless my computer crashes again. Yes, it’s crashed twice on me this year. I must have doubles going or something.
So. I guess this is really a 2-part rant.
Long ago -- long, long ago -- I never thought I’d be part of corporate America. You know, that place where you go into an office early, sit at a desk, do whatever it is you do, then leave. Repeat ad infinitum. Can you spell B-o-r-i-n-g!
Thus, for the first 28 years of so of my life, I avoided it. I was in school, working summers, weekends, and at work-study jobs. That’s right, I dodged the bullet for the most part. On the other hand, I was studying (semi) very industriously and didn’t have time to think about anything except eat, sleep, wake, eat, sleep, wake.
Ultimately, I learned that though I loved what I was doing, I did not love the bureaucracy and red tape… that permeates everything and every organization and always will. Just look at our local, state, and federal governments. But I digress.
I took some time off to figure out what to do with myself. Here I was, someone with a lot of training in one area who never thought she’d be doing anything else, who now had no clue what to do and who had no training for any other career without either going back to school or starting in a mailroom and working up. I ended up with the common denominator of those who have either little job skills or are changing careers. Yep, I hit retail hell. In a nonprofit organization, no less.
Surprisingly, I was fairly good at it (I hate retail) but standing on my feet all day and dealing with sometimes wonderful customers but more often horrid, rude people wasn’t exactly my cup of tea. I also couldn’t stand the petty rules and decrees that by turns 1/ made no sense and 2/ hindered work efficiency (sound familiar? Don’t worry; if it doesn’t, it soon will).
Fortunately, before I could bolt (or maybe club a person or twenty) and disastrously affect my poor finances even more (and possibly my personal freedom as well!), I was approached by someone from another department: customer service. Hey! Don’t laugh! I was pretty good. I still have a nice letter from an appreciative customer.
I was there for a month when another opportunity opened up. Believe it or not, I could type 82 or 84 words per minute at the time (no doubt from my stint in customer service) and ended up an admin in inventory control. Yeah, you’re laughing your head off, aren’t you?
Well, to toot my own horn even more, they liked me, they really, really liked me. I was fast, organized, and did good work. I was also using an electric typewriter. You got it; I typed fast and accurately using an electric typewriter. Don’t gag now. I was taken down in speed once I started using a computer. Go figure.
Fine. I admit it. I knew little to nothing about computers, but by golly, I learned. Have I mentioned I learn pretty quickly? (Yeah, yeah, you’re tired of this bragfest. Hang on, the good bits are coming. I get taken down a peg or 500.) I bought some computer books and learned to use Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, which got me decent marks on the exams employment agencies so love to give.
My boss in inventory control was awesome. Let me do what I needed to do to get my work done and didn’t hassle me about anything and everything. No micromanaging. What a concept. Unfortunately, bureaucracy from higher up reared its ugly head. Before I could move from my little alcove to a former teeny copier room (we’re talking about the size of a closet, which is what I think it used to be before it was the copier room), I split the joint.
I next ended up at what was one of the “Big Five” accounting and consulting services firms. Of course, that was quite a few years ago, and the Big Five has been decimated in part by mergers, splits, and financial scandals. But never mind all that. It has nothing to do with my running monologue here.
Anyway, I actually went in for an admin position but ended up catching the eye of one of the partners there -- no, not that type of eye! Get your mind out of the gutter! -- who saw the potential to use my previous scholarly pursuits to their advantage. I ended up consulting for them at a higher salary than I’d had in retail and inventory control (whoo hoo! My finances were looking up! But I was still grossly underpaid. Grrr.). And no, I didn’t do any work as an admin there.
The long and short of that job, which lasted over a year, was I was using knowledge from my training (good) and met a few wonderful people (excellent), but was also traveling nearly every week (bad), working long hours (bad), and sometimes dealing with people overseeing me who had little knowledge of what it was I was supposed to do (BAD). The latter bit translated into gross inefficiencies and disorganization.
It was here that I also learned the true meaning of not managing client expectations. Like so many places, especially in specialized areas, we were short-staffed. How short-staffed? I was the only person from my division in my office in my state as was my manager from her office and her state. The bulk of the people in our division were in Chicago or Atlanta, and even then, our group consisted of maybe 20 people, of which less than a dozen actually did the same type of work I was doing…for the entire company across the United States.
All this meant was that the division had many clients and were looking for new ones constantly (which is standard for any organization or business, of course) but had few people to do the work. Now, I acknowledge that it is difficult to find good and skilled workers (boy is it hard!). What I have problems with is, that knowing you are spreading your workforce thin, you still promise clients that work can be done practically instantly…especially when the work is very detailed and time-consuming. I’m sorry. No matter what anyone says, a building cannot be built in 1 day…unless you’re Amish and don’t use things like electricity, or if you’re a shoddy construction company who uses inferior building materials, don’t care about safety, and are building a one-room hut. And especially not by only a few people. No, I’m not in construction, but you get the idea.
I also didn’t appreciate the fact that I was working very long hours, sometimes being onsite at 5:30 am for days and not leaving till 9p or later, no lunch breaks, and getting snide comments if I happened to leave at 5p one day. One day, when I'd gotten to the client site at 5am! Or being asked why wasn’t I getting more done. Yes, it happened. And yes, I was very angry.
You won't believe me from reading this, but I normally do not go around beating my chest and exclaiming to all and sundry that I’m the bestest person and worker in the entire universe (well, the universe does revolve around me, but that’s another topic entirely), so it galls me when I’m busting my (gargantuan) rear end and doing what I need to do to get the job done -- without griping about it -- only to get turned around and smacked for not doing enough or working longer.
Needless to say, I had had enough. I was out of state on a several months-long project when I sent my polite resignation (with almost 2 months’ notice!) by certified mail. I gave them ample time to find a replacement for me and for me to finish up my projects. The head of my division called me some days later to berate me for my “unprofessional behavior” in sending the letter rather than meeting him face-to-face. Hello? I was thousands of miles away on a long-term assignment that was time-sensitive. How was I supposed to fly to his office to meet with him? Not to mention that it would have been unprofessional to have dropped my work to fly in. I guess I should have been "professional" by resigning, period, without any notice, instead of the nearly 2 months I gave.
I was out of work again, dang it! Took more time off to figure out where to go from there. Read the help wanted ads again. Knew I didn’t want to be in consulting again or work for any of the Big Five accounting/ consulting firms. Re-evaluated my skills and took a leap of faith. Yeah, I changed careers again.
I saw an ad for a proofreading class. It was for 1 day and cost almost $200. Of course, I thought it was expensive. In the short term. But if it could find me work, the investment would be worth it over the long term . To make a long story somewhat shorter, I took the class, went to different employment agencies and eventually found freelance work on the graveyard shift. That led to other opportunities and freelance gigs that eventually led me to my current day job, which goes back to the corporate America issue. You thought I’d rambled so much about myself that I’d forgotten what the original topic was, didn’t you? Yeah, so did I, but here it is again.
Once again, I’m a member of corporate America. Let me list the things that embody corporate America and why I think American business is going downhill overall. Yes, financial wrongdoing and malfeasance is a large part of that, but since I don’t know beans about financial stuff, I’m going to mention the basic things, the daily things, the things that are controllable -- if only anyone cared enough.
In my admittedly somewhat limited experience with corporate America, these are things I’ve noticed are common denominators, in no particular order:
- it doesn’t matter if you’re short-staffed, refused essential resources, or are asked to do impossible things. Get the job done.
- management’s view of reality, which affects their decisions, seldom bears resemblance to the reality of the employees who actually have to do the work.
- any and all clients are acceptable, regardless of the fact that the cost can be more prohibitive in terms of time, effort, efficiency, and financials, than any slim profits that might be gained.
- managing client expectations seems to be either taboo or unheard of. No, the client is not always right and part of an organization’s responsibility is letting the client know that some demands are unrealistic.
- creating ill will for no reason or on the slimmest of pretexts…constantly.
- believing that employees do not know when they are being deliberately slighted, humiliated, and/or insulted.
- human resources seldom helps and does much to hinder you.
- the belief that employees will stay put, no matter what, in a job market that favors employers based on economic necessity…which is unfortunately true in many cases, but not always.
- the belief that an office party or two is enough to retain employees. People don’t want parties. They want more time for themselves and their significant others and family.
- micromanaging your employees, especially when you don't understand what it is that their job entails, not only creates resentment but also decreases efficiency and disrupts work flow.
- solely focusing on the short term inevitably means failure in the long term.
There are other things but every place I’ve worked at in corporate America has exhibited these characteristics. Every place. Those of you familiar with Scott Adams’s wonderful Dilbert comics already know these to be true, so I won’t belabor the point further.
To end on a high note, I’m going to see Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-rabbit today! And possibly beat out Brenda and her kids! Mwahahahaha! Ahem. Weevil? Who, me? Nah. *tee hee*
[For other comments, click here.] |
posted by Cheshire Cat @ 10/15/2005 02:25:00 pm   |
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