Monday, October 18, 2010

We didn't start the fire...

Do you ever have those occurrences in life were something happens and you just become LIVID over it? Well, one of those events that happened today was an e-mail I received that just...lit a flame in my soul. And not a happy flame either.

Backstory: I've worked at Catering for 3 years, I've been an opener for 1, and at work they are currently being VERY strict about not going over 20 hours in a week period.

Here's the e-mail.

"You have been scheduled as the captain on an event for this Friday. It is important that you use your time Opening efficiently so that you will have enough time to do the rack-up and be the captain for this event."

Firstly, I realize it's probably not the most professional thing to be doing, sharing an e-mail. I always like to think of myself as professional. If you want to know the real reason why I'm sharing it, it's because it is a foreshadowing of things to come (not more frivolous e-mails)...which things I won't reveal just yet. Secondly, I don't want to vent. I usually do vent but I'm trying to be better at not doing so. So instead I pose questions, mostly rhetorical, in order to express my frustration. Are you ever condemned to suspect those people you have hired to not do their job correctly, especially under the constraints you have established for them? Are nominal reminders that are often excessive in their use, but lacking in poignant purpose, useful to incite action in your employees? Are the marked past efforts of a worker fruitless in predicting how they will act in the future? These things I ask do not seem to me TOO much to ask of any one person, even my superiors, and especially for myself.

Maybe it's my pride. Maybe I feel entitled to too much in my work place. Maybe I have imagined to gain some measure of respect in those I work for where none was actually gained. Maybe I should take the advice of my fellow co-workers and stop caring. But that's now how I work! Truthfully, this e-mail is just the spark that fell on a pile of newspapers, fireworks, and dried evergreen pine branches that have been doused in Gasoline. You can expect an explosion.



2 comments:

Holly K said...

This will be stuck in my head all day now. Particularly annoying because I don't know the words, so it'll only be the chorus.

Michael said...

It's not the place it used to be, and it's not getting better any time soon. That being said, come back and work for the boss that loves and appreciates you. He may not pay you all that well, but he provides you with a car and you can play his Wii whenever you want.

That is all.