An update to the job situation at work:  I am apparently so far low on the totem pole of importance that you’d have to dig 10 feet under just to get to me.

So there were all these openings resulting from union concessions and people retiring that I basically had the pick of whatever assignment I wanted, right? But since the notice went out and gave absolutely no information on these openings whatsoever, I stopped by Personnel and spoke with the manager.

“Yeah, hi, I was hoping I could find out more about these job openings, since there was no info given about them in the email?”

“What are you interested in?”

“Depends, I’m pretty flexible right now, so I could work in any assignment depending on the type of work involved. I’m working a night tour currently, so if there’s any night shifts available I might be interested in that too, that way I don’t lose any night pay just by transferring.”

“Actually we do have a few night positions available. Let me take your info down and once we get more info together I’ll let you know what positions might be a good fit. Since you’ve been here a few years you should have seniority over most of the other people also looking to be transferred, so you’ll be in pretty good shape to get whatever new position you decide to opt for.”

He took down my info, made sure my name was put on the list and said another notice would go out in the next few days that would outline all the new positions and what they entailed.

The next day it occurred to me that I should let him know about my college degree in computers, in case there was an opening in our Information Systems division. So I sent the personnel manager another email to let him know about my background in computers. Shortly afterwards I received this response:

Thank you for your email. Your request was given careful consideration, but all the positions have now been filled at this time. We will be hiring new staff in the fall and it is anticipated that another round of transfers will take place then.

Um, what? Over 20 positions were all filled already, in the space of a day? Really? And how long did you take me into consideration, the ten seconds it took for me to walk out your door before you took my info and threw it in the trash? Numbnut.

Around the same time I happened to learn my agency was chasing people who had retired off the job and bringing them back to work part time jobs, when those jobs should have been going to people like me full-time. It was a way to make an end run around the union concessions that had been made, which stipulated that a certain part of the workforce would retire early in exchange for having their positions filled by civilians who could work for less money. So now they get their full pensions as well as a part time salary, while the rest of us with weaker and weenier unions get hosed.

Nice. I had a feeling this was coming too, but I never thought the guy was going to blatantly lie to my face like that. If somebody ever BEGGED to have sugar poured into his gas tank, it’d be this snot monkey.

Ah well, there are at least some good news to come out of all this, and it’s that Mr. No-Personality will be carving out office space for himself instead of taking my desk, and that it would also be a few more weeks before he finally gets assigned here. My guess is that he is putting it off as long as he can in the hopes that something else comes up, but if not, he’ll just hole up in a corner somewhere and play Everquest all day. The best kind of supervisor I could ask for really: one who hides and stays out of my way.

As for the screw-over, I could fight this, but it’s pretty hard to top what I have now. The night pay accounts for $400 of my monthly salary, but my hours still fall mostly during the day, so it never feels like I’m doing a graveyard shift. Not many people can say that either. The job is easy and the workload has been getting lighter, the hours are good, the benefits are excellent, it’s just the office politics and my coworkers’ inability to engage in… intellectually stimulating conversations that tends to gum things up for me. I can understand now why there are those who never want to work in an office and would rather be out in the field working alone than deal with all the politics and BS within. And then of course there’s the fact that there is absolutely no career or promotional path for this job whatsoever.

But… for now it suits me. I would hope though that it won’t be my lot in life to drift through this job without ever making a real difference:

Tags: coworkers, dilbert, email, job, money, office politics, personnel manager, supervisor, transfer, union, unions, workforce
Categories: In The Coal Mine
 
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