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Well, (my not-really-boss) the Ogre's last day is today, but this is my day off, so when I go back again he's gone forevermore. It's sad, it's the end of an era, because he's been there since the beginning. And ever since the beginning people have asked what he actually did. Lately they asked me what he actually did, because Moose and I have the obvious faces of the department to the majority of people we know - we interface with the workers when they are students. And it's true we'd picked up a lot of the slack of things the Ogre should probably have been doing which he'd never been good at, the computer stuff. Only recently I've realized that upper management kind of thought he was doing a lot of the stuff we were doing, probably because his position is the interface with upper management. At first I was incensed that they thought HE produced the monthly report, but then I sat back and recalled that in fact he could put together the report, he would just do it differently than I would. And of course I think my way is superior, so I tried to avoid letting him do it. :) But it still came 'from' him, because it came through his email, because he was our interface to management.
One has to wonder why there have to be two different worlds, but it's obvious that management are very different creatures from line workers. Moose and I were quite annoyed, yesterday, at having to sit through an hour long telecon which could have been compressed into 6 or 8 bullet points in an email. But that, I suppose, is what management is supposed to do - listen to presentations which are 90% bullshit and try to pick out the tiny nugget of useful information. Then, later, generate a lot of hot air to hide the fact that they only have information enough to fill ten seconds. What I really hate are those meetings where you're all supposed to be equals, sharing information and trying to figure out where the problems in communication are, when those problems (higher up management) are sitting in the room with you, so you don't want to say certain things, and you're trying to hint around it in the nicest way possible, so everyone spends most of their time complimenting all of the other people in the room on how well they communicate, pointedly not looking at the problem people. I say 'hate,' but I guess I do get a sort of perverse enjoyment out of them as well, because you've got to admit it increases the sense of solidarity between those lower down who go to great lengths to communicate with each other, avoiding the upper channels. There's a lot of information you can't put in an email - random stuff that you know someone has to get - because if you put it in an email it would have to go up to upper management, it can't go direct across departments, and then it won't trickle back down to the person who needs it. Or if it does, by the time it has done so it's gotten warped and confused and turns into something else entirely - reprimands and recriminations and a different message entirely when it could have just been, "Hey, remember to do this. Thanks."
And if I get the Ogre's job, navigating the management minefield will be my fate all the time, while line workers ask, "What does she do, now, anyway?" I don't really want it. Yes, I put in for it, because people see it as the next logical step after what I do, now, and everyone else expects I can do great things with the position. I think it's a position which is set up to make anyone in it look bad, and does not suit my personality or aptitudes. I'm afraid I'll yell and stamp my foot at someone, because that's what I do when I get frustrated. I wrote on The Ogre's going away card, "Who am I going to yell at, now?" and he was telling people yesterday, "When she stamps both feet she's really annoyed and you'd better watch out." ;) That was mostly only when I had shit to do and he was standing in my way being stupid about something.
But there were a lot of applicants, and two or three of them might actually be really good. We may have a dark horse - a guy who used to be at a similar level in DOD and is right now a line worker as his retirement job. (I'm so jealous of those military retirees who are so young. I suppose it's only fair if you offer to go get shot at when you're seventeen years old that you get to retire after 20 years and that makes you only 37. It's like a lottery with your life, though, and then they still have to have a retirement job because it's not a very good retirement.) My worry is that the pattern around here is that it's not usually the person who would be good for the job who gets it. Rumor has it that another H band person wants it, and further rumor says that if an H band person wants a job at the same level they can make a lateral move and no other applicants need be considered. The pattern has always been that anyone who was in a certain branch of the service, the same branch which the Director was in, gets whatever they want, so if this Old Boy wants it he will get it. He may not be the worst possible candidate, but he's not too very... useful. IMHO. Tits on a boar hog and cats with two arseholes come to mind. And I don't think I'll be able to yell at him.
But then, I didn't start right out yelling at the Ogre, I worked him into it. ;) First I had to get him reassured that I would not be a source of backstabby information about him to other management, because that seems to be a huge problem around here. Yet another reason I'm not too keen on moving into that level. Hm, come to think of it, he made one of the most dangerous ones his absolute bestest friend. I wonder if I should have been cultivating such links. I've been lucky so far, though - the administrative assistant to the Director likes me, and I can get whatever office supplies I want from her. Everyone else goes about surreptitiously stealing office supplies from each other because they're afraid of her. :) She's not bad if you just listen to her rants, nod and make appropriate faces and say, "ah, yes, I see, thank you." Maybe she and I are actually quite similar. ;)
Why am I always so willing to ramble pointlessly before I've had food and tea? It's like I haven't put on my inhibitions for the day. Also, there's nothing really pressing, it's my day off, so I felt as though I could start my day by writing for an hour. If only I could have made it about something other than the top thing on my mind. :) Maybe something like Story. Hey, there are open submission calls at Riptide Publishing! :) "Lesbian fiction open call" is pulling me. I want to go back to Ennui and see if I can work out a longer story. I've always been interested in writing something about Mary Reed and Anne Bonney, or something parallelish. Reading all this Master and Commander makes me wonder how long a woman could stay hidden aboard a Royal Navy ship. Not long, I think, and then what? Someone else take these ideas and run, would you? Since I just seem to keep spinning my wheels and not writing anything.
One has to wonder why there have to be two different worlds, but it's obvious that management are very different creatures from line workers. Moose and I were quite annoyed, yesterday, at having to sit through an hour long telecon which could have been compressed into 6 or 8 bullet points in an email. But that, I suppose, is what management is supposed to do - listen to presentations which are 90% bullshit and try to pick out the tiny nugget of useful information. Then, later, generate a lot of hot air to hide the fact that they only have information enough to fill ten seconds. What I really hate are those meetings where you're all supposed to be equals, sharing information and trying to figure out where the problems in communication are, when those problems (higher up management) are sitting in the room with you, so you don't want to say certain things, and you're trying to hint around it in the nicest way possible, so everyone spends most of their time complimenting all of the other people in the room on how well they communicate, pointedly not looking at the problem people. I say 'hate,' but I guess I do get a sort of perverse enjoyment out of them as well, because you've got to admit it increases the sense of solidarity between those lower down who go to great lengths to communicate with each other, avoiding the upper channels. There's a lot of information you can't put in an email - random stuff that you know someone has to get - because if you put it in an email it would have to go up to upper management, it can't go direct across departments, and then it won't trickle back down to the person who needs it. Or if it does, by the time it has done so it's gotten warped and confused and turns into something else entirely - reprimands and recriminations and a different message entirely when it could have just been, "Hey, remember to do this. Thanks."
And if I get the Ogre's job, navigating the management minefield will be my fate all the time, while line workers ask, "What does she do, now, anyway?" I don't really want it. Yes, I put in for it, because people see it as the next logical step after what I do, now, and everyone else expects I can do great things with the position. I think it's a position which is set up to make anyone in it look bad, and does not suit my personality or aptitudes. I'm afraid I'll yell and stamp my foot at someone, because that's what I do when I get frustrated. I wrote on The Ogre's going away card, "Who am I going to yell at, now?" and he was telling people yesterday, "When she stamps both feet she's really annoyed and you'd better watch out." ;) That was mostly only when I had shit to do and he was standing in my way being stupid about something.
But there were a lot of applicants, and two or three of them might actually be really good. We may have a dark horse - a guy who used to be at a similar level in DOD and is right now a line worker as his retirement job. (I'm so jealous of those military retirees who are so young. I suppose it's only fair if you offer to go get shot at when you're seventeen years old that you get to retire after 20 years and that makes you only 37. It's like a lottery with your life, though, and then they still have to have a retirement job because it's not a very good retirement.) My worry is that the pattern around here is that it's not usually the person who would be good for the job who gets it. Rumor has it that another H band person wants it, and further rumor says that if an H band person wants a job at the same level they can make a lateral move and no other applicants need be considered. The pattern has always been that anyone who was in a certain branch of the service, the same branch which the Director was in, gets whatever they want, so if this Old Boy wants it he will get it. He may not be the worst possible candidate, but he's not too very... useful. IMHO. Tits on a boar hog and cats with two arseholes come to mind. And I don't think I'll be able to yell at him.
But then, I didn't start right out yelling at the Ogre, I worked him into it. ;) First I had to get him reassured that I would not be a source of backstabby information about him to other management, because that seems to be a huge problem around here. Yet another reason I'm not too keen on moving into that level. Hm, come to think of it, he made one of the most dangerous ones his absolute bestest friend. I wonder if I should have been cultivating such links. I've been lucky so far, though - the administrative assistant to the Director likes me, and I can get whatever office supplies I want from her. Everyone else goes about surreptitiously stealing office supplies from each other because they're afraid of her. :) She's not bad if you just listen to her rants, nod and make appropriate faces and say, "ah, yes, I see, thank you." Maybe she and I are actually quite similar. ;)
Why am I always so willing to ramble pointlessly before I've had food and tea? It's like I haven't put on my inhibitions for the day. Also, there's nothing really pressing, it's my day off, so I felt as though I could start my day by writing for an hour. If only I could have made it about something other than the top thing on my mind. :) Maybe something like Story. Hey, there are open submission calls at Riptide Publishing! :) "Lesbian fiction open call" is pulling me. I want to go back to Ennui and see if I can work out a longer story. I've always been interested in writing something about Mary Reed and Anne Bonney, or something parallelish. Reading all this Master and Commander makes me wonder how long a woman could stay hidden aboard a Royal Navy ship. Not long, I think, and then what? Someone else take these ideas and run, would you? Since I just seem to keep spinning my wheels and not writing anything.
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