My First Rant

Don’t know if this will be good or not, but I need to vent!

I work in a Dilbertesque type hell. I have put up with a ton of crap since transferring to this organization, but yesterday was the topper.

History first and some examples of the crap I put up with. Two months after arriving at this org, the director decided he needed a new chair. That’s all well and good. Most would have gone to the GSA or Office Depot catalog, found one they liked and ordered it. Not at my office though. My division chief decides this will teach me how to become an analyst. Go to Directorate of Contracting and get all their catalogs (why can’t I use ours?). So, I drive over to DOC and get catalogs. Next measure the current chair. Measure height, length and depth. Next spend an inordinate amount of time tagging pages with likely candidates, scan their pictures, comparisons, etc. Next write a detailed analysis of chairs including pros and cons and cost factors. Also prepare a matrix. God, how I hate matrices!!! Okay, a month has passed (I DID HAVE OTHER WORK TO DO!), and I present product to division chief. Wait for it…he wants me to do and I quote “an analysis of the analysis”. WTF! I look around to see if Alice, Wally and Dilbert are standing there. I was dumbfounded and before I could stop myself I said “You have got to be kidding me”. No, he wasn’t kidding and back I go to complete this asinine project. Finally done, present findings to director, ask admin assistant to order chair I would kill for. I go on vacation, return and find out he didn’t like it. What he really wanted all along was a chair just like the General’s. :smack: Why wasn’t I told from the get go?! And before you all ask, I did ask what he wanted.

So, many more assinine projects have come my way since then. Mostly, I shut up and do them. Last spring division chief decides we are going to divide our division into horizontal and vertical teams. Four months spent on how we are going to split up personnel and workload. Guess who gets the shit end of the stick? I am forced to move upstairs and get stuck with work that four separate people used to do. They’ve put me in a promotable spot, so I won’t complain too hard. Unfortunately, Team Leader, who makes almost $30,000 more a year is a complete and utter twit. A waste of air; a simpering, cowardly, ball-less, spineless, wad of flesh. Over and over he gives me HIS assignments because he doesn’t know how to do them…and yes, I’m still expected to complete all my work. Literally every five FUCKING minutes (and I am not exaggerating in the least) he’s asking for status reports. Finally, need to almost scream at him that I can’t complete the work if he doesn’t leave me the fuck alone! It’s been a year since I’ve been forced to work for him. I’ve received my promotion (yes, I’m thankful for that), but at what cost? I am now seeing a therapist. It is beyond me how I arrived at this. I’ve ALWAYS been the go-to person; the problem solver, the shoulder. As it turns out the cause is him and the Division Chief. Div Chief has gall to say I need to learn to work with all manner of people. Excuse me? I have almost 20 years with the Govt. I have worked with dragon ladies, screamers, abusers, you name it, I’ve handled them all with aplomb. God only knows why these people have had this effect on me. I feel like I am being eroded by a never ending flow of stupdity and scum.

I have tried discussing this with Div Chief at length. I have laid all the facts and figures (no emotion for this man, he’s very analytical) out for him. I try exceptionally hard not to bad-mouth the Team Leader. The sad thing is, the ENTIRE organization and the ENTIRE installation all know what a useless man he is. Still, nothing is done. Yesterday, Div Chief informs me that myself and other co-worker are “part of the problem” and if we don’t straighten up, we aren’t going to like what he does. Supervision by intimidation. My favorite! God, I wanted to reach across his desk and rip his guts right up through his throat. But, I didn’t. I walked out and smoked two ciggies. Fumed for the rest of the day too.

Now, before I get flamed for letting myself be a victim: I do have my resumix (govt’s version of resume) out on our automated system. Unfortunately, nothing out there now. I work all my contacts and have been informed that if something opens they’ll be contacting me. No, I’m not willing to give up govt svc (unless our President forces all of us by contracting every damn job out, but that’s another rant). I have worked hard and long and believe in helping our soldiers. This is my way of contributing.

Well, I’ve vented long enough. There’s no way I could annotate every stupid thing that has occurred. This would become a book. I feel somewhat better. I’d feel even better if I could win the Lotto and tell them stick it where the sun doesn’t shine though!:smiley:

Wow. You do indeed work in a Dilbertesque hell.

If you wrote that book, I’d read it. That’s a great rant, but where’s the cursing? Threats of doom, if only spoken in your mind? Where’s the perversions of sexuality with men, woman, donkeys, and dalmations? That’s what the motherfucking pit is motherfucking for, MOTHERSHIT!!! :slight_smile:

Work flows towards the competent person until that person submerges.

Not fair, not reasonable, but typical.

Your director needs to be reported for misuse of manpower. Having done that, he should then be shot and hung after torture.

Whata maroon!

Yeah, you know, if were told that I was “part of the problem” then I’d feel it incumbent upon myself to show just how much of a problem I could be. I would refuse to do anything not directly in my job description. I would never shirk a moment of breaks or lunch hour and be in my seat at starting time on the nose and out of it at quitting time on the second. Any abuse of my time and manpower – like making a matrix for buying a frigging office chair – would be refused or duly noted with details and reported to someone in authority. Any instance of a co-worker or higher-up bringing me work because they were incapable (by incomptence or failure to properly manage their time) of doing it themselves would also be duly noted with every detail.

And then, when I was hauled in for my inadequacies, I’d lay out my case with all of the details like a gauntlet.

Of course my ass would be fired, but there’d be such sweet satisfaction in it, it’d be worth it. (Easy for me to say, I love my job, and we could easily live off of my husband’s salary. :D)

In response to tlw: Believe, these very same thoughts and actions have crossed my mind on hundreds of occasions. However, the “higher authority” is the director that needed the chair. He is the micro-manager of all time, my division chief follows closely on his heels. So, you see, going to the director is not an option, he’s just as bad. When I’m in a rather selfish mood, I start thinking in terms like that’s not in my j.d. However, I can’t think that way for long, because in the end, I’m only hurting the “customers/soldiers” and myself. Besides, there’s the infamous “other duties as assigned” line in my j.d.

So, I’m screwed until I get out of there. Believe me, I’ll be dancing on their friggin’ desks the day I’m picked up for another position.:slight_smile:

Ah, the joys of gov’t service - I hit 29 years in July. We’ve been in a matrixed organization for some years. The man who used to be my boss is now my team leader. My boss doesn’t even work at the same base as we do. I might see him 3 times a year.

I’ve had hundreds of hours of required training in the last 3 years, and never once have I needed any of it. No matter - it was vitally important that I spend 3 weeks at Fort Belvoir and 2 weeks at Rock Island. So I’ve got the right credentials, at least on paper, but the chances of winding up in a position where I’ll use what I was taught are pretty close to nil.

I can retire in 7 years. I can do 7 years sitting in my crappy, creaky chair, writing and rewriting and re-rewriting the same manual changes because the teamleader “got to thinkin’…” about how it was done. Whatever. Just 7 more years.

Yeah, Dilbert speaks to me.

To think…my tax money pays for a matrix on chairs. To think…the tax money that went into that matrix on chairs is probably more than I spent on my own chair, a very comfortable leather executive chair that I got for half price because it was a close-out item.

Have you thought about taking your story to the President, as he seems to be the CEO of your company?

Bjohn: Our Prez is looking for any excuse to contract out our jobs. Frankly, paying a contractor to do what I did with that friggin chair would have the cost the taxpayers at least four times more. Contractor would have required a mod to the contract, etc. I am a taxpayer too. I also am the administrator for the MCP which is a program that is supposed to prevent fraud, waste and misuse of resources. Basically, internal controls for those of you in the private sector. So, make your own conclusions there.

Fairly Chatty Mom: Ah, there’s light at the end of the tunnel for you! I am required to work for 17 more years before I can retire. I fall under the Federal Employee Rip-Off system. So, need to be 56, at least. Nearly forty years of my life to the govt., assuming I’m not contracted right out of a job under the Third Wave. Tsunami is more like it! I can relate to the training I’ll never use thing. Can’t get to the training I need.

I guess I should be thankful I have a job, many don’t. Sometimes when you’re in the depths of your own private hell you forget to think about others that are less fortunate.

yeah, I’m FERS too, and I’ll be 56 in 7 years. The extra longevity is from my active duty Navy time being included. I’ll have about 36 years total when I skip out the door. My teamleader didn’t believe me when I told him the FERS folks can’t include their remaining sick leave as part of their time of service. He’s under CSRS, and he’ll be gone in 2 or 3 years at most, I think…

Yeah, having a job is better than not. And all the crap about being a civil servant is offset by the security. Even if we get BRAC’d, I’d be one of the last out of the gate.

And it’s a new name for FairyChatMom! :stuck_out_tongue:

FairyChattyMom: So sorry about misspelling your name. Guess it would help if I wore my glasses while typing and reading.

Then again, maybe it wouldn’t…

:smack: :smack: :smack: :smack: :smack: :smack: :smack:

…and STILL I mess up your name!!! I do apologize FairyChatMom

But regardless, that was a good rant. And it sounds like you’re working in at least some sort of hell.

Two words for you - voluntary simplicity. This is the only life you’re going to get (if you don’t believe in reincarnation) - how much of it do you want to spend unhappy, unfulfilled, and in therapy?

The idea of voluntary simplicity is not to just quit your job and move to the mountains to live on nuts and berries; the idea is to examine your life and your choices, and see if you are truly where you want to be, and for the right reasons - in other words, an examined life, where you have consciously made the decisions about how you want to spend your life, rather than just falling into things.

No apologies necessary - I got a kick out of it! I was trying to figure out if it was a dig at my chatty posting style or if you, like I, need to get new glasses… So now I know. :smiley:

Welcome aboard, Taters. Good rant. Your boss sounds like the twin of my former boss. (I’d say evil twin, but they’re both evil.) Fortunately, I had other options. Also, I have the pleasure of knowing the hellhole company we worked at has gone down the tubes. :smiley:

Some French dude named Gene or Jean or something said it best:

“Hell is other people.”

Forget writing a book, this is a movie waiting to happen!

You know the old business adage " Rise to your level of incompetence." I think that applies with said bosses.