NPO Blues
It's weird looking at this thing after two years of not posting to it - I was re-reading some of the stories I told, and spent about an hour just sitting and remembering the events surrounding them. I blame chaosette, of course, for reminding me of the existence of LiveJournal this weekend. ;)
The story thus far...
I was one of the last layoffs from Hewlett-Packard, after watching my workcenter of 10 employees dwindle to two. I took a break for a few weeks, then started job hunting. The market sucked, naturally, and unemployment in California's a joke. I took a job with the UC Davis Health System just as I was down to my last few dollars (literally).
Six months of that, and I was laid off again. Lesson learned? Don't work for a non-profit group. Donating time? Cool. Being on the payroll? Not cool. I thought I had been schooled in the ways of office politics from my time at H-P, but that was NOTHING compared to the gift processing department at UCD.
Top that off with threats to cut the budget in half, dating and marriages between co-workers (DRAMA!), long-time employees out to cut each others' throats to get promoted to key positions in the hierarchy (a manager had cancer that was in remission, but folks treated it as if she was about to die any day), and a complete lack of any written procedures for handling the tens of thousands of dollars that passed through the department every day and you've got a top-notch place to work.
My boss (who was great - one of the only people who didn't leave a bad impression on me) was working on getting me a job writing up some procedures after I pointed out a few crucial flaws in the way things were being handled. Mind you, I noticed these problems after being there for less than a week, and everyone else had either not noticed or had overlooked them as non-issues. She had to fight tooth-and-nail to get management to let me spend a few hours each day writing up procedural docs.
It was just about to get approved when I had a run-in with the most f-ed up employee there. There was a psychiatrist in the department who was a real kook. She spent a few decades in some satellite-relay station out in the middle of nowhere where the only human contact was her husband (who ran the station, apparently). She spent that time reading just about every book that had ever been written, and knew a little bit about any topic you'd care to bring up.
Problem is, she had the strangest interpersonal skills I've ever seen. Really passive, as if she's barely paying attention, then you'll say something that gets her interest and she turns almost predatory.
I was talking to someone about the problems I had had getting approval for the documentation job, and was complaining about how we had to hold meeting after meeting after meeting with management, going over the same few points each time, reassuring them that it won't cost the department any additional money, and it'll help increase productivity once it's done.
I said that it "feels like I'm beating a dead horse" and the co-worker, who'd been walking past with her nose in a magazine, stopped dead in her tracks, turned to me, and started asking me if I have a history of abusing animals. I explained that it's just an expression, then explained the origin of the phrase. She just stared at me, then walked off.
Next day, my boss' boss is telling me that there is concern over the possibility that I could be emotionally disturbed, and that "several co-workers" overheard me talking about abusing animals. I explained the whole thing to her, and everything's cool.
A week later, I'm laid off due to "budget cuts" (even though the budget passed, and we'd gotten an INCREASE in funding), and a week after that my landlord decides he doesn't want to renew my lease, because he wants to move his nephew into the house I'm renting.
One week after that, I'm living with my girlfriend and looking for work in a CORPORATE environment. I got picked up by Coca-Cola, doing IS, data analysis, and auditing. I'm so much happier here than at UCD - they pay me well for work that's not too stressful (and sometimes a whole lot of fun), benefits are great (better than when I was working for a hospital, if you cna believe that), and my co-workers aren't a bunch of freaks.
I've been here a year, now, and I'm just about to get promoted to the job of managing the company Intranet. Here's hoping that comes with a raise.
I got engaged to my girlfriend, and we're going to be married in October. She wants to do a non-traditional wedding, so it's off to Vegas to be wed by Dracula, then back to Sacramento for a Halloween party / reception.
The story thus far...
I was one of the last layoffs from Hewlett-Packard, after watching my workcenter of 10 employees dwindle to two. I took a break for a few weeks, then started job hunting. The market sucked, naturally, and unemployment in California's a joke. I took a job with the UC Davis Health System just as I was down to my last few dollars (literally).
Six months of that, and I was laid off again. Lesson learned? Don't work for a non-profit group. Donating time? Cool. Being on the payroll? Not cool. I thought I had been schooled in the ways of office politics from my time at H-P, but that was NOTHING compared to the gift processing department at UCD.
Top that off with threats to cut the budget in half, dating and marriages between co-workers (DRAMA!), long-time employees out to cut each others' throats to get promoted to key positions in the hierarchy (a manager had cancer that was in remission, but folks treated it as if she was about to die any day), and a complete lack of any written procedures for handling the tens of thousands of dollars that passed through the department every day and you've got a top-notch place to work.
My boss (who was great - one of the only people who didn't leave a bad impression on me) was working on getting me a job writing up some procedures after I pointed out a few crucial flaws in the way things were being handled. Mind you, I noticed these problems after being there for less than a week, and everyone else had either not noticed or had overlooked them as non-issues. She had to fight tooth-and-nail to get management to let me spend a few hours each day writing up procedural docs.
It was just about to get approved when I had a run-in with the most f-ed up employee there. There was a psychiatrist in the department who was a real kook. She spent a few decades in some satellite-relay station out in the middle of nowhere where the only human contact was her husband (who ran the station, apparently). She spent that time reading just about every book that had ever been written, and knew a little bit about any topic you'd care to bring up.
Problem is, she had the strangest interpersonal skills I've ever seen. Really passive, as if she's barely paying attention, then you'll say something that gets her interest and she turns almost predatory.
I was talking to someone about the problems I had had getting approval for the documentation job, and was complaining about how we had to hold meeting after meeting after meeting with management, going over the same few points each time, reassuring them that it won't cost the department any additional money, and it'll help increase productivity once it's done.
I said that it "feels like I'm beating a dead horse" and the co-worker, who'd been walking past with her nose in a magazine, stopped dead in her tracks, turned to me, and started asking me if I have a history of abusing animals. I explained that it's just an expression, then explained the origin of the phrase. She just stared at me, then walked off.
Next day, my boss' boss is telling me that there is concern over the possibility that I could be emotionally disturbed, and that "several co-workers" overheard me talking about abusing animals. I explained the whole thing to her, and everything's cool.
A week later, I'm laid off due to "budget cuts" (even though the budget passed, and we'd gotten an INCREASE in funding), and a week after that my landlord decides he doesn't want to renew my lease, because he wants to move his nephew into the house I'm renting.
One week after that, I'm living with my girlfriend and looking for work in a CORPORATE environment. I got picked up by Coca-Cola, doing IS, data analysis, and auditing. I'm so much happier here than at UCD - they pay me well for work that's not too stressful (and sometimes a whole lot of fun), benefits are great (better than when I was working for a hospital, if you cna believe that), and my co-workers aren't a bunch of freaks.
I've been here a year, now, and I'm just about to get promoted to the job of managing the company Intranet. Here's hoping that comes with a raise.
I got engaged to my girlfriend, and we're going to be married in October. She wants to do a non-traditional wedding, so it's off to Vegas to be wed by Dracula, then back to Sacramento for a Halloween party / reception.