I’ll get to the good stuff in a minute. First, thanks for your well wishes. The dizzy only lasts about a week in total. I’m aggressively fighting it with a lot of Benedryl at night. I feel perfectly fine in the morning but it creeps up in the afternoon (like, right about now…) and persists through the evening.
So here’s the good stuff. It’s hitting the fan like you wouldn’t believe around the office. Names are changed to protect the innocent. I’m slightly less paranoid that someone will figure out this is my blog and can everyone because everyone’s ready to leave now. EXTREMELY long post coming… I really, really, really need to vent.
The players:
Susan: Big boss until about a year ago. This woman has always been very kind to me and has even given me bonuses for what I considered doing my job.
Amy: Big boss under Susan. Also has been very kind to me. I have a personal relationship with this woman that you wouldn’t normally see in a work situation.
Sherry: Immediate supervisor. Again, a personal relationship here.
Iris: Assistant to Amy until a couple months ago. Cohort of mine in all these latest goings on.
Greg: New big boss
Alan: Big, big boss. I call him Mr. (insert my company’s name here).
Jerry: One step under Mr. (insert my company’s name here). One step above Greg.
So, way back when (like 2 months ago), Alan and Jerry bring on Greg to replace Susan who left nearly a year ago now. Susan left because Alan and Jerry are sexist pigs who think that the way to get people to work hard is to yell and scream at them. Susan didn’t have to deal with them as in depth in the beginning. She was shielded by Chris, who left about 2 years ago, followed by Bill and Jeff the following year. (I was very close to Bill and Jeff. They kept a very close eye on me while my late DH was sick and later when he passed away.) When Chris, Bill and Jeff made their exits, it wasn’t long before Susan said “F’ off” in more gentle words, of course.
Along comes Greg. Alan holds a meeting in which we are to meet Greg for the first time. In this meeting, Alan tells Greg (and since we are there, tells us too) that we have been sliding off track this last year and not meeting our goals. Which is bullshit. Alan has had this problem with denying reality and the laws of nature for quite some time. He’s convinced that his “development” division is the big money maker. The reality is that Ops (my department) is supporting development financially. Were it not for Ops, development would not have gotten the funds to continue existing this last two years. Further, development is paid MORE THAN TWICE what we in Ops are paid for similar titles.
Our company built its name on making unique, service and family oriented places (shopping centers) that serve the community. Greg comes from a company that made its name on uniformity and consistency, regardless of customers’ needs. If I told you the name, you’d know it. You pass at least one of their malls on a daily basis.
Greg comes in and immediately turns us off in that involuntary-shudder kind of way. He’s got no sense of humor but we can always work around something like that. He sets to work treating Amy like she doesn’t exist and completely ignoring Derrick (same department, nothing to do with my position but a highly respected guy in the industry). He talks to me and Sherry but acts like our supers don’t exist.
Last week, Greg pulled an impromptu meeting for the entire west coast. Um… hello? If you’re going to involve more than one or two people, you MUST give more than 24 hours notice so that we all don’t look like f’ing flakes when we cancel our appointments! The meeting was pointless (not my words… I wasn’t in it, thank god) and he had no idea what he was doing. Meanwhile I’m running around making copies of things that he didn’t think to ask for the day before to, oh… I don’t know… PREPARE for the meeting. Now, I’m not above making copies, making coffee, running the dishwasher and the like. Hell, I even seek out such tasks on occasion because I find them a relaxing change from my regular grind. But my title here carries the distinction of EXECUTIVE. Need I say more?
After this pointless meeting, I grab Amy who looks like she’s about to cry and we go out for lunch. She confirms that she’s on the edge of crying like 24/7 for the last month. She’s been on the edge of giving notice for the last 3 weeks. However, she’s waiting for other things to form. Like another company. Another company with Susan, Chris and 3 other people who have made their exits this last year. Amy informed me a couple weeks back that she’d planned on leaving shortly and told me why. At that point, I told her of my plans to move. We’ve since had time to discuss things in detail. I’m still moving but it would have been nice to wait a year to see this crap unfold.
Did I mention Derrick quit? He’ll be gone as of next week. He can’t stand to watch this happen either. I might be begging him for a temp job in about 3 weeks.
So all this shit is happening… Meanwhile I tell Sherry that I’m leaving in a few months. When she gets over her initial panic attack, we start discussing plans in detail for how we’ll be jumping off this ship as it sinks. Sherry came to me an hour ago and told me that she’s thinking about giving notice on the 2nd. So now I’m having a panic attack. How will I handle two months here without her? Will they at least give me a good severance package when they kick me out in a month because there’s nothing for me to do (in their minds)? Will it take them 2 months to figure that out, leaving me enough time to leave when I want?
Then I find out WHY Sherry wants to leave so soon. The big, annual convention which occurs in Las Vegas is currently underway. Some old friends of ours (former employees at other offices who went with the properties as they sold) checked in to our company booth to see how things were with all of us. Note that Ops doesn’t go to convention. We’re not important enough. This would have been the first year I’d ever seen Amy go but she decided against it. So, Teri and Cindy pop in and ask about Amy. Three ladies there who are, it seems, admin assistants tell Teri and Cindy that Amy is no longer with the company. WTF?????? Er… she’s on the other side of the hall from me. Let me assure you she hasn’t resigned.
So, you see, for this information to come from the mouths of admin assistants, it has to be company-wide knowledge. Admins are the last to know such things. Do you see what I’m getting at?
The driving force behind all of this is Jerry. Complete (insert your favorite profane name here) and sexist beyond anything I’ve ever seen. Alan has no idea what kind of damage this guy has been doing this last 4 years.
Does anyone need a personal assistant for 2 1/2 months? Or a hired gun to organize an office? Anything? Bueller? Bueller? Any LYSs hiring? Or pizza places for that matter? I’m getting desperate.
