Take this job and...
Copied from my LJ-5/13/05At my job, the shit is perpetually about to hit the fan and everyone exists in an ongoing state of paranoia about being fired. In fact when I told Paul that a lady I deal with on the phone every day got fired yesterday, he was like, "So?" Firings occur with such frequency that it's not even notable. It looks like my boss Lamont could be next in line on Monday. Word came down today that one of our clients has cancelled an order due to our long delay in filling it, and is taking their business to Kinko's. This means not only many wasted man hours preparing documents that we won't be selling, but also two to four years of lost business from this client. None of the screaming superiors were here when the email went out, so they'll get the news Monday morning.
Lamont was angry about it when I got here, but two hours later he appears to have gone through all the Kübler-Ross stages and arrived at a grim resignation about the possibility of getting fired. He's decided it wouldn't be the worst thing that ever happened to him. He's miserable here. He's constantly getting yelled at over past due work, but his requests to hire more staff in the department have been routinely denied. His hands are effectively tied as more work rolls in and we don't have anyone to process it. A salaried middle manager, he spents so much time here that he never sees his family. To add insult to injury, his wife called this afternoon to tell him his 6 year old daughter just learned to ride her bike without training wheels. He's pretty sad he missed that. He just got his real estate license but is unavailable to show houses during the day because he's always at work. He says that he can devote more time to developing that career and get his inspector's license for added income should the hatchet fall.
I feel for him, and I'm equally concerned about where it could leave me. Knowing the way they love to fire people around here, it's not inconceivable they could clean house and get rid of all four of us. There has been talk of bringing in a contract team from Xerox in to run the company's print shop, although it's supposedly prohibitively expensive. Right now I'm hoping that someone in charge realizes they'd only be putting the department further behind by getting rid of Lamont.
Music: Lewis Taylor-Lewis II
Mood: Worried
posted by Sgt Howie @ 5:42 PM
Comments: 0
