Last week, my boss chewed me out because I spent 30 minutes surfing the web on a Saturday. This wasn’t eating into a workday, yet I got creamed for it. What’s more, these were actually sites that I was visiting in order to make myself more productive!
Get a clue, boss! I know you’re concerned about the company’s future, but your draconian tactics are just driving this employee away.
Oh, and here’s another thing… If an employee’s surfing the web, that doesn’t mean he’s being unproductive. There are all sorts of things that a programmer can be doing while surfing the web. I’ve spent many nights compiling and refining programs, while surfing the web between compilations.
Even if you do have a problem with this, you can always bring it up gently. You can ask us to rein the surfing in, or to limit our total web time. You can also express concern that we might not be using our time productively. You should NOT chew us out for this without first using the gentle approach!
You keep making noise about how the company needs my services, and needs my work hours, yadda yadda yadda. Well because you keep treating me this way, you shall soon lose ALL my work hours, for all time. So there!
I hope I’m not going out on a limb when I say: For God’s sake, could you not put all this in one thread?
If you’re this redundant at work, no wonder she’s pissed off at you. Sheesh.
One could just as easily argue that combining these discussions into one thread would muddy the discussion. These are all separate incidents, after all, with their own subtleties and their own ethical issues.
If the overwhelming consensus is that these should all be discussed in one thread, I’d be willing to comply. It seems to me that since they cover separate topics though, it’s reasonable to place them in separate threads.
My vote is for either working to rule (as your boss seems to be incredibly anal, and the company’s backing her up on it), or go the other way and just stop giving a rat’s furry little hiney. From what I’ve read about this place, you have no future with this company, except for future contributions to horror stories about the worst companies/bosses you’ve worked for. (I mean that from the point of view that this company is terrible, not that you are a bad worker.) Hope the other job comes through for you.
The ironic part is that, in some ways, it’s the BEST company I’ve ever worked for. The pay is excellent, the work is exciting and the retirement benefits rule. It’s just that the bosses are needlessly inflexible towards the personnel. (That is to say, me! I’m their only employee right now.)
I think that someone of a different temperament would have gotten along well here – someone who kept very regular hours, for example. Or someone with a work ethic like theirs, wherein work = straight work, focused on nothing else and uninterrupted by reveries and seeking inspiration. Unfortunately, many creative types aren’t like that.
Of course, there are other problems as well. The fact that they don’t fully subscribe to the need for design teams, for example. I got myself in trouble recently because of a design decision that they looked at and complained about(three months after I first discussed it with them!).
Just today, we found that a device I was using is malfunctioning. I’m probably going to get blamed for that too, even though I know full well that I was being careful with it.
Whoa! You’re the only employee of the whole company? Or of this division? Do they have any engineers in other divisions that could be floated to your position?
If not, you are the one holding all of the cards! What are you doing taking shit from these idiots? If you do leave, they’re up the creek sans paddles, my friend. Leverage, leverage, leverage! You have the lever and you’re standing in the sweetest spot there is…move the world, here. Take a meeting with the geobitch and her husband and lay out your ground rules. If you’re the only employee here, they can’t afford to let you walk.
Believe it or not, I’m their only employee! The company went through hard times three years ago, and is now rebuilding. They hired me because I could do hardware, software, technical writing and management – and because I was willing to take a risk on their unstable company.
You’d think that they’d treat me better, as a result. Instead, the company’s unstable situation has stressed them out, making them go ballistic on me. Little do they realize that they’re shooting themselves in the foot.
Maybe so, but I really don’t want to stick around anyway. Even if they change their rules, I don’t want to work in that kind of atmosphere. Besides, knowing them, they’d just fire my posterior – and then stoicly suffer the consequences.
I’m expecting a new job offer in a few days. After that, I plan to announce my resignation – then watch them squirm. Boy, I’m gonna love that.
I did my part. I told them how drive-by spying does NOT prove that I’m not working. I explained how engineers can use the web for mental diversions, and to kill time during routine programming tasks. I explained how efficient programmers sometimes require extended breaks, so that they can tackle difficult tasks. And so forth, and so on. Since they choose to believe the worst, let 'em suffer.
Yeah, they need me badly – but instead of being patient and flexible, they let this stressful situation get the best of them. Their mistake, their loss.