My horrible hateful �big picture person� boss has issued a decree that effectively makes my ability to stay organized and perform my job dependent on three other people doing something humanly impossible. (At least impossible for THESE three humans.)

IMMEDIATELY I was able to see that her idea was going to cause a huge clusterfuck of misplaced and forgotten enrollments in short order; and I suggested an idea that would have produced the effect she desired (the clusterfuck not actually being her goal, despite appearances to the contrary,) while making it easier for me and the zone managers to stay organized.

But no. Since it wasn�t HER idea it must be a crap idea. Much better to have me try to keep track in my head of where each and every enrollment is in the process� much better to have the zone managers stop whatever frivolous work they are doing out in the field every day and all three try to reach me by phone at the same time� and perfectly reasonable to expect that the zone managers have memorized the location of EVERY SINGLE STREET in their zone (each zone being approximately one-third of the county) and that they will be able to tell me right off the tops of their heads which one of about 20 people I should assign the enrollment to.

What is ACTUALLY going to happen is that the zone managers are NOT going to know off the tops of their heads. They are going to have to write down each address, (which means I will have to read ALL the addresses of the each day�s enrollments to them over the phone;) and then they will come in to the office and look it up on Mapquest before telling me where to assign it. But since by that time I will be gone for the day, they will be writing down the assignments on god knows how many pieces of paper which I may or may not find stacked upon my desk when I come in in the morning.

Rather than spending an additional 30 minutes a day on the phone with the zone managers and expecting them to have answers off the top of their head, I suggested to the boss that I could make each manager copies of the enrollment forms she must approve, along with a printout of the Mapquest map so she will know where it is. Then she can leave the copies on my desk with all the approval information, and I can proceed with processing in the morning.

�No, no, it�s not YOUR responsibility to let them know where in the county the addresses are, it�s the zone managers job to know,� my boss tells me.

�But they DON�T know, and I�m sure they�re not going to be learning the location of every fucking street in the county any time soon!� I retorted� in my head. Out loud I merely said that I have to look it up on Mapquest anyway, in order to figure out which zone manager to give it to in the first place; so it would only take a click of the mouse to print it out.

�No, no� you shouldn�t HAVE to look it up on Mapquest. It�s THEIR job to figure out which zone it is in!� says the boss.

Oh� so you expect me to spend the time to give every address to all three of them over the phone, and then they�re supposed to tell me off the tops of their heads which fucking zone it is in--when I know they don�t even know without looking it up? Or does she thinks we�re all going to memorize every last tiny little road in our county by tomorrow?

This is more reasonable and efficient than me printing out a Mapquest map that I can pull up in about 15 seconds at the computer I sit at all morning--exactly HOW?

Of course I couldn�t make her see that my objections were over the fact that she is making it difficult for me to stay organized (not to mention wasting shitloads of my and the zone managers� time.) She thinks I am merely opinionated against changing the way we do things� because I am rigid and simple-minded and not a �big picture person.�

Dumbass.

So we had yet another little closed-door meeting with much flipping of the hair and condescension on her part, and much not-very-well-concealed irritation on my part. In my mind, I was rolling my eyes much of the time she was talking to me, and I may have actually done it out loud at some point. She has a meeting with the zone managers this afternoon and I�m desperately hoping one of them can make her understand that there needs to be a better way of handling this new procedure. Cause her way just ain�t gonna cut it, I�m pretty sure.

The boss also mentioned to me �in confidence� that there were going to be some staffing changes�she�s already told me that would probably be happening in the fall, at the beginning of the new fiscal year, but I got the impression that THESE staffing changes would be happening soon. And all I could think was please, oh please, let it be me whose services are no longer required.

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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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