| Food for Thought |
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WARNING: Contents under pressure. DO NOT OPEN IN AN INTELLECTUAL VACUUM. ~ A rubber stamp
In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of. ~Confucius
"The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do." ~Sarah Ban Breathnach
"I would not exchange the laughter of my heart for the fortunes of the multitudes." ~Khalil Gibran
"We must be the change we wish to see in the world." ~Mahatma Gandhi
"How can we say there is peace when so many go hungry?" ~Oscar Arias Sanchez
"Be kind. Everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." ~Attributed to both T.H. Thompson and John Watson
"Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infans. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. ~Omar N Bradley
"If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it." ~Margaret Fuller
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| Saturday, February 18, 2006 |
| Contemplating the Working Life |
I haven't written about my corporate experiences in a while; now that I've read The Company Bitch's harrowing story, I feel positively inspired.
Unfortunately, I don't have her knack for words nor her exciting life, so you'll just have to muddle through the dry words.
I suppose I should begin with the fact that for over the 2 years, The Company (TC) has both won and lost accounts, which is the usual state of corporatehood, as well as gained and lost employees, also par for the course.
However, we have added more accounts than lost (sounds like a reason for celebration, yes? Read on.), and lost many valuable employees while gaining others that are less than stellar.
My department, a whopping total of 10 people, including my boss, has remained relatively stable. I say relatively because there is a core of 5 people who have been there at least 4 years, and another 2 who have been there 2 years. The remaining 3 been comprised of a series of people, who, for one reason or another, did not work out. Easily over 2 dozen people have filled those 3 seats.
Good people are hard to find; good workers are almost as difficult to locate.
So, while our department has more or less had 10 people, TC's roster has grown by quite a bit. However, the cost of winning these accounts would seem to outweigh the benefits. We spend more time, money and effort dealing primarily with small and/or "boutique" clients who usually don't have an understanding of federal regulations. They are, more often than not, penny-wise and pound-foolish, and make irrational demands and have unreasonable expectations of what can and cannot be done, and when.
Rather like retail customers, in fact. But I digress.
What this means, naturally, is that we have a finite amount of people with an ever-increasing workload. However, while other departments have been hiring and continue to hire left and right (albeit they, too, have trouble finding competent people), our small enclave has been relegated to the far reaches, both literally and figuratively.
A few months ago, we were moved into an area far from the execs (actually an improvement really, since it's much more quiet, but from a "power structure" standpoint, rather a slap in the face). And although we are working even longer hours and handling more business, the Powers That Be (ie, highers up and human resources) apparently still need to "evaluate the need" for more editors. Even as we've "won" XYZ accounts the past year alone. We've also run into some very dicey moments, wherein mistakes were made or overlooked, which then led to some very irate clients, and understandably so.
So, while the company "evaluates the need" to add to my department, they overlook the fact that small number of employees + long work hours = more opportunities for chaos, not increased productivity.
I'm not by any means exonerating myself or others for mistakes during the course of our duties and responsibilities. I am simply saying that short-term thinking makes for long-term disaster. In the meantime, there is increasing resentment and anger by other departments at how long it takes us to do our job properly. We are constantly asked to cut corners and yet we become the scapegoats whenever something goes wrong, whether we in fact took a misstep or not.
Have I mentioned editors are the lowest of the low? |
posted by Cheshire Cat @ 2/18/2006 11:30:00 pm   |
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