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I work in a big corporate environment. I'm sure several of you here do, as well.
Do any of you feel you are literally trapped in a Dilbert strip?
I have been with this particular company for 13 years, and while I am indeed grateful for being employed in the current economy, I am frustrated with my career prospects.
I am tired of glowing performance reviews, and words of praise from my immediate managers, only to be turned down for promotions again, and again, and again - always with some platitude about "please post again for the next opening," or "there we so many quality candidates" blah, blah, blah.
I am tired of the suggestion that I accept a lateral position, as it will "broaden [my] skill-set" and make me a more appealing candidate. How many [bleepin'] times do I have to move [bleepin'] sideways before you give me the opportunity to move up?
Finally, I am tired of taking all this feedback at face value, only to find out that the person who was selected for the position has been with the company less than half the time I have and doesn't have nearly the equivalent of my education, experience, and skill-sets. But she has one thing I don't have, close friendships with the hiring managers.
Anyway, even if no one else posts. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.
Do any of you feel you are literally trapped in a Dilbert strip?
Sadly, yes.
Oh, I definitely had my Dilbert moments.
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Do I feel like I'm in a Dilbert comic strip? Well..
My manager went on maternity leave for 1 year (normal for Canada), and a new manager was told they would be helping us out. She wasn't given any reprieve from her other work other than having one other person under her obtain additional work as well. She also wasn't trained for the high end type of work we did, so it was a struggle.
That lasted 2 months, at which point she was moved over to another part of the company, with the one direct report she had staying with our team, and having some work taken off of her plate. For the last while I've been working my tail off to cover as much as possible, only to be striped of being a mentor to our new hire (for no reason).
The bonus from all of this? I'm being pressured to move to the main office (no offense to the US; I just like living in Canada) as otherwise I won't grow at all (they aren't even offering lateral moves).
The final insult came yesterday when our new director explained that she'd already rated my performance without any peer reviews or my own self review, and I better write my self review reflecting the rating I will be given.
I had a job for 8 years that was soul-crushing in every possible way and reminded me very much of Dilbert.
I had a job for 8 years that was soul-crushing in every possible way and reminded me very much of Dilbert.\
But...but...you haven't worked at Paizo that long! Oh, wait! You said "soul crushing". I though you'd said "soul devouring"......
:)
{consults star charts} Hmmm, I thought Dilbert-class stars were collapsed singularities of despair and Paizo was merely a temporal sink?
Oh crap, the Poodles have gotten into the quadrotriticale again!
I had a job for 8 years that was soul-crushing in every possible way and reminded me very much of Dilbert.\
But...but...you haven't worked at Paizo that long! Oh, wait! You said "soul crushing". I though you'd said "soul devouring"......
:)
{consults star charts} Hmmm, I thought Dilbert-class stars were collapsed singularities of despair and Paizo was merely a temporal sink?
Oh crap, the Poodles have gotten into the quadrotriticale again!
humps the quadrotriticale
...Finally, I am tired of taking all this feedback at face value, only to find out that the person who was selected for the position has been with the company less than half the time I have and doesn't have nearly the equivalent of my education, experience, and skill-sets. But she has one thing I don't have, close friendships with the hiring managers.
Take notes kids...
If there's ONE thing I've learned over the years is this: It's not about how good you are, it's ALL about who you know. This goes for the convenience store workers all the way to high government officials. You want to go "UP" at work, then choose a work where one of your good friends is president; Then, and ONLY then, you'll be vice-president in no time. What? You don't know any? Well, then do like me: Get used to moving sideways.
C'mon. Look above you. Can any of you really say that their superiors really know their stuff and are true examples of work ethics? No. Most bosses usually have no clue what's going on, hop how to fix things, or even go though a single daily chore (like put paper in the photocopying machine or change the ink cartrige on a printer). They're good at telling you that you don't perform well though (although they have no clue what the hell you're doing).
I have totally lost confidence in good hard honest work. It NEVER (EVER) pays off. You always end up doing the work of three (cause you're that damn good), while those around/above you pretend to not notice. And, in the end, the company will chew you to a pulp and spit you out on the curb when you start costing too much.
Ultradan
If there's ONE thing I've learned over the years is this: It's not about how good you are, it's ALL about who you know. This goes for the convenience store workers all the way to high government officials. You want to go "UP" at work, then choose a work where one of your good friends is president; Then, and ONLY then, you'll be vice-president in no time. What? You don't know any? Well, then do like me: Get used to moving sideways.
C'mon. Look above you. Can any of you really say that their superiors really know their stuff and are true examples of work ethics? No. Most bosses usually have no clue what's going on, hop how to fix things, or even go though a single daily chore (like put paper in the photocopying machine or change the ink cartrige on a printer). They're good at telling you that you don't perform well though (although they have no clue what the hell you're doing).
I have totally lost confidence in good hard honest work. It NEVER (EVER) pays off. You always end up doing the work of three (cause you're that damn good), while those around/above you pretend to not notice. And, in the end, the company will chew you to a pulp and spit you out on the curb when you start costing too much.
Ultradan
Unfortunately this is pretty accurate. I work for someone who works for someone who is less qualified than I am, as measured by education, knowledge, practical experience, or just plain I.Q.
Though I would add a complete lack of scruples and/or mountains of unwarranted self-confidence as viable paths to success.
Considering my day at work yesterday and what today is shaping up to be, I approve of this thread. Management/supervisors NEVER know what they are doing and will throw you under the bus once you figure that out.
I had "help" dropping a 300 pound log on my foot because our boss felt that showing us how to use the loader would be a threat to his job, and getting one of the people qualified to use it would be unneccesary.
The insurance company held up surgery on my toe for 6 months because the toe is not part of the foot.
I have spent 3 years trying to implement software that is worse than what we currently use because of percieved faults in the existing tools (that are not fixed by the new software). If I alone spent half the time I spend on the new tool upgrading the old one, those flaws would be gone.
My boss has no idea what I do. Her boss has no idea what is going on with the project. Everyone is afraid to tell upper management anything because no one wants to admit they are wrong. So instead everything is done in pitches that mean nothing and give a false sense of accomplishment.
People care more about the appearance of being on time than actually getting things done. Being done is more important than doing it right. These are the opposite of all the propoganda the company produces.
Most days, I can work for ~2 hours and people are amased at my productivity.
Dilbert strips have had 1 sentence modified to become specific to my company. I have one on the wall.
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Wow, I was angry when I posted last here... crazy what a year can do to you.
End of the day? Most people don't know what you're doing. Learn what you can, ask for a promotion, if you get turned down leave during a busy time. Rinse. Repeat. Eventually you either have a salary and job you are happy with or a job where everyone leaves you alone.
A toe is not part of a foot?
Not on their sheet it isn't.
Also, apparently, 300 pound logs are precision instruments which can only land on one body part.
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I got this job with 0 qualifications. I started here as a favor to my mum and as a way of finding some means of getting out of retail hell. I miss retail.
I'm pretty smart and rapidly rose from file monkey to data entry during a very difficult and busy transition period. My manager was impressed with my work and I received a small payrise. I was promised a full- time position. That was 4 months ago. I'm still casual and my pay is still crap, I'm actually working a lower level job and every day I feel more stupid and disconnected than the day before.
I am getting empty placations about why it's taking so long to upgrade me from casual to full time.
Thank goodness for good friends and good games or my life would be absolutely meaningless.
I work in a weird corner of phone service. I caption telephone calls for deaf and hard of hearing. No one I help knows I'm on the phone with them, and I suspect at least 60-75% of the time the people don't need my help. I get paid a small fraction of what the company makes off of my labor, but because of the economy being what it is and the company being where it is (in a college town with a lot of computer literate students) they always have an influx of new labor.
Recently it has come to my attention that the company is expanding its services. Really this last 2 years or so that I've worked there has been a huge cycle of expansion in its customer base. However, they refuse to hire more people, so basically they've doubled or tripled everyone's workload without pay raises or increases in benefits.
Despite the fact that I loathe my job, it is a comfortable work environment, I don't have to interact with the ignoramuses that run the place, and I am singularly fit to my job. I can do top notch work with my eyes closed and my hands tied behind my back, even though those things are clearly against company policy.
When a call goes long (30-60 minutes, depending on call difficulty) or an employee needs relief for bathroom, break, end of shift, whatever, they call for a call takeover. Though not required (but I'll get to that) when asked you're supposed to take over a call for a fellow employee, knowing that when you need relief someone will do it for you. If a call goes REALLY long, and peoples' shifts start ending, they start cycling in multiple people in half hour shifts.
The other day I was reprimanded for ONLY taking over a fellow employee's call for 35 minutes. Which is how I was trained, how I've always done it, and have never had it questioned before. I was told, by someone who is my supervisor and has worked for the company all of 4 months, that I'm REQUIRED to take over another employee's call when asked, and that once I do so I'm required to remain on the call for however long it takes. Even if it means skipping breaks, or that I'm literally the only person in the call center on a call (which totally happens late at night).
F%++ my job. I know it's not a real big complaint, but I f@*~ing detest my job and yet consistently get awards for my abilities. Then I get "taken aside" by someone 10 years my younger who slept her way to her position, who has only been there a fraction of how long I've been there, about something that either she's totally wrong about or a policy that has changed without my knowing. Gotta love being appreciated.
I am reading some stories here about real contributors that are getting screwed over by poor management.
One way to protect yourself is to become recognized as an expert in your field, and you can do that by starting a blog focusing on your job. Build it up for a few months and eventually casually let it be known at work. Work on it only at home and of course don't share any proprietary info about your company.
It is marketing...if the higher ups at the company see you as public expert in your field, your manager will have to explain why he got rid of you. Managers don't want to do that. It won't always protect you, but even if you do get fired it can help you get a new job.
You assume your manager knows who you are. Thanks for that laugh.
Just found out a few minutes ago that my boss has been stiffing us on vacation time with respect to rollover at the end of the year. I brought this to my supervisors attention and told her that I would be fighting for any vacation days it looks like I might lose. She looked at me like I grew a second head and went on about how I have problems with time management and should schedule my days odd better. Piqued, i pointed out the companies seniority policy and said I would be making use of that. She looked at me like a third head grew to join the other two and went on about how it's all about time management. She was turning into a broken record at this point, so I ended the conversation. She's been here less than a year, I have been here for almost ten.
Thank goodness capitalism is such a meritocracy.