Posted by Ted on August 9, 2002, at 18:36:31
In reply to Re: You know what really sucks...........TEd, posted by Roo on August 9, 2002, at 15:36:40
Hi Roo,
> I don't understand, why was it too late?
Well... Here's what I had to work with:
1. company presidents who enjoyed *screaming* at the staff and making threats for no reason. I was the only one who was gutsy (stupid?) enough to stand up to the president at one of these jobs and tell him to either shut up or fire us all. My coworkers were scared shi*less. He shut up.
2. corporate nepotism from bottom to top so severe and dysfunctional that it bordered on comical. No, it didn't border on comical -- it WAS comical! The president's wife ran accounting on the first floor and his mistress ran marketing on the second floor; they had cat-fights on the stairs. Really -- no joke.
3. just plain mean managers, who would show up at my home unannounced when I had a 104F fever and had called in sick, holding software listings in their hands, asking me to point to the problem for them. (The idiots couldn't just wait a few days for my fever to abate!). They also called meetings in my absence and put me on speakerphone, with me excusing myself to go to the bathroom every 5 minutes.
4. company president & engineering VP *begging* me to cancel a vacation I didn't want to take, but was forced to by *them* because they didn't want me to carry my vacation over the year boundary. Geez!
5. engineering VP ordering one of the staff to modify a computer program to get around its copy protection because he didn't want to buy 10 more copies at $30 each. He thought it would be easier & cheaper to use fraud. I threatened to turn him in to authorities if he continued; a purchase order was sent out that day for all of $300.
6. stress so bad that I would break down and cry because I just couldn't take it any more.I used to joke that every day at these jobs was going to need 2 days in therapy to recover. Now that's the price I am paying. That's why it was too late. If I had left to a more sane company early on, I probably wouldn't have had problems nearly so bad now.
> I hate to admit it, but I've never had a job I liked.
I did a couple of times. Eventually a depression crisis would come and I would start to hate the job and leave.
> I wouldn't even know what that feels like it. I would love
> to just feel like I'm really good at something, really had
> skills that people needed, and get paid for doing something
> I loved.I'm close to that now. My job is boring, but I have a great manager who is understanding and supportive of my limitations due to bipolar disorder & meds. But hey -- I'm still employed, and I keep getting bonuses & raises, so I must have someone "fooled".
> I really yearn for that, but right now I'm in the
> midst of a hideous depression, so of course it's hard to imagine
> that it could ever happen.It can happen, but 22 years of working as a professional have taught me that luck is the single largest factor: You have to get the right job with the right company with the right insurance & policies and, most of all, the right manager. Heck, other than that, it's a piece of cake. :-)
Ted(expecting another decade of therapy)
poster:Ted
thread:28346
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20020804/msgs/28382.html