(no subject)
So my boss has arranged, and I use the term loosely, an evening out for the team, so that we can bond in a relaxed environment; you know.
However, the financial industry is all with the belt-tightening and my boss does not wish to make waves. He is cool with making waves when it's dinner for him & his boss & their colleagues, or lunch with vague lawyer friends of his (justifying expensing this by saying he was getting free legal advice, innit). But most of our team are contractors, and a lot of them are paid pretty much the minimum wage. And he is not cool with even asking to take us out to dinner.
He chose the restaurant, a fancy couscous restaurant. And his charming Outlook "meeting request" reads thus:
"C.S. SUMMER PARTY .... Still not sponsored by the firm ..... Mandatory presence......"
Yes with the ellipses. What. A cnut.
Gilles had his father pass away last week, so he is not coming & my boss hasn't given him any hassle about it, although past experience has shown this would not necessarily stop him. Natacha on the other hand just feels that she doesn't want to come to the mandatory out-of-hours event where we pay for the privilege, and she has had nothing but snide remarks about team spirit since this morning. She didn't even state her reasons, not being overly confrontational about it; she just said she had something else on, which you would have thought was the diplomatic way out, but no.
What is galling is that it is not sponsored by the firm because he has not asked for it to be. When I said to him this morning, would you like me to place an entertainment request, he said, "No... I mean it should be me that does that," he said - TRUE! A GLIMMER OF HOPE! HE IS ACCEPTING HIS RESPONSIBILITIES - but then he went on, "and I... no."
The "mandatory" part fucking grates as well. And the choosing the restaurant part. All of the parts. Grate grate grate. Grrrrraaaaaaaaaate.
However, the financial industry is all with the belt-tightening and my boss does not wish to make waves. He is cool with making waves when it's dinner for him & his boss & their colleagues, or lunch with vague lawyer friends of his (justifying expensing this by saying he was getting free legal advice, innit). But most of our team are contractors, and a lot of them are paid pretty much the minimum wage. And he is not cool with even asking to take us out to dinner.
He chose the restaurant, a fancy couscous restaurant. And his charming Outlook "meeting request" reads thus:
"C.S. SUMMER PARTY .... Still not sponsored by the firm ..... Mandatory presence......"
Yes with the ellipses. What. A cnut.
Gilles had his father pass away last week, so he is not coming & my boss hasn't given him any hassle about it, although past experience has shown this would not necessarily stop him. Natacha on the other hand just feels that she doesn't want to come to the mandatory out-of-hours event where we pay for the privilege, and she has had nothing but snide remarks about team spirit since this morning. She didn't even state her reasons, not being overly confrontational about it; she just said she had something else on, which you would have thought was the diplomatic way out, but no.
What is galling is that it is not sponsored by the firm because he has not asked for it to be. When I said to him this morning, would you like me to place an entertainment request, he said, "No... I mean it should be me that does that," he said - TRUE! A GLIMMER OF HOPE! HE IS ACCEPTING HIS RESPONSIBILITIES - but then he went on, "and I... no."
The "mandatory" part fucking grates as well. And the choosing the restaurant part. All of the parts. Grate grate grate. Grrrrraaaaaaaaaate.