Work sucks, and my work sucks in particular
I'm getting really aggravated at work. I didn't get the promotion I wanted, and that's fair - if I'm not the best candidate, I'm not the best and I'll deal with it. However, I'm starting to see a pretty irritating bias here, and I'm not liking it.
When I was pregnant with Moira, I was a shift leader in a very nice store and extremely happy with where I was heading with this company. I knew, however, that shift leaders have very demanding schedules and have to be free to work whenever they are asked with no suggestion of a set schedule. I respected that, so when Moira came along and I needed more structure, I stepped down from my management position and moved into another position that had a set schedule. For childcare purposes, a set schedule was totally necessary.
Since switching, I've heard multiple stories of shift leaders and even assistant managers who have kids arranging to have set schedules while still working in the management capacity. The job description says this is not possible, so I never even asked - it seemed rude to suggest that people bend the rules for me. Needless to say, I'm not pleased to know that others have no problem being rude. However, I took some comfort in the fact that I did the right thing. I figured that when it was time to get back into the stores and back into management, it'd be noted that I took the higher ground.
Not so, it seems. The more positions I try for and don't get, the more it feels like I've slipped into a black hole. I even had one manager suggest that I come back to the stores as a bookseller, so that the store managers would "remember" who I was and what I could do. It's almost as though they expect to promote exclusively from the store stock, and only interviewed me (a lowly computer-sales associate) because they were required to. To make matters worse, at the location where I work, we don't even hear about openings at the stores. I hear about them only by chance or when someone I know in the stores looks out for me.
To add insult to injury, I've been with the company for five years now, and on that anniversary, employees get a little pin. It's not important at all, except that the home office forgot about mine. I seriously had to get the warehouse manager to make a call to get that sent out to me. It's almost meaningless, but it adds to that sense of falling off the face of the earth by working in this department.
I'm sometimes tempted to follow that manager's advice and go back to a store as a bookseller. It might be the shortest path to what I want. The problem is that it feels a lot like admitting defeat. I feel like being a bookseller again would sort of cancel out the promotion I earned three years ago. I feel like I would be slinking back with my tail tucked between my legs.
Argh! I'm starting to really loathe every day I spend in this computer sales department. The work is brainless and monotonous. But I don't really know what else to do but hang in there.
When I was pregnant with Moira, I was a shift leader in a very nice store and extremely happy with where I was heading with this company. I knew, however, that shift leaders have very demanding schedules and have to be free to work whenever they are asked with no suggestion of a set schedule. I respected that, so when Moira came along and I needed more structure, I stepped down from my management position and moved into another position that had a set schedule. For childcare purposes, a set schedule was totally necessary.
Since switching, I've heard multiple stories of shift leaders and even assistant managers who have kids arranging to have set schedules while still working in the management capacity. The job description says this is not possible, so I never even asked - it seemed rude to suggest that people bend the rules for me. Needless to say, I'm not pleased to know that others have no problem being rude. However, I took some comfort in the fact that I did the right thing. I figured that when it was time to get back into the stores and back into management, it'd be noted that I took the higher ground.
Not so, it seems. The more positions I try for and don't get, the more it feels like I've slipped into a black hole. I even had one manager suggest that I come back to the stores as a bookseller, so that the store managers would "remember" who I was and what I could do. It's almost as though they expect to promote exclusively from the store stock, and only interviewed me (a lowly computer-sales associate) because they were required to. To make matters worse, at the location where I work, we don't even hear about openings at the stores. I hear about them only by chance or when someone I know in the stores looks out for me.
To add insult to injury, I've been with the company for five years now, and on that anniversary, employees get a little pin. It's not important at all, except that the home office forgot about mine. I seriously had to get the warehouse manager to make a call to get that sent out to me. It's almost meaningless, but it adds to that sense of falling off the face of the earth by working in this department.
I'm sometimes tempted to follow that manager's advice and go back to a store as a bookseller. It might be the shortest path to what I want. The problem is that it feels a lot like admitting defeat. I feel like being a bookseller again would sort of cancel out the promotion I earned three years ago. I feel like I would be slinking back with my tail tucked between my legs.
Argh! I'm starting to really loathe every day I spend in this computer sales department. The work is brainless and monotonous. But I don't really know what else to do but hang in there.