The meeting with the Director happened, and in fact, I did not get fired. I felt the displeasure in spite of his words to the effect that I have every right to speak my mind politically. Coming from Louden County outside D.C. he would be sharp enough politically to know firing me would be out of the question. But the words out of his mouth conveyed threat. He questioned why, if I were injured at work, I had not filed a workers comp claim.
--Because it could not have been proved that it happened at work.
--You said in the ad that you tore your rotator cuff at work.
--No, I did not.
Well, it just happened that he had the ad up on the t.v. sitting right next to him at his desk, and he played it, and in fact I did not say that I tore my rotator cuff at work. I tore my rotator cuff "carrying books".
I explained that this wasn't about the library, this was about every service job where people do the same activity for hours a day, five days a week, and the wear and tear on the body, and the threat to extend the retirement age for those people.
His response was, I need to retire too. Really.
The other big CYA issue on the agenda was whether or not I was now able to do my job. I assured him that with the doctor's limitations on hours, the cooperation of my branch manager and co-workers, and regular cortisone shots and physical therapy, I can do my job.
When he said that that was all, I suggested that if he had let me know a week ago I might have saved a couple of bad nights' sleep. He didn't laugh.
The man sent me an email confirming the above points, and I sent him one back assuring him that I was able to do all aspects of my job given the above conditions.
All very formal and cold.
I wonder what would have happened if in the ad I had said I had injured my job at work.
Still employed, I also continue to practice the art of CYA.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
And Now a Word from the Powerful
I got a call today from the HR person at the library. She informed me that she had emailed me yesterday, and that the director wants to meet with me next Monday or Tuesday regarding "the ad". I know what this means. It means I am in trouble, and may mean I will lose my job.
This is South Carolina. I work for the government. Therefore, I should know I have no rights. I should, indeed, be thankful to have a job. I am likely to get completely paranoid over the next six days, not for no reason.
And I've been around long enough, and do indeed, have a background in psychology. I know all the power games. The phone call from HR instead of direct contact. The fact that he is not available until six days from now. It is small consolation that I don't make enough that the loss of the job will not wipe me out financially, immediately.
At least I have a few days to get used to the likelihood that I will have lost my job.
And that's the way the country works these days.
This is South Carolina. I work for the government. Therefore, I should know I have no rights. I should, indeed, be thankful to have a job. I am likely to get completely paranoid over the next six days, not for no reason.
And I've been around long enough, and do indeed, have a background in psychology. I know all the power games. The phone call from HR instead of direct contact. The fact that he is not available until six days from now. It is small consolation that I don't make enough that the loss of the job will not wipe me out financially, immediately.
At least I have a few days to get used to the likelihood that I will have lost my job.
And that's the way the country works these days.
Friday, January 21, 2011
A Word from the Man in the Street
I made an ad, and I must admit, it's a little embarrassing. It's an ad for a non-profit group, appealing to Lindsey Graham not to vote to raise the retirement age. It was done with sincere feeling, although the "script" that was based on my words was a little stilted. I would have said "busy library" as opposed to "local library" (the linguist in me bristles). The editing, although brilliant, made me look a little more pathetic than I think I really look, even when I'm in pain.
I did it, not for the 30 seconds of fame, but because right now I need to do everything I can to try to get people to listen. This is about the working poor. And nobody, nobody, is speaking for them.
All the hot air in Washington is about the middle class, which a lot of us used to belong to. I am no longer a member of the middle class, although I have the cultural awareness and the education. I am a clerk. My opinion is not sought any more than that of the greeter at a Wal-Mart. My value is in the fact that I work pretty hard for very little cost.
I did the ad because I am not alone. The people who work until they ache go home too tired to try to become politically aware. They can barely turn their TV channel from one biased news network to another, and the nightly news works hard not to have an opinion because their corporate overlords would frown on that. Read a newspaper? How about, pay for a newspaper?
And for those who are able to pay for reliable internet access, it is probably unfathomable that there are people who cannot.
Beware of the Boehner and Demint philosophy that if you are down on your luck, it's because you haven't worked as hard as they have.
The voters who elect the republicans and conservative democrats, or those who rabidly support tea party candidates, have just enough to be afraid of losing it. And they have been convinced that those of us beneath them economically -- the working poor as well as the unemployed -- are the ones who will try to take away from them what little they have.
And it's easier to get angry at us than the legislators and CEO's that are in control.
But I did that ad to remind people that the working poor are out there. And like so many of those who angrily vote conservative, we too are trying to get by. And they are more like us than the politicians they support.
I did it, not for the 30 seconds of fame, but because right now I need to do everything I can to try to get people to listen. This is about the working poor. And nobody, nobody, is speaking for them.
All the hot air in Washington is about the middle class, which a lot of us used to belong to. I am no longer a member of the middle class, although I have the cultural awareness and the education. I am a clerk. My opinion is not sought any more than that of the greeter at a Wal-Mart. My value is in the fact that I work pretty hard for very little cost.
I did the ad because I am not alone. The people who work until they ache go home too tired to try to become politically aware. They can barely turn their TV channel from one biased news network to another, and the nightly news works hard not to have an opinion because their corporate overlords would frown on that. Read a newspaper? How about, pay for a newspaper?
And for those who are able to pay for reliable internet access, it is probably unfathomable that there are people who cannot.
Beware of the Boehner and Demint philosophy that if you are down on your luck, it's because you haven't worked as hard as they have.
The voters who elect the republicans and conservative democrats, or those who rabidly support tea party candidates, have just enough to be afraid of losing it. And they have been convinced that those of us beneath them economically -- the working poor as well as the unemployed -- are the ones who will try to take away from them what little they have.
And it's easier to get angry at us than the legislators and CEO's that are in control.
But I did that ad to remind people that the working poor are out there. And like so many of those who angrily vote conservative, we too are trying to get by. And they are more like us than the politicians they support.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Pardon the Paranoia
There's a guy after my job. Honest. He has been hounding me since I went out on extended sick-leave over a year ago.
My problem is that he seems like a nice person. Everybody likes him. He's opioniated, like, he knows everything about everything, and the people I work with, other than me, are so tolerant they don't even realize they are being tolerant. He's the boss's friend, and where I work, that's good as gold.
He didn't plan on going after my job, in the beginning. I was working full-time, and he was a bored retiree. He'd hang out and schmooze for hours with whoever was unlucky enough to allow a conversation to start with him. I was very grateful when the boss was in and he went and hung out with the boss for hours.
Then, when I came back from eight weeks of sick leave, he had become a volunteer. There he was, doing things none of the other volunteers ever do, in fact, nothing that I had ever done in all my years volunteering, and there were a lot. He wandered around the back room, checked out all the bulletin boards and people's desks. Helped himself to a huge mug of coffee, commented on what other volunteers had signed in, or why they hadn't.
And he took my one of my jobs. I had this job that nobody else wanted. I had been doing it for five years, and I loved it. And when I came back from sick leave, it was no longer mine, because he wanted to do it. And he was the boss's friend.
Now, I'm not that diplomatic sometimes, but maybe if you were returning from an extended sick leave and feeling a tad insecure, you would have reacted the same way. When this volunteer told me he was doing my job, expecting praise and gratitude, I commented instead that it really was my job. Now this is where it got interesting. The volunteer told me the boss said that I didn't really like doing the job, and that's why he did it. My boss, when I complained to him, said that I had told the volunteer that I didn't like doing the job. And because I made the unforgiveable mistake of complaining, I became A Problem.
A few weeks later, when I was experiencing renewed pain and also running out of leave, my boss "encouraged" me to step down to part-time. His motivation was that a co-worker who had been happily part-time needed to move to full-time. A co-worker who never confronted the boss, I might add. A nice person. So after a few more weeks, I conceded and went to part-time. No more insurance coverage, no longer able to apply for disability if the problems became more severe.
Here we are a year later. The volunteer seems to show up every day. I see him more than I see some of the full-time employees. Yesterday he worked 9-2 -- MY HOURS. He hustles like he's auditioning for the Olympics.
So I'm thinking, a bored retiree, a bit of a tightwad who could probably use a little income. A boss who would promise him easy hours to get him on board. And, without me there, a totally family environment.
What would you think?
My problem is that he seems like a nice person. Everybody likes him. He's opioniated, like, he knows everything about everything, and the people I work with, other than me, are so tolerant they don't even realize they are being tolerant. He's the boss's friend, and where I work, that's good as gold.
He didn't plan on going after my job, in the beginning. I was working full-time, and he was a bored retiree. He'd hang out and schmooze for hours with whoever was unlucky enough to allow a conversation to start with him. I was very grateful when the boss was in and he went and hung out with the boss for hours.
Then, when I came back from eight weeks of sick leave, he had become a volunteer. There he was, doing things none of the other volunteers ever do, in fact, nothing that I had ever done in all my years volunteering, and there were a lot. He wandered around the back room, checked out all the bulletin boards and people's desks. Helped himself to a huge mug of coffee, commented on what other volunteers had signed in, or why they hadn't.
And he took my one of my jobs. I had this job that nobody else wanted. I had been doing it for five years, and I loved it. And when I came back from sick leave, it was no longer mine, because he wanted to do it. And he was the boss's friend.
Now, I'm not that diplomatic sometimes, but maybe if you were returning from an extended sick leave and feeling a tad insecure, you would have reacted the same way. When this volunteer told me he was doing my job, expecting praise and gratitude, I commented instead that it really was my job. Now this is where it got interesting. The volunteer told me the boss said that I didn't really like doing the job, and that's why he did it. My boss, when I complained to him, said that I had told the volunteer that I didn't like doing the job. And because I made the unforgiveable mistake of complaining, I became A Problem.
A few weeks later, when I was experiencing renewed pain and also running out of leave, my boss "encouraged" me to step down to part-time. His motivation was that a co-worker who had been happily part-time needed to move to full-time. A co-worker who never confronted the boss, I might add. A nice person. So after a few more weeks, I conceded and went to part-time. No more insurance coverage, no longer able to apply for disability if the problems became more severe.
Here we are a year later. The volunteer seems to show up every day. I see him more than I see some of the full-time employees. Yesterday he worked 9-2 -- MY HOURS. He hustles like he's auditioning for the Olympics.
So I'm thinking, a bored retiree, a bit of a tightwad who could probably use a little income. A boss who would promise him easy hours to get him on board. And, without me there, a totally family environment.
What would you think?
Sunday, January 9, 2011
A Job Loss
My daughter lost her first professional job Friday. She had been searching for a year after graduation and had been delighted with her new job. She took it seriously, putting in more hours than she probably should have, and was totally invested in giving it her all. In other words, she started this new career with the honor and intensity of so many recent college graduates.
For that, she was unceremoniously ushered in to a meeting at 4 p.m. Friday, and told that she would be given two weeks' severance, and then watched as she cleared her office and escorted out.
In the interest of CYA, she had some six weeks ago, during her first employee evalution, been told that, while she was otherwise doing an excellent job, there was one area in which she was deficient. She was too embarrassed to tell me what exactly this deficiency was, but took it upon herself to do everything within her power to repair this problem.
Meanwhile, for the past eight weeks or so, she was doing her own work plus that of her immediate supervisor, who was out on maternity leave. For that, she was told to leave on the day her supervisor was due to return to work. She does not believe her supervisor was even aware that this was going to happen, and of course, therefore, was not at all involved in advising or working with my daughter on how she could remedy her problem.
She liked her supervisor, and felt badly about leaving without the opportunity to say good-bye. For that matter she was also unable to say good-bye to co-workers she had become friends with in the five months she was employed.
She had been hired as one of two new employees, for similar positions, in different departments. The young man was fired also, apparently for the same deficiency, on the same day. Which leads me to believe that either this employer sucks at hiring, or feels free to try new employees on for size rather than actually be committed to an employee because there are so many potential employees out there.
My guess is the latter. Potential employers today have the attitude that people in the workforce are a dime a dozen. This has pretty much always been the attitude for low-wage workers, but now has been adapted for all levels of employment. The American employer needs maintain no loyalty or commitment to their employees. The workforce has been sold out by management, with the blessing of the government, since 1980 and the sainted Ronald Reagan. As a result, workers are spread too thin, given too little, and dumped at the first hint that the employer stands to gain from the dumping.
We hear Congress pontificating about the American people acting like grown-ups, while they are being treated as inanimate objects, to be used as cheaply as possible, and then discarded.
My heart breaks for young people believing that hard work will provide them good work and a secure life. My heart breaks for my daughter, because she is a victim of the greed and hypocrisy by which we have allowed this country to be ruled.
For that, she was unceremoniously ushered in to a meeting at 4 p.m. Friday, and told that she would be given two weeks' severance, and then watched as she cleared her office and escorted out.
In the interest of CYA, she had some six weeks ago, during her first employee evalution, been told that, while she was otherwise doing an excellent job, there was one area in which she was deficient. She was too embarrassed to tell me what exactly this deficiency was, but took it upon herself to do everything within her power to repair this problem.
Meanwhile, for the past eight weeks or so, she was doing her own work plus that of her immediate supervisor, who was out on maternity leave. For that, she was told to leave on the day her supervisor was due to return to work. She does not believe her supervisor was even aware that this was going to happen, and of course, therefore, was not at all involved in advising or working with my daughter on how she could remedy her problem.
She liked her supervisor, and felt badly about leaving without the opportunity to say good-bye. For that matter she was also unable to say good-bye to co-workers she had become friends with in the five months she was employed.
She had been hired as one of two new employees, for similar positions, in different departments. The young man was fired also, apparently for the same deficiency, on the same day. Which leads me to believe that either this employer sucks at hiring, or feels free to try new employees on for size rather than actually be committed to an employee because there are so many potential employees out there.
My guess is the latter. Potential employers today have the attitude that people in the workforce are a dime a dozen. This has pretty much always been the attitude for low-wage workers, but now has been adapted for all levels of employment. The American employer needs maintain no loyalty or commitment to their employees. The workforce has been sold out by management, with the blessing of the government, since 1980 and the sainted Ronald Reagan. As a result, workers are spread too thin, given too little, and dumped at the first hint that the employer stands to gain from the dumping.
We hear Congress pontificating about the American people acting like grown-ups, while they are being treated as inanimate objects, to be used as cheaply as possible, and then discarded.
My heart breaks for young people believing that hard work will provide them good work and a secure life. My heart breaks for my daughter, because she is a victim of the greed and hypocrisy by which we have allowed this country to be ruled.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Cover Up
It never fails to amaze me that people don't believe people lie. You can call it whatever you want, but when person #1 is looking for information and person #2 does not give the information that is being sought, it is a lie.
We elect a lot of very bad politicians because we voters don't believe they are lying to us when they tell us what we want to hear, and then go on and do something else entirely.
But, honestly, if you have ever watched a commercial or held a job, you must know that you are being lied to with alarming frequency.
When a company has a board meeting, and the next time they meet they review the minutes, it is not entirely for accuracy's sake.
People who lie have all kinds of rationalizations for their lies. Mostly, they don't think that the person they are lying to can handle the lie. Bad things would happen if the truth were told.
Let's say, for example, that libraries need to get rid of some books when there are too many on the shelf. This is a fact of life. We are fortunate to be living in a country where, at least until now, libraries have been so valued that new books continue to get purchased until there is no longer room on the shelves for them.
Now, if libraries told the truth about this, the fear is that it would open up a huge can of worms. Taxpayers would be furious. There is a story, possibly apocryphal, more than likely true, of a judge who ordered a library in some town to put books in storage rather than destroy them. There are definitely people who go through library dumpsters looking for those suspiciously marked boxes of trash. The volume is so great, however, that (and I know this for a fact) that sometimes when that has happened those boxes end up being put on the curb for garbage, or maybe in the hopes that someone wanting a ready made library will take them all home.
But taxpayers mostly know that you can't just keep adding space to a library rather than get rid of books. In a library system where very generous patrons donate tons of lovely books to be sold by the Friends of the Library, there just isn't the means to offer all the used library books for sale as well.
So, instead of the skulking around, taping up boxes of books and running them out to the dumpster in the dark of night, or however your library system handles this problem, wouldn't a little transparency offer up a world of possible solutions?
Now, this wasn't at all what I was planning on talking about here today.
In a related matter, when somebody at work makes a BIG mistake, what do they do? Really? Suppose, all of a sudden, many many items are erased from inventory -- something very likely with the ease of the keystroke.
Do they immediately go to whoever is in charge and own up? And then, they immediately figure out who will be affected, and then they decide how to let everyone involved know in a timely manner. And then they all brainstorm what is the best way to handle this error. And they of course appreciate input from anyone who has an idea....
Naw. They pretend it didn't happen. Ask a direct question and it will get ignored. Change of subject. In some cases, transfer of blame. Most definitely cover up of the extent of the problem.
So, when you can't understand why the world around you, from Congress to the toothpaste you bought, isn't working out the way you were sure it was supposed to, just remember, people lie.
We elect a lot of very bad politicians because we voters don't believe they are lying to us when they tell us what we want to hear, and then go on and do something else entirely.
But, honestly, if you have ever watched a commercial or held a job, you must know that you are being lied to with alarming frequency.
When a company has a board meeting, and the next time they meet they review the minutes, it is not entirely for accuracy's sake.
People who lie have all kinds of rationalizations for their lies. Mostly, they don't think that the person they are lying to can handle the lie. Bad things would happen if the truth were told.
Let's say, for example, that libraries need to get rid of some books when there are too many on the shelf. This is a fact of life. We are fortunate to be living in a country where, at least until now, libraries have been so valued that new books continue to get purchased until there is no longer room on the shelves for them.
Now, if libraries told the truth about this, the fear is that it would open up a huge can of worms. Taxpayers would be furious. There is a story, possibly apocryphal, more than likely true, of a judge who ordered a library in some town to put books in storage rather than destroy them. There are definitely people who go through library dumpsters looking for those suspiciously marked boxes of trash. The volume is so great, however, that (and I know this for a fact) that sometimes when that has happened those boxes end up being put on the curb for garbage, or maybe in the hopes that someone wanting a ready made library will take them all home.
But taxpayers mostly know that you can't just keep adding space to a library rather than get rid of books. In a library system where very generous patrons donate tons of lovely books to be sold by the Friends of the Library, there just isn't the means to offer all the used library books for sale as well.
So, instead of the skulking around, taping up boxes of books and running them out to the dumpster in the dark of night, or however your library system handles this problem, wouldn't a little transparency offer up a world of possible solutions?
Now, this wasn't at all what I was planning on talking about here today.
In a related matter, when somebody at work makes a BIG mistake, what do they do? Really? Suppose, all of a sudden, many many items are erased from inventory -- something very likely with the ease of the keystroke.
Do they immediately go to whoever is in charge and own up? And then, they immediately figure out who will be affected, and then they decide how to let everyone involved know in a timely manner. And then they all brainstorm what is the best way to handle this error. And they of course appreciate input from anyone who has an idea....
Naw. They pretend it didn't happen. Ask a direct question and it will get ignored. Change of subject. In some cases, transfer of blame. Most definitely cover up of the extent of the problem.
So, when you can't understand why the world around you, from Congress to the toothpaste you bought, isn't working out the way you were sure it was supposed to, just remember, people lie.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Dear Diary...
I told you I would let you know. Two days ago, the staff restroom was available by flashlight.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)