inconsistency
Sometimes I'd like to shoot my bosses. Like today. Please take today.
Our managers are always telling us that if we see something that could be improved, needs to be fixed, etc., we should write up a suggestion and hand it in to our manager. A lot of suggestions have been tried before and didn't work, but some of them are implemented and work quite well. We never know what's already been done and what the managers have/haven't thought of so we're always encouraged to suggest.
Our office is weird, it used to be a house in Baltimore City. Because it didn't start its life as an office building, the interior is laid out weird. The "back" or "basement" area is where most of the cubicles are, there are five in a row along the back of the building and two further towards the "front" of the basement, you go up a flight of 5 stairs and there's two more cubicles, another flight but this time it's 3 stairs, and you're at the "front" where the managers and Mortality department are. Anyway...
One of my co-workers Patrice used to sit in one of the cubes in the middle level, while our receptionist's desk was located in one of the two farther-up basement cubes that also contains the common items like the fax machine and a copier. The managers switched Patrice with the receptionist, so now MY co-worker is ensconced in the common area. I feel totally in the way and disruptive when I'm training Patrice at her desk now, and I feel like I'm invading her space when I have to send a fax or use the copier. Those are not comfy feelings. It's disruptive. She doesn't have enough space to work with.
So I typed up a suggestion and handed it in to management about the way we're using the back space. The unused cube in the back, which is the same size as the regular ones five in a row that are all in use, has a bunch of junk in it and the typewriter. I suggested that we rearrange the "common" area to include the fax, copier, AND typewriter and convert the unused cube to a real cubicle space for Patrice. I drew a little map of the office to show my so I wouldn't have to type an exhaustive description like I am now. I also pointed out some positives and negatives to such an arrangement since they came to mind, I figured it would be helpful to whoever read it to see some of the good and bad points from the point of view of someone who actually works in that area. And I handed it in last night before the office was locked up for the night.
This morning (the following day) I got an email from my manager saying that she was so pissed off about my suggestion that she didn't even want to talk to me about it. I had horrible timing, I should know how busy they are right now, she knows very well what she wants to do with the space in the back and will get to it in good time, and she can't believe I wasted valuable company time on something that is clearly a manager's purview. I was told that if my co-worker found her new desk to be less than ideal, my co-worker can bring it up to her manager herself, and I'm to stay out of it.
I cried after I read it because I was so mad and hurt.
I thought it was such a great idea, and damnit it IS a great idea! And she shat all over it! She assumed that I would "waste" company time by, horror of horrors, writing down a suggestion like we're so encouraged to do!
Well fuck that! I deliberately waited until the business day was over and I had punched out to even type out one word about it! Nobody was in the office but one manager so none of my co-workers would get wind of the idea unless management decided to follow through with it when they were ready to. And fuck that again! I made the suggestion because the stupid arrangement sucks and needs to be changed! And you know what else, I KNOW how busy the managers are with the year-end coming up so the very first sentence in my suggestion was to put the damned thing aside until they have time to spare to look at it because it wasn't urgent and I wasn't expecting a response any time soon, I just wanted to put my idea into words while it was floating around in my head.
ARGH.
But I didn't breathe a word of any of that above to my co-workers. Oh no, Hell no, I'm not even going to talk about it to my manager unless she brings it up first.
And you know what... three more people in the back said out loud today that the arrangement is not the best and that the common area should be the COMMON area and Patrice needs a regular cubicle. I didn't say a word, no comment from me. So I'm not the only one to make that suggestion, and I bet everyone that does will be yelled at.
Fuck it, I'm never suggesting anything ever again if that's the response I'll get.
Our managers are always telling us that if we see something that could be improved, needs to be fixed, etc., we should write up a suggestion and hand it in to our manager. A lot of suggestions have been tried before and didn't work, but some of them are implemented and work quite well. We never know what's already been done and what the managers have/haven't thought of so we're always encouraged to suggest.
Our office is weird, it used to be a house in Baltimore City. Because it didn't start its life as an office building, the interior is laid out weird. The "back" or "basement" area is where most of the cubicles are, there are five in a row along the back of the building and two further towards the "front" of the basement, you go up a flight of 5 stairs and there's two more cubicles, another flight but this time it's 3 stairs, and you're at the "front" where the managers and Mortality department are. Anyway...
One of my co-workers Patrice used to sit in one of the cubes in the middle level, while our receptionist's desk was located in one of the two farther-up basement cubes that also contains the common items like the fax machine and a copier. The managers switched Patrice with the receptionist, so now MY co-worker is ensconced in the common area. I feel totally in the way and disruptive when I'm training Patrice at her desk now, and I feel like I'm invading her space when I have to send a fax or use the copier. Those are not comfy feelings. It's disruptive. She doesn't have enough space to work with.
So I typed up a suggestion and handed it in to management about the way we're using the back space. The unused cube in the back, which is the same size as the regular ones five in a row that are all in use, has a bunch of junk in it and the typewriter. I suggested that we rearrange the "common" area to include the fax, copier, AND typewriter and convert the unused cube to a real cubicle space for Patrice. I drew a little map of the office to show my so I wouldn't have to type an exhaustive description like I am now. I also pointed out some positives and negatives to such an arrangement since they came to mind, I figured it would be helpful to whoever read it to see some of the good and bad points from the point of view of someone who actually works in that area. And I handed it in last night before the office was locked up for the night.
This morning (the following day) I got an email from my manager saying that she was so pissed off about my suggestion that she didn't even want to talk to me about it. I had horrible timing, I should know how busy they are right now, she knows very well what she wants to do with the space in the back and will get to it in good time, and she can't believe I wasted valuable company time on something that is clearly a manager's purview. I was told that if my co-worker found her new desk to be less than ideal, my co-worker can bring it up to her manager herself, and I'm to stay out of it.
I cried after I read it because I was so mad and hurt.
I thought it was such a great idea, and damnit it IS a great idea! And she shat all over it! She assumed that I would "waste" company time by, horror of horrors, writing down a suggestion like we're so encouraged to do!
Well fuck that! I deliberately waited until the business day was over and I had punched out to even type out one word about it! Nobody was in the office but one manager so none of my co-workers would get wind of the idea unless management decided to follow through with it when they were ready to. And fuck that again! I made the suggestion because the stupid arrangement sucks and needs to be changed! And you know what else, I KNOW how busy the managers are with the year-end coming up so the very first sentence in my suggestion was to put the damned thing aside until they have time to spare to look at it because it wasn't urgent and I wasn't expecting a response any time soon, I just wanted to put my idea into words while it was floating around in my head.
ARGH.
But I didn't breathe a word of any of that above to my co-workers. Oh no, Hell no, I'm not even going to talk about it to my manager unless she brings it up first.
And you know what... three more people in the back said out loud today that the arrangement is not the best and that the common area should be the COMMON area and Patrice needs a regular cubicle. I didn't say a word, no comment from me. So I'm not the only one to make that suggestion, and I bet everyone that does will be yelled at.
Fuck it, I'm never suggesting anything ever again if that's the response I'll get.