Stupider and stupider

[graculus]

So, apparently my last post a month ago didn't quite capture the depths of stupidity I am dealing with on a regular basis - if you visualise my part of local government as the former Soviet Union, I am about to get shipped off to the gulag for re-education. ("And you might even enjoy it!" chirped my boss, to which my response was "I think that's asking a little much"). When even my fellow managers are saying "Resistance is futile" then you know you're not alone in thinking that...

Yes, apparently my previous unsullied record of 21 years in this line of work and almost 3 in this current post avails me nothing when I don't get as much as physically possible and then some out of not very much at all. In other words, I am crap at ticking boxes and excel at getting the best out of people except that my definition of 'the best' isn't 'wringing every last drop of work and then some' so I am therefore a Bad Manager. That's basically what it's about, though it's being couched as being infinitely more esoteric than that.

Anyway, I shall do my time though I'm not sure what I'm going to actually be doing (not much by initial accounts which seems a bit daft but if they want to carry on paying for my trip to Sri Lanka who am I to complain?), amount yet to be finalised (it started off as "three months minimum" and then became "but it could be less than that" - this word 'minimum' it does not mean what you seem to think it means...) and then start looking for jobs elsewhere in 2013. This rampant asshattery shall not stand!

Comments

[khek.livejournal.com]

Your boss sounds horrible. Or maybe just threatened because you know more than he (she?) does? Twenty-one years is a long time...how much time does he have on the job?

You can't get blood from a stone, and yet there seems to be this push in human services for bigger and better results, even if it's not physically possible. Maybe the boss will be placated by making you follow orders, and things will get better for awhile? But in any event, good luck with this "retraining". And good luck with the job search!

[graculus.livejournal.com]

I don't know how much of it is my immediate boss and how much of it is pressure from more senior management - basically it all started with my team's figures being anomalous to what was going on elsewhere and that started them looking. I've held my hands up to the fact that our compliance with procedural issues isn't as good as it could be, but we also have way more work per team member than anyone else and that's been an ongoing (ignored) issue.

Now they're basically re-framing it as being about my attitude to the job rather than the fact that we've had so much going on that nobody could possibly do what I've been asked to do, to that ever-increasingly picky standard, and that there is no allowance made for either that or just sheer human error. Hence the proposal for me to be re-educated because that'll magically overcome all the practical issues about me just not having enough time or team members to do what they want to the standard they want it and do that 100% of the time.

I'm resigned to cooperating with it all, but that doesn't mean I have to put up with it in the longer run. Word in the office where I normally work is now 'everyone is one mistake from the sack' and that's playing hell with morale, to say the least - of course me being shipped off isn't going to help with that.