How to Kill an Employee's Morale...
Thursday, August 11, 2005Before you get too lost in this post... Go Place Your Bet. Then come back and join me in being pissed.
Ok, it's official, my boss, on top of being a complete and total idiot, is now a lying asshole. It's not enough that I think he's a horrible supervisor and really have no respect for him anyway, but apparently he would also like to be hated.
Let me give you some background:
The Boss has been my supervisor since I started working for this company. He supervises about 8 people at the moment and does a poor job of it. He couldn't do any of our jobs in a respectable amount of time if his life depended on it, no joke. He even admits to that. Despite taking just about every training offered by our company, regardless of the training's relevance to his job, he's still clueless and really has no clue how to effectively manage people. I've never take a formal management training, yet I do a better job of organizing and delegating than he does. I actually often give him TIPS on how to do a better job. The man's idea of a good presentation is read off of the slides he made word for word. Last year I had the opportunity to write a review for him and the reaction to it from one of my co-workers was "Wow, brutal, but completely accurate." He in no way emits a supervisory aura that makes you want to respect him. In short, he's the Pointy Haired Boss from Dilbert, except nicer an with less power.
So anyway, several months ago I brought up the idea of creating a higher level position of the same post I have right now. Basically it would take on more design responsibility. The position would be for the couple of us who do things well above the job description of our current job, but don't fit into some other job categories we had. Well he went on and made the position, and has been telling me for months I would get promoted to it, then he'd go through the motions with one other co-worker and then review a few other people.
Today I get to work and there's an announcement in my mailbox. The other guy got promoted.
MONTHS! Right up until this past Monday he told me that I would get it, and then he would review the others. On Monday he told me he hadn't even reviewed the other guy and was reviewing me at the moment. Today the OTHER guy gets the promotion?
I'm fine with the other guy getting a promotion, he does deserve it, but why lie to me all the way through like that?
The other day I talked with The Boss about making me a supervisor and splitting our group in two. He actually thought the idea had merit and so did his boss. I know he's not going to promote the idea because he wants to be promoted to manager, but when he brought that up to his boss, I think she laughed him out of her office and he's not going to want me to be his equal. I'm just going straight to his superiors.
Operation Screw The Boss has just been kicked into high gear.
Needless to say, I really don't feel like getting work done today, feel free to help me slack.
posted by Chief Slacker @ 12:29 PM,
12 Comments:
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At Thu Aug 11, 02:06:00 PM,
Tamanna said...
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Disadvantage to being a supervisor:
You probably won't be able to slack anymore.
Unless you get internet at home. In which case it's not slacking. -
At Thu Aug 11, 02:28:00 PM,
jlybn123 said...
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Talk about misrepresentation. Maybe he only had you believe that so things would run smooth in the interim. Totally not fair, when I'm sure you are deserving of it, when you aren't slacking!
Sorry hun. Hope it all works out in the end. -
At Thu Aug 11, 03:25:00 PM,
karla said...
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At least with you slacking off at work, I won't be the only one doing so. I hate to think other people deserve the money they get, while I so clearly don't.
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At Thu Aug 11, 03:50:00 PM,
Just Me said...
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i'm TOTALLY slacking today...
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At Thu Aug 11, 05:38:00 PM,
Paulius said...
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I had a similar problem.
In worked as a bartender, and ended staying in that job for 5 years. because of the high turnover of employees, I became an unofficial head bartender.
There was an upstairs bar and a downstairs bar. I ran the upstairs one.
I was working more hours than the actual licencee, and while still getting paid to just serve drinks, I was ordering stocks, taking bookings, training new staff.
Then one day my boss told me he'd create a new post for me. Namely Senior Bartender/supervisor.
"Great!" I said. "What does it pay?"
"Pay?" He said. "You'll get the same as you're getting now."
I told him to stick it up his ass. I was working 50 times harder than the rest of the team...but with the way things were, if something major screwed up, I wasn't officially responsible.
If I took that 'promotion', it would have meant even more work and responsibility, with no more money.
basically, he wanted me to have an impressive sounding title, s I could do more of his work for him, and he could take more time of because the 'Supervisor' would be overseeing things.
My advice to you. Do the same thing Harold did in 'Harold and Kumar go to white castle'...(telling off the boss, not the weed smoking and grand theft auto...the handgliding wouldn't be a good idea either.) -
At Thu Aug 11, 06:07:00 PM,
Chief Slacker said...
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Marie - He's been there since before I started working here, so about 5 years. Apprently he got the job becaue they guy they wanted to give it to turned it down. At the time he may have been the best they had, but now it was a bad mistake.
Diana - I hope so too! hugs
Fudge - Oh I'd still find time to slack, but even if I couldn't at work, the major pay raise would give me a lot more fundage to slack off in much more fun ways at home :O)
JlyBn - I'm guessing that's the case, tell me what I want to hear so I go away.
Karla - All hail the slackers. Gotta make make sure the productivity of the nation doesn't get to high... things would spin out of control ;O)
M - He IS! Welcome fellow slacker! Visit often!
Wendi - way to be sister!
Duch - Oh they'll definitely get theirs... hehehehehehe >:O)
Paulius - I have a great Dilbet taht The Boss gave me after he appointed me Web Team Leader here's the text:
Boss: I'm promoting you to team leader.
Dilbert: Do I get a raise?
B: There's no extra money, jsut extra responsibility. It's how we recognize our best people.
Dil: I though all the good people left for other companies
B: That's the other way to recognise them!
Yup. I have a few things in store to go along with bitching him out. The best insult would be to be promoted to supervisor along side him. heh -
At Thu Aug 11, 06:55:00 PM,
Kira said...
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I completely understand this feeling.
Summer of 2004, the Writing Center supervisor quit (that'd be your deputy slacker from SC, Amanda). The position opened up. They needed somebody to run the WC immediately, and asked me to do so. Sure, I said. They told me that it was in the bag that the position was mine. They told me interviews were a formality and that at the end of the summer, when all was said and done, THEN I would be the supervisor of the WC and get the pay.
Not only did I work a whole summer for them running the place at NORMAL, REGULAR TUTOR pay...and have that full responsibility, and budget, and hire employees, etc etc...but then at the end of the summer, the job was given to somebody ELSE. Now, granted, the other woman has a superior resume. BUT THEN WHY LEAD ME BY THE NOSE ALL SUMMER LONG AND TELL ME THE JOB IS MINE WHEN YOU AREN'T GOING TO GIVE IT TO ME????
grrrrr
Answer is simple: they can get you to do more for less if you think that eventually you get a reward. -
At Thu Aug 11, 07:28:00 PM,
Sunny said...
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I know how companies work.
The company I am working for now actually hired me away from another company to be a site supervisor. I was there two days- found out the guy that was training me had been in place there for almost a YEAR. I went to the company manager and asked if there was a valid reason they were taking HIM(the guy who had been there almost a year in interim) from the job and replacing him.
His answer was a BULLSH*t one and I refused to take the job.
Of course, less than 6 months later I regreted it- the guy turned out to be a TOTAL jerk because I was supposed to replace him and he never got over the insecurity of that, but at the time it was absolutely the right thing for me to do.
I also learned to not trust the higher-ups as a rule- not an exception. -
At Thu Aug 11, 09:11:00 PM,
OzzyC said...
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Work is a means to an end. The end is to take care of yourself and your family, and to enjoy yourself. People put too much stock into their careers in this day and age.
I busted my ass for years, only to watch others in my company, who were less competent, go sailing by me... not because of what they knew, but because of who they knew.
I was very angry about it for a while -- a long while. Eventually, I realized that I could be angry, beat my head against the wall, keep over-producing despite being under-compensated, or I could work based on what they were paying me. I chose the latter. My promotions aren't coming any faster, but the headaches, heartaches, stress and ulcers are coming much slower. I'm enjoying life more.
In the end, these companies are not out for your interest, they're out for theirs. They're going to work you as hard as they can, for as little as they can pay you. Quit playing the game by their rules. Do your job. Do it well. But don't reach for the brass ring. They'll just take it from you and give it to someone else. -
At Thu Aug 11, 11:21:00 PM,
Denise B. said...
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I hate people like that. spineless...ugh.
Good luck with destroying him. -
At Fri Aug 12, 03:59:00 PM,
Chief Slacker said...
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Kira - Stupid office politics, They'll jsut string you along until you either stand up and fight, or find a new job.
Sunny - That seems messed up, so they were trying to screw him ove rthen or what?
OzzyC - Sounds like Dodgeball "If you don't have goals, you don't have to worry about failing to meet them." heh
Redhead Mommy - Thanks for the luck, I might need it.
Lil Country - No, they have laws against doing anything to a perso for lookign for other jobs, and trust me, I will be. -
At Fri Aug 12, 06:22:00 PM,
Sunny said...
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Honest answer- the company we were working for(not the security company) wanted a FEMALE in that position. I told them flat out they had better RE-think THAT attitude because
1) it would take me at least 6 months to learn what he knew since he had been there for over three years at that point
2)It was sexual discrimination and he could sue and I wouldn't blame him a BIT
3)It was just plain STUPID
As you can imagine- they couldn't fire me, but since then let's just say I haven't been the "Golden Girl" with the company owners.
You can just hear my tears falling, can't you?
NOT!!!!