My job is getting on my damn nerves. I know, I�ve been bitching about work for a long time now� but so far it�s mostly been about my aggravating coworkers pissing me off and about having to work more hours than I want. Through all that I�ve mostly liked my actual job when I�ve been able to work at it undisturbed.

But ever since I�ve returned to my normal duties after covering for my coworkers� various personal crises, my boss has made my position her pet project. And goddamn but I hate having someone up my ass all the time!

In case you haven�t figured it out yet, I�m not a naturally organized person� probably about as far from it as a person can be. Yet this job requires organizational skills. My solution to this dilemma has been to work out routines and procedures and time-frames for various tasks, as well as a system for keeping track of where each piece of paper is in the process. By being very meticulous about keeping to my system as well as living by a policy of never letting things stack up on my desk, I�ve managed to stay well-organized while maintaining my work load at a nice, even flow.

The boss has other ideas, however. I realize she is tweaking the enrollment process to try to solve problems that have nothing to do with me, but the WAY she does things makes me crazy. She�s the kind of person who doesn�t know what she wants until she sees what she DOESN�T want. Meaning she�ll give you the bare bones of a project and then keep having you do it over and over and over and OVER again, making little changes each time, until she finally sees something she likes. I�m sure that this �editing� style of thinking is perfectly wonderful for the person doing the editing� but it sucks total ASS for the underlings who must redo a job or learn a new procedure 3 or 10 or 30 different times through no fault of their own.

And my gawd, what a control freak she is! Nobody has any worthwhile ideas but her. Particularly not the people who have been doing a perfectly adequate job prior to her tweaking� the opinions of those of us down here in the trenches who have worked out our own methods of doing things count for nothing as far as she is concerned. She is here to make changes and improve efficiency, and anyone who doesn�t like her grand and glorious improvements to the process are just rigid and simple-minded and afraid of change.

Well, goddamn right I don�t like change, particularly when a process I used to have a great deal of control over has been regimented in a way that makes it more difficult for me to stay organized, and sure isn�t improving the process any as far as I can see. In fact, true to form, it seems like she�s not making any attempt to anticipate potential problems� she just lets them happen so that she can solve them as they come up. More editing on her part, more work for me. I say just keep your grubby fingerprints OFF my fucking cheese, thank you very much!

All these new improvements in the enrollment process mean I now must await her approval on each and every enrollment before I can process it. Which means instead of arriving at and leaving my desk the same day like they did before, it takes an extra day or more because while I work 9-1 my boss works� whenever she feels like it. Usually she comes in around 11 but sometimes not til 11:30 or 12 and by that time, the people I need to call the enrollment in to are gone for the day. But it�s ok, she says, if it takes extra time to get people enrolled. She needs to run each enrollment past the assistant managers in charge of each zone and make sure we can actually serve each enrollee.

Fine, except that no plan has been put in place for what to do with all the enrollees we decide we are unable to serve. And the boss has NOT been running the enrollments past the assistant managers like she said she was going to, anyway. She just looks at the forms and says �Go ahead� or �Hold off.� And the assistant managers don�t even KNOW she�s supposed to be running the enrollments by them. All of which led to a situation in which I started an enrollee per the boss�s approval; then the assistant manager of that zone said they couldn�t start the enrollee. But I had already called the enrollee and told her she was going to be started on the program today.

And what was the answer I got when I asked the zone manager (who is over me) how I should handle it?

�I don�t know what to tell you.�

At that point I got a little snippy on the phone with said manager� �Well, SOMEBODY needs to tell me something, because I�m not the decision-maker in this process. My job is people tell me what to do and I do it.� So she whined and moaned a bit but finally made the decision for me to call the lady to tell her she wouldn�t be starting after all� an utterly uncomfortable task that fell to me through the stupidity and lack of communication of others.

This job has lost any appeal for me it ever had. Before, I was able to arrange my workload in such a way that it never got behind and I was never overwhelmed as long as I was actually able to work in my own position. I even managed to keep up pretty well while simultaneously working in other positions. My boss paid little attention to me so I was able to shift my hours around to suit me� some days I�d work 8-12, others 9-1, sometimes I�d leave half an hour early if I ran out of stuff to do. I can�t do that anymore with the boss stuck in my ass, questioning my every move.

Having no control over my workday makes me feel stressed, and I really resent being treated like an automaton� my feelings don�t count, my needs are irrelevent and my ideas are not worthwhile. I just need to be a good little peon and do what I�m told. Even if clients get shafted in the process.

Funny, though� my lack of relevance to the process doesn�t exempt me from endless discussion with the boss ABOUT the process. Even my asking a simple yes-or-no question requires a Meeting. Office doors must be carefully closed, a chair must be pulled up to my desk, a notepad must be diagrammed upon. Long red nails must be flashed through the air for emphasis, and repeatedly raked through the stylishly unruly lock of hair that continually falls over one eye. Lengthy explanations must be made, painted brows must be arched, and patronizing little smiles must be smiled during momentary pauses to check and see if I actually GET what she is saying. The phrase �big picture person� must be uttered at least once. She IS, after all� and it�s a damn good thing, too, with the rest of us being so caught up in our own petty little pictures and all.

Summer quarter can�t come quick enough to suit me.

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Last Five
Crappy job crap, weird neighbor, and someone whose baby I apparently want to have - 2006-05-08
Live from the dump - 2006-04-09
Kind of like a muzzle for your brain - 2006-03-29
...and then she fell ass-first into my cereal bowl - 2006-03-28
Playing catch-up - 2006-03-27

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