Back on the Chain Gang (temporarily)

Editor's Note:
The following was taken from my daily thoughts while filing "TPS reports" for the office where I am currently day laboring (temping).

I can already feel it. After less than a week on the job, the loathing and politics characteristic of so many a workplace have already revealed themselves, as if by osmosis. Do all the same stock characters come with every office? Is there some catalog where misery can be carefully selected by invoice number? Isn't office dysfunction the real reason I fled my last job like corporate greedsanity is a communicable disease? When you're in the shit, you're in full battle mode. 100 yard stare. Fight or flight. All that. Since I'm not really financially or emotionally vested in this place, I can see the score.

There is dissention in the ranks here. Corporate politics have reared their ugly head, even in a company set up to do so much good for the world. Evil is a powerful motherfucker. I can sense that there are major problems with the divisions between the classes that interfere with and perhaps completely handicap this organization's ability to function cohesively and accomplish all it can.

Looking up from the bottom of the lower class (the workers), I can see that my department is pretty efficient at what it does. After three days here, I feel as though I could handle any job in the place. Most of my platoon is content with what they are doing and handle their responsibilities quite well.

Enter management. A woman whom I've never dared to look directly at, for fear that the beast will somehow emit from her soul like tentacles and crush my will to live. In what has become my expectation of all managers, she, rather than running the department using common sense, logic, business acumen, and courteousness, lives in the typical Manager's Bubble, and has created a situation in which the staff not only dislikes her, but does not respect her either.

The manager's signature moves are standard. Calling a meeting for 1:00 and then sending someone down to say she needs another 15 minutes, before finally gracing the department with her presence at 1:45. This move, whether intentional or not (although the more often it occurs, the more intentional it seems), shows a complete lack of common courtesy and professionalism at the very least. At most, it is a passive-aggressive power play to somehow show that "my time is important and yours is not."

Another, more advanced move is undermining not only a subordinate's confidence and ability to perform their duties, but also any chance of them gaining valuable skills that could one day prove useful and allow them to get promoted. Rather than trusting the staff currently in place to handle an assignment they have already been spearheading and would like to continue with, the Manager has decided that "no, no, that would be giving you some power and I want it all to myself." The Manager is trying to bring in a consultant to perform the duties that are in the job description of a current staff member.

But I can't blame the Manager, as she is only a cog in the system. "I was only following orders" has become the American corporate mantra. The system is broken and if Manager wasn't there to fill that role someone else would be.

The company's culture didn't seem all that suspect until I (along with everyone else in the office) received an email that proved all jobs are the same. Since the internet connection is excruciatingly slow sometimes, rather than pony up the money to get a faster connection (however that can be done), the company decided that people were spending too much time doing personal things on the internet, such as shopping, looking for housing, and (gasp!) checking their personal email accounts.

I understand that people are there to work, not play on the internet, but there is a point at which the normal person can use his discretion. Everyone knows if he or she is spending too much time not working. Most people choose not to cross that line. But sometimes, management finds it necessary to end those little conveniences that make office life more pleasant. At my old job, they went so far as to start blocking websites that they deemed "inappropriate" without even informing anyone of the criteria. Luckily, I don't think the IT department at this company is that proficient.

But you know me. I can't complain.

In all actuality, I am almost living the dream right now. I have my own desk, computer, phone, and even a cubicle...with a window! I work normal hours. I don't have a long commute. I'm not treated like crap. I like the people I work with. I'm making ok money. And I'm doing something for the betterment of society. Aside from Neil Weisman moving in two days early, the only problem is that its all going to end quite soon.

When it does end, I'll tell you about some of the more funny things about the place.