I’ve been in my new job for about two months now. It’s the first job I’ve in a very long time that I actually enjoy. I work in the insurance billing department of a major hospital. The job is relatively simple: a person comes to the hospital for hatever reason, we file the claim with their insurance and make it gets paid. I have a group of accounts (it’s split by alpha) that I work on. I have my own cubicle (which isn’t as bad as you’d think) and I am pretty much left to my own devices during the day. My supervisor (AKA Team Leader) got us all together last week and split us up into pairs for a “special project”: we are to take a certain aspect of our jobs and make an entertaining presentation. The more entertaining, the better.
Well, I hate doing stuff like this. I do not like being the center of attention for even a minute which makes me dread this project all the more.
I was discussing this this afternoon with two co-workers (they haven’t reached cow-orker status, yet) and expressed my dismay at this project. I said that I’m not good at stuff like this and would rather “take an ‘F’” than have to get up in front of other people. One co-worker immediately tags me as being negative. I responded with the “I’m not negative, I’m realistic. I know what I can and can’t do.” She wouldn’t buy it. She suggested that my negativity dooms me from the start despite the fact that I know from experience that I’m uncomfortable doing such things. The other co-worker made the suggestion that if I valued my job, I would do it anyway! She then rescinded the comment, but I know what I heard IN the comment.
Now, I’m not the martyr type, but I don’t feel like I should be pressured into doing something that makes me that uncomfortable. It seems unlikely that I could lose my job over this, but anything’s possible.
Now don’t get the idea that I’m working in some sort of torture camber. Since I started, everyone’s been very helpful in assisting me as I learn my job. It’s just that stuff like this borders on the worst Dilbert scenario.
I just want to do my job, not entertain anyone. If I’m not doing my job correctly, TELL ME and I’ll change as needed. I don’t see how this sort of thing can be helpful. Letting off steam once in a while is fine (hell, we had an Easter egg hunt last Friday), but make it an activity that doesn’t include work.
I am to meet with the supervisor on Tuesday to discuss the rough draft of the presentation and I’m dreading that in a big way.
I had a vision of your employer forcing you to work in some tortuously twisted position.
Well, then again, maybe they are.
What’s worked for me in the past is to let the person who is the better “talking head” do the presenting part. The other person (or persons) on the team do the research/writing/material gathering.
Years ago when I was employed at the Mega Whopper Engineering Co., all lower level engineers were expected to take part in the Intensive Management Training put on by the Big Wheels. Imagine 20 plus young engineers sitting around the conference room, trying to cut their wrists with a spork as the CEO expounds on the merits of Labor Markup.
One year we were split into “teams” which had to make a presentaion on a part of What Makes Mega Whopper Engineering Co. Tick. As luck would have it, we drew the assignment of Billing Edits. I kid you not.
Instead of gathering up a bunch of dry figures and stuffing them into Power Point, we got the notion to make a video tape of the process. The Good-Looking Guy was our star; the tape followed him as he went through the Billing Process. The Geeky Foreign guy was the cameraman/tape editor. The Loony Chick (ahem) was the copy writer.
It was a smash hit. I wonder if ya’ll could do something similar?
You know, when I entered 9th grade, I thought, “Boy, I sure am glad all these silly projects are being left behind in middle school.” I was wrong.
When I got to my senior year and took mostly AP classes, I thought, “Finally, I can just do some actual homework and forget the cutesy displays of my coloring prowess.” I was wrong.
When I graduated from high school and entered college, I thought, “OK, I’m going to take some classes I actually have an interest in, and I won’t have to do any more ‘go around the room and introduce yourself in a funny manner’ things.” I was wrong.
And now… now, you tell me that I won’t even escape this torture when I have a full-time job?!
This has “modern art collage” written all over it. Grab crap out of the dumpster and get a five year old to glue it together. Write up a bullshit page about its symbolic strengths. Set it on a conference table with a CD playing some New Agey chime stuff, or unaccompianied drumming. Dress all in black on “presentation day” and refuse to say anything but “My work…it speaks for itself” and sigh meaningfully.
I love stuff like this. You have to look at the rules and use them to your advantage. Specifically, depending on the wording of the assignment (and I suggest you go for a literal interpretation of anything written. If it was given verbally…cheat.) neither one of you may have to stand in front of anyone.
I’d like to be more sympathetic MBS but I strongly suggest you get over your fear of this project and use your considerable intelligence to slap something together. Dog and Pony BS is part of a lot of modern office jobs. Stop whining, suck it up and get moving. Hell even my 12 year old 7th grader can put together an interactive Powerpoint Presentation for this computer class (and has) .
Based on your GQ answers to PC questions I know damn well you’re as big a PC geek as I am, and I’d be surprised if you don’t have access to a copy of Powerpoint. It’s pretty intuitive, just horse around with it for a while. It shouldn’t take more than an evening or two to slap together something passable. You might even enjoy it. It’s a pretty powerful tool.
Medea, that was beautiful. Of course, I could never do that without giggling uncontrollably. The singing telegram though, now that’s something I could get behind. I wonder if you could even get the company to pay for it???
This is part of the reason I hate college. Yes, I realize I’ll have to work with other people in the workforce, but we’ll be doing a job, not making a presentation on ancient Rome or some shit. I actually dropped a class after the first day when the prof started with the…“Now the big group project will be…and in the meantime, you’ll work in your groups every week…”
I have never quite figured this out. What’s the purpose of these kind of timewasters?
I’ve been told it’s for “teambuilding”. I don’t want to build a team. I want to do my job and go home. I don’t need to know how many kids Bob has or how old Sarah’s cat is or what Jeremy’s favorite toy was as a child. I don’t want to attend a party for “Most Productive Man-Day”. I don’t care.
When did work become the place where you have to love all the people you work with? What happened to doing your job and going home?
I’m in the " this project makes no sense and is incredibly stupid" camp. WTF? An anymous email to boss’s boss explaining that your boss is wasting company resources (your time) on utter nonsense is almost worth the animosity it could cause.
When companies started researching productivity and discovered that places where people felt solidarity with each other were far more productive, regardless of pay scale or work hours. I understand companies also believe it could be bad for their public image if their demployees are publicly miserable.
So. . . .after decades of effort at streamlining corporate operations, trimming the “fat” (read: laying off expensive veterans and hiring kids just out of college for cheap), putting people in cubicles to isolate them from their coworkers, slashing benefits, and removing as many traces of human personality or innovation from the modern work environment, NOW there’s a ton of energy devoted to getting people to like their shitty, cubicle-inhabiting existence.
Kind of makes me wonder what the fuck the point is.
Boy, I’M not cynical, am I?
Well, I got together with my partner (who also hates this sort of thing) and discussed our project with our supervisor. We got some clarification on what we have to do. We have to present the material in an entertaining fashion. She didn’t specifically say we had to do the actual presenting, that is, in person. I suggested doing a humorous video. I won’t be IN the video, of course. I figured I’d use video clips from movies and tv shows (thus justifying my huge video collection), silent movie-style cards, and possibly really bad stop-motion animation featuring assorted action figures. In this way, I won’t appear quite the fool. We’ll have no more than 15 minutes, but I don’t think it’ll be that long. Believe me, filing and processing an insurance claim ain’t exactly a day in the park.
