Employees As Livestock

Yesterday was NOT a good day.  Because we had a meeting scheduled for 7:30 I went in early anticipating something important.  NOT!  Our director announced that she was moving a couple of the managers, so all the peons (she didn't say that, but it was inferred) would have their cubes moved so we could remain under the thumb(s) of our fearless leaders.  Great timing too, people retiring, others filling in on their jobs, and everyone attending classes for the new accounting system.  Like we all have the time and inclination to move.  No consideration of who needs room for filing cabinets - we get to walk down the hallway to retrieve our project files, rather than having them handy.  My 5-foot cabinet which is totally filled will not fit into my new cube.  To make things even more fun, my co-worker JoAnn is retiring, I'm currently doing her job while she uses up her vacation days, and I have to fit HER files into my new space too.  And the new cube is smaller than my old one - because the cubes near my fearless leader are all "standard" which means too small to work in.

I love my job, but hate the fact that employees are consistently treated like livestock rather than individuals.  That's not true in all offices, but has become a tradition in ours.  It's also been a tradition that when "they" want someone to leave, that person is bullied until it happens.  Subtle bullying, hard to prove, but obvious to the individual and their co-workers.  We are watching it in action right now.  Time for a meeting with the new CFO - we'll see if she is actually what she seems to be.

In all my years of working here, I have never had a really good manager.  I have had nice ones, hard working ones, managers with people skills and others with the personality of a wolverine, but I have never had one that combined all the appropriate characteristics of a good manager.  We have them in our office, so I know they exist, but it's not likely that I will ever have the chance to work for a person I can admire both as a manager and as a person.

Several of us were lamenting the fact that we did not take the retirement package, and wondering if we would survive the next year.  Things will only get more stressful with the budget issues, not enough workers, and the new accounting system.

Gotta start buying more lottery tickets!