I'm The ONLY Serf in a Pile of Overlords, or Would YOU Quit This Job?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

OK. Yesterday got to me. But before I get to that part, a little history:

I’ve worked for nearly 3 years as a bookkeeper/exec assistant/front end desk person for a nice little general contractor. We’ve got about 15 employees, and do both residential and commercial building, and make a pile of dough for our three business partners. I am the ONLY hourly employee in the office. Everyone else, and I mean EVERYONE else, no matter what he/she does, has a manager or owner title after their name, and is on salary. Now, I expect that. This is a small office, homeboy-owned, and everyone working here is a relative, buddy or former business acquaintance of the owner, so if he wants to hand out titles like they actually MEAN something to everyone in his circle of immediate friends/employees, it’s none of my nevermind.

But since I am HOURLY, apparently the rules for regular efficient running of the office only apply to me. I am expected to be here on time, expected to take my hour-only lunch, and expected to stay after work ONLY if asked and for the understanding that any such time will be compensated. All fine by me.

What I am NOT fine with, and what is getting out of hand, is the fact that the “Office Manager” (arbitrary title given to a 7-year employee who does nothing I would consider part of an “office manager” function) has been on time to work only a handful of times since I have started working here, and often takes hour-plus lunches, and then since I leave earlier than she does, skips out as soon as she sees I have driven off in the evening. By original agreement, I was asked to come in at 7:30 AM instead of 8 AM, and thus entitled to the “early” lunch hour. That was usurped by the “Office Manager” a year ago because she “needs to have lunch every single day with a friend of hers at the early time”. So she’s in about 8:15 or later every morning (because she knows I will be here, promptly, to cover if something is needed) and then she gets lunch at 11:30 AM.

So far, a little advantage is being taken of me, but nothing too horrible…until lately. This month, she has apparently decided that a mere hour isn’t enough for lunch with her buddy, and she has been stretching it every day into an extra 1/2 hour or more (yesterday, OVER 2 HOURS!) Then when she gets back, she tells me to “hurry up and get my lunch out of the way” so she can go run office errands (apparently that is the definition of “office manager” to her) and she often stretches these errands to completely fill up her afternoon, sometimes stopping back in and sometimes not.

You’d think I’d be happy to have her gone for the bulk of most days, and usually I am, but it is the later-and-later-in-the-afternoon lunches that are really getting to me. I have been forced to bring in snacks every day to keep me going from 7:30 to about 1:30 or later (only a problem if I want to take myself to a nice lunch occasionally & read, because I must either wait and starve, or eat something and then feel somewhat full). I cannot make plans of my own for lunch. I cannot make appointments for anytime around the noon hour because I cannot count on her. (One of the two of us must be here to answer phones per the owner, a reasonable request). And she feels she is entitled to this because she has been here for 7 years, is the “office manager”, & is on salary and thus can define her own timetables.

Did I mention that I got into trouble (a light warning, but still…) two months ago because I had had some difficulty getting into work right at 7:30 AM (getting kids off to school in the morning)? I admitted I had done “wrong”, improved completely, and yet seem to be the ONLY one subject to the rules of time in the office. I don’t want to feel resentful, but I do.

Oh, yeah—because everyone is related or buddies from way back, I have no one I can go to about her advantage-taking, without it reflecting poorly on me. Also, it is NOTICED by the other overlords that she does this, and not a word is ever said to her, or I’d see some effort on her part to stop her ridiculous hour-keeping. Instead, it gets worse and worse.

My intention is to quit this summer. I have other plans, but if I didn’t, I would likely quit anyway, and let the whole collection of overlords have it during my exit interview.

Would YOU stay, or how would you deal with this situation? The “office manager” is 28, by the way, and this is her first job (friend of the owner’s family, has been here since she was 21, etc.). Also: she’s 300 lbs., on Prozac since she was 13, and thinks the 20-year-old buddy she eats lunch with is going to fall in love with her at some point when I see zero evidence of this ever happening. I’m 49, obviously more experienced, but I sure cannot think of another way out of this without ruining the business relationship for me.

Tired of “serf-ing”,
Beck

2

From what you’ve said here, you aren’t actually being taken advantage of. You get paid for the time you work, you aren’t expected to do someone else’s job, you aren’t expected to do a different job than the one you were hired for - you’re just not getting treated as well as other people, and I can see where that would be annoying. If you’re planning to quit anyway, I’d say the one fight you might win is asking to have a standard lunch time.

3

I agree withFeatherlou. You’re not being abused. However, I’d speak to one of the many owners about your lunch, since you do need to eat on a timely basis. I wouldn’t be accusatory, since the OM is a crony, just tell them that since you’re coming in so early, you need to be able to take lunch by 12:30. If they want to move your start time later, they can do that. If after 3 years you aren’t a crony, too, then you probably will never be. So do your job and look for something that’s more acceptable to you.

StG

4

This is absolutely standard.

You should fight for your lunch break, but otherwise I don’t really see that you’re being taken advantage of. Someone else with a different job title having more perks is par for the course at every job I’ve ever heard of. She’s salaried, so her rules are different. That’s always going to be the case.

5

Well… to be frank, with the exception of you going hungry, this is all stuff you can’t change, you are quitting in 2-5 months anyway so “letting them have it” is only going to burn bridges and potentially crimp any new job hunts in the future.

If they’re making a bucket of money it’s theirs to spend how they see fit re keeping this slacking employee on board. Put your foot down re being able to start lunch, but (again strictly IMO) getting lunch at 1:30 doesn’t really (to me) qualify as that big a deal, but I’m eating breakfast or snacking between 7:00 - 7:30 not 6-6:30 like you are, so YYMV. Going past that is getting into unacceptable territory.

6

I understand that having a weird lunch break situation sucks, but if you can eat granola bars or something at your desk to tide yourself over I would suck it up and deal with it since you are leaving anyway. If she is really that bad at her job she will eventually expose herself as incompetent and will be fired.

Also, how do you know she is leaving once she sees you drive away? Do you come back and watch to see when she leaves? She may be staying late into the night to make up for the fact that she doesnt come in as early as you do.

Just an aside FWIW, you seem to be harboring feelings of dislike and resentment towards her for reasons not related to your job at all. Her age, weight and lovelife don’t have anything to do with you and don’t impact her ability to do her job. I know that sometimes when you start to lose respect for someone and begin to dislike them other things about them start to bother you that you hadn’t ever considered before. I am assuming this is the case and that until you started feeling shafted in your job you didn’t feel like her weight or her age or whatever was a big deal at all. I would let these things go and just focus on the job at hand while you are waiting to leave.

7

Any company that refuses to respect the break time of their front desk employee deserves turnover/retention problems. Especially if the front desk person happens to be the only hourly employee. Rebecca, you’re probably not the first person they’ve lost because of this, and you probably won’t be the last, so venting your frustrations when you leave won’t serve any purpose.

It might be an exercise in assertiveness (not bitchiness) to let at least two people know, in writing, that you need your lunch at a time you can count on (state specifically the time you want). Even if flexibility is required once a week, daily uncertainty shouldn’t be tolerated.

Having been, at various times, the receptionist, the relief receptionist, and the supervisor for the receptionist, I don’t believe that being a doormat is part of the job. And yeah, the rest of “office manager’s” behavior sounds annoying, but really isn’t your issue.

Gook luck holding on until you’re ready to go.

8

Can you go to her in the morning and tell her you have a specific thing to do at lunch and can she be back by then?

Or set up a weekly lunch schedule?

Or tell that skanky bitch to shove it up her entitled ass and get the fuck outta dodge?

I don’t think it’s fair that you have to constantly change your lunch hour to suit her. Yes you’re the low man on the totem pole, but that shit doesn’t fly with me.

9

Well, I think you should certainly speak up about your lunch - it’s not fair to never be able to plan to be away from the office, but other than that it sounds like they treat you ok.

If you’re planning on leaving anyway, I’m not sure I would make a fuss. FWIW, I don’t think you’re respective ages have much to do with anything - I supervise people that are older than me all the time. If she doesn’t do her job or does it poorly, the only people negetively effected are the bosses and if they aren’t bothered, you shouldn’t be either.

I would speak up about the lunch thing though.

10

I would be looking for another job.

But what I would also do - and few people ever heed this advice - is get a composition notebook and keep a daily journal of everything. Time in, time to lunch, time back. Every request given, times the request was completed. Pretty much everything.

This comes in handy since so many people have selective memory. It is now at a point that if I say something happened, few people even question it, because they know I’m going to pull out my journal and show them when it happened. (I usually also read my notes back at the end of a meeting and ask if anyone wants to amend or change the notes.)

11

The only reason I mentioned her weight, age and lovelife is because it IS constantly shoved in my face too, whether I want to hear about it or not. She has no one else, apparently, to confide in, and I honestly think she has decided that because she confides in me, I MUST be her friend, and therefore a “friend” will tolerate the behavior of waiting around for her at lunch while she extends her personal time well into my territory.

And I know she leaves early because I CALL THE OFFICE when she is to be here after I have gone and there is no answer. Not just one time, not just a couple times, but often. Also I have had to come back a few times because I’ve forgotten things and she’s been gone already. Also, on occasion I am asked to work until 5, and she leaves earlier than I do, usually by 5 minutes or so, but still earlier. Her perogative, I suppose.

Several of you are right, I am about the 5th person in 8 years to work this job, and by far the longest-lasting. I don’t wish to burn bridges when I leave, altho I have quite a few excellent references from other sources (past employment) so I am not so concerned about that, but I feel as if I should say something to the owners regarding the lunch times if nothing else when I leave, so that they can address it in the future. The last girl in my position must have had a problem with this girl as well, as she left without notice, without forwarding address and without taking the two sweet gifts the long-lunch-taker had given her over the course of her employment. I “inherited” the gifts, by the way. I remember when I started, this girl was completely perplexed as to what had upset the prior employee. I think I know, now.

I’ve put her in her place a few times, politely but firmly, when she has insisted I “try out” her church (Jehovah’s Witness) or has passed along copies of “The Watchtower” to me…I suppose I should just deal directly with her, and let her know that I need to have a firmer lunch time set partially in stone. A weekly schedule probably wouldn’t work as she is often asked to run errands on a moment’s notice before or after her lunch hour by the bosses.

I suppose if I am going to gripe about anything, it would be better to gripe about the errands the majority owner sends me on—picking up his drunken friends when they are passed out at the bar (during work hours, yess indeedy!). dropping off payments for his buddies when they can’t get away from their business lunches in time, wrapping Christmas presents, picking up breakfast for him when he shows up hung over, etc. Somehow I am able to chalk these up as “duties” since I am paid for them. It’s just when the job walks all over MY time that I get irritated.

12

Is this the same co-worker who uses the company car as her own personal car? Or am I confusing things?

Anyhow, I’d simply tell her that sonce you comne in at 7:30, you’re taking the early lunch. If she wants the early lunch, she has to take the early shift.

They’re not going to fire you…sounds like they just push peope till they quit. So push back a little and see where it gets you.

13

This just isn’t the environment for you. Small offices, especially if they’re family owned and not part of a larger corporation, can blur the line between personal and professional. I’ve done some of the things you mention, and have also picked up the dry cleaning and accepted delivery of a new mattress at the boss’s apartment (he was out of town). It’s that “other duties as required” stuff.

If the boss’s general behavior (and by extension, that of the rest of the staff), isn’t a good fit with your own views, it’s OK to admit it’s not the right job for you. Not every general contractor operates this way.

14

In California IIRC it is against the labor code not to give a FT employee a lunch in the first 5 hours of the work day.
Not getting your lunch till 1:30 sucks donkey balls.
I would speak up about it, and basicly say fair is fair, if I come in early, then I should get to go to lunch early. Not two hours late.
If you want me to take a late lunch, then I should get to come in later.

15

Agreed, politely suggest that you eat first. Maybe you could have the early lunch start at 11, so she can still meet her friend? Try to subtly get the point across that you just want to eat, and for all you care she can take the rest of the afternoon off. It sounds like she’s clueless, but nothing you’ve said indicates that she has it in for you. maybe it hasn’t occured to her that 1:30pm-7:30am = 6 hours, so just point that out.

16

Beck,

I’m not sure what to say here. I’m sorry you’re unhappy there and that alone is grounds to start a job search. While I know that any new job you get would probably hold you to the same rules, I also know that having irresponsibe people in ‘above the law’ positions in a company is not only nervewracking, its a recipe for disaster.

I’m going to start my questions from an internal-control perspective: Who does your review? Do you get an annual review? Who is your direct-report? Who decides if you get a raise or not? Are there auditors who visit that outfit annually? If it comes down to just one Boss, then you need a closed door meeting with that one Boss. Please keep in mind, however, that the meeting may not go the way you had planned it and the office Manager may make life hell after that. Its best to have another offer in pocket before that closed door session…but to approach the meeting with the hopes that you’d like to improve things between your self and the company.

Sure, you’d like to pepper their rears with rock-salt…but that’s exactly why you shouldnt do it. Take the high-road; it’ll serve you better in your career in the long-run.

I second the idea of keeping a journal, not only for the reasons mentioned prior, but as an outlet for you until you find another job. Make sure you take it with you when you leave, too, as you might be able to make it into a book some day.
Oh, and when you do finally leave, make sure you leave the inherited ‘gifts’. It’ll drive the office manager crazy. :smiley:

17

Yep, one and the same. She has her own car now, but THIS is totally like her: instead of now using the company truck for errands as we have been asked to do, to save both wear & tear on our own vehicles and to save on the mileage being paid out to us, she refuses to do so, & always takes her car on errands. I am expected to take the company truck on errands as requested. I guess if no one says anything about it, it can’t be disturbing them too much to pay her mileage, even when she takes all afternoon as she often does to run around town in her own car on their business, the reason they bought the “office vehicle” in the first place.

18

Oh, yeah, almost forgot—I’ve been around the block, at my age, in work environments, so of course I have a journal all ready to go, which is kept up daily.

The “gifts” I have inherited are a little rock garden and a stoneware “bluebird of happiness”, given to the ex-employee when she was apparently feeling blue one afternoon and “didn’t want to talk to the ‘office manager’ about it”. Shortly thereafter she quit with no notice. Count, I do believe both gifts will stay just where they are!

19

No I wouldn’t quit for what your talking about.
I would ask when I get to eat, be it her or the owners. It’s something you can’t judge how to approach, unless you know the personalities and dynamics of the office. To keep things friendly , stick to how can get your lunch, and please work it out so you get one somewhere around when you are in the middle of your work shift. Do not talk about what she does, or it’s worthiness. Ask for an agreed apon lunch time, that all will acknowledge is when they should expect you will be leaving, and they will make sure you get, unless something important prevents it.

The way I’ve seen work, to get compliance with the vehicle is to refuse to pay out for mileage, when a company vehicle was available. Wisconsin started doing that with state employees last year.

20

Yep. And considering that the mileage rate is at $.485/mile right now, I expect to see and hear of lots of people trying to take advantage of that.