(mis)-Management

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Last month I informed you all that I quit my job after six years of agonizing frustrations. 

However, what I didn’t tell you was that the “team” (and I use that term very loosely) was only four people — three employees and one supervisor — and that out of the four, I did the majority of the work. 

For example, from January 2017 through July 2021 I completed or contributed almost 85% of the overall workload.  That means only 15% of the remaining work needed to be split up between the other two people on our staff because the supervisor doesn’t know how to do anything. 

Therefore, during that stretch from 2017 through 2021 I was tasked with more than my fair share of responsibilities, and in my opinion it was a lot more than I should have been tasked with.  Unfortunately, when you work for someone who can’t manage the work or lead people, this tends to happen.  

Speaking of the supervisor. . .

A week before I left that job I had a one-on-one with the supervisor.  During that conversation he informed me that a second co-worker was also looking for another job (no surprise), and he made it very clear that since the “team” is only four persons, if that second co-worker were to leave, that would put a major dent on how the “team” is able to get work completed.

His exact words were:  

“Well, if the second co-worker leaves, I guess there won’t be any computer or software purchases being done.” 

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Let that sink in and marinade for a second. . . .

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Some might say it was almost a backhanded compliment directed at me and the other co-worker, but it was more of a self-directed insult about his own lack of leadership and management capabilities.

I mean, in that one statement he’s essentially saying that since he’s losing his two best employees, the one remaining employee along with himself are not able to complete the work.  He’s totally redefined the mathematical problem of 4 minus 2, because according to his calculations the answer isn’t 2. . .it’s Zero! 

Pathetically, he’s also admitting to the fact that he put almost 100% of the workload on two people and let the third guy coast for all these years! 

This supervisor has been with the company and supervised this same team of Information Technology procurement employees for over 15 years.  However, during the past 7 years alone, three different employees have walked away, including myself, and they all walked away for the same reasons.

• His lack of leadership and the lack of leadership above him.
• His inability to discipline one guy on the team who doesn’t do a damn thing (by the way, that’s the only guy remaining who can’t get anything done).
• His inability to listen to his employees when they make suggestions that will benefit the team.
• His inability to manage work and tasks among the three employees under his charge.
• His inability to cross-train employees.
• His inability to have regular one-on-one sessions with his employees.
• His inability to recognize or reward those employees who go above the call of duty. 
• His inability to recognize and clean up a toxic environment. 

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It’s only been a couple of weeks since I quit my job, but I’ve remained in contact with a few people who I built friendships with who still work there.  It’s only a couple people, but these are people in the know and hold influential positions within the company.

These people have informed me that since I left, no orders are being filled.  The consensus among the upper management is confusion as to how one person leaving a “team” can lead to a complete inability to get anything done.

In all honesty, this actually made me feel good, but it also made me realize just how pathetic the others on that team really were. 

Consequently,  I do not regret my decision to leave that place, and after having some time away I’ve realized that my leaving the company was the best thing for everyone.  Especially for me because I’m getting some much needed rest and that’s helping me to heal both mentally and emotionally. 

I don’t know how things will turn out, nor do I know what the future holds; but I really hope in time that this entire situation will bring positive changes to that company.  Mostly, I hope these events will help my three previous co-workers realize their inabilities and hopefully they can grow and become better employees and better people from this experience. 

Yeah, I’m not holding my breath either.  

As I’ve said before, pathetic is as pathetic does. 

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Why I Quit My Job and Walked Away After Six Years

After six years I quit my job.

The decision didn’t come easy. I left a company where I built a lot of friendships and many of them were sad when I decided to leave, but after a number of years trying to make myself content with a company that was progressively making my life miserable, I made the decision to walk away.

In the past year-and-a-half I’ve had to deal with an upper-level manager who loved to play mind games. One of his favorites was to walk in my office and tell me that everything he needed was high priority for a top-level executive. However…the majority of his requests were never for top-level executives.

The reason he would use this particular mind game was because he thought that it would make me rush to get the task completed sooner. However, I saw through his little game and knew that it was only so he could brown-nose the directors into thinking that he was more efficient than he really is.

Consequently, I knew he was full of crap because I communicated with each Admin Assistant of all the top-level executives on a daily basis, and I would ask them directly if they or the directors had any purchase requests.

About 99.9% of the time…they said no.

On top of that, my direct supervisor was extremely naïve when it came to the manager’s little mind game, so when the upper-level manager would tell my supervisor that it was for a top-level executive, my supervisor would panic and start hounding me until I finished the task.

That was really frustrating and annoying.

Even more frustrating is that this little dance between my supervisor and the manager. . . I called it the dance of the ignorant and naïve. . . got worse through the COVID pandemic. EVERY task suddenly became an emergency for a top-level executive.

During the past year alone working for this company became unbearable, and not just for myself, but for many others who are still there and still dealing with numerous problems that plague the workplace.

Here are a few examples…

#1) – I spoke with a Supervisor not in my area and she vented to me about the overall negativity of the company. She complained to me about how senior level management does not care about the people, and they only care about themselves.

She shared this story as an example:

Two co-workers passed away from cancer in the same calendar year in her area. As a supervisor, she made every attempt to help her co-workers deal with the loss of their close friends, but when she brought up the situation to upper management and requested grief counseling for the employees, upper management declined the counseling and informed the supervisor that they all need to “just get over it and move on”.

The supervisor had tears in her eyes and struggled to compose herself as she relayed this story to me. She said this was very disheartening and depressing for everyone in their area to not have someone in management show some concern for the individuals working for this company and the grief they were experiencing.

I asked if she or anyone in their area brought this up with human resources and she said no, and that it wouldn’t do any good since past situations have been brought to the attention of HR, and those situations were swept under the rug or discarded.

#2) – An administrative assistant for one of the high-level executives reached out to me to vent because she didn’t feel that anyone in her area could be trusted. As we talked, she vented to me about how the company lacks in communication skills.

She described the management structure as a “free-for-all” where everyone in a management has an idea that never gets communicated and then everyone in supervisory positions have an idea that never gets communicated and none of the employees who are actually doing the work know what they are supposed to be doing.

She also mentioned that management and supervisors across the entire company are very hypocritical and seem to take advantage of time off requests, but never extend the same courtesy to their employees.

One such case was when an employee wanted to take some time off to attend a family gathering, but was denied vacation leave; however, the same supervisor who denied the employee’s vacation request, takes ample time off for family-related matters whenever they please!

Furthermore, she mentioned that managers seem to take time off without ever requesting leave and they are able to pile up their sick and vacation time (FYI–the company allows employees to accumulate vacation and sick time per pay period), however the managers would never allow their employees to get away with that. Since she’s an admin assistant for a director, I tend to believe her.

#3) – I touched base with another co-worker who vented to me about the serious problems within the company and how no one knows what the procedure is for anything and most people are making it up as they go.

He used my team as an example and said that the team I work on has been lacking in providing a procedural manual for over 10 years. It’s been requested by upper management, but the lower-level supervisor refuses to create one.

He also mentioned that it’s been almost impossible to get an update on a status of a purchase request and no one knows how to request computer devices or software licensing purchases because the process keeps changing and no one is conveying the changes to the people who make the requests.

(I had to agree with him because I mentioned that I do my best to get as much information out as I can, but the rest of my team seems to fail at providing any kind of direction or communication, which is extremely frustrating for me because I’m usually inundated with emails and instant messaging.)

#4) – Another administrative assistant to a high-level director informed me that communication stinks in our company, and that if I leave, they will never get anything purchased because I’m the only person that communicates and gets things done for them.

She also told me that when she sends in a request, if it gets assigned to someone other than me, she’s pretty confident it’ll never get purchased because everything is in complete disarray without me there.

#5) – I had a co-worker within my field of Information Systems & Technology (IS&T) vent about the lack of integrity among the leadership of IS&T.

They told me about some of the poor communication and promises that were made to get desktop computers replaced with laptops for the entire company to have a remote setup in case of another pandemic.

However, he said that none of the upper management or supervisors could make a decision on how the process was going to move forward or what devices would be purchased; nor did anyone provide a time table of when it should be implemented or completed.

He went on to say that most of the leadership will convey something one day, but a week later change their minds and not pass the information on until the employees have already done the majority of the work. He also said that no one trusts anyone in management.

After listening to these complaints for the past few years, I finally did something about it.

On May 4th of this year (2021) I reached out to someone in human resources and attempted to convey just how serious things are within the company and how frustrated employees are with upper management, and that if HR doesn’t come up with a plan to listen to and help these employees, that this company will lose 50% or more of its workforce before the end of 2022.

The HR rep told me that she was “very concerned” with the information I was telling her, and with my permission she emphatically stated that she would “pass on my name and the list of issues to the HR director”.

I really thought she would pass this information on because I really thought she cared about these people as much as I did. But after two months…crickets.

I reached out again to HR asking for a status update…and to my disbelief…no reply. Not even a simple “Hey, got your email, no time to reply with details, but we’ll touch base soon.” Even that would have sufficed, but nothing.

Mentally. Emotionally. And physically I had nothing left to give that company. So, after all the issues…all the frustrations…all the headaches… I sent them my letter of resignation and walked away.

I feel like I have a new lease on life, and I don’t have any regrets.

I feel free to be healthy again.

I know there’s a better company out there, and I’m hoping to leave the pathetic dumpster fire behind me.

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Lab Rat

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My manager and I were discussing the reasons as to why so many pathetically ignorant people are promoted into management positions in my little vortex of hell, and then we realized that they never seem to leave.  

We actually named off close to 30 managers in my little vortex of hell who should be demoted or fired for ignorance and stupidity alone.  

Ya…that’s right . . . THIRTY! . . . and quite pathetically we probably could have named off more if we hadn’t been so rudely interrupted by a phone call from one of the managers we had previously named.

These so-called “managers” are very much like a nagging cough or stuffy nose that keeps you awake at night . . . Actually . . .that gives the annoying cough or stuffy nose a bad rap.  

I swear my little vortex of hell is cloning or breeding these people in a some secret lab, bringing them into our facility and placing them in management or supervisory roles and then secretly watching how the rest of us react to their stupidity and lack of knowledge.  

It’s like we’re lab rats or something.  

Anyhoo…

Yesterday I had this conversation with one of the aforementioned nagging coughs…

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Computer Manager: “Sooo, what did you find out about my computer order?  Will it be delivered tomorrow?”   

Me:  “I did find out that the order is still in production and hasn’t left the facility yet.  So no, it won’t be delivered tomorrow.” 

Computer Manager:  “Soooo…I’m not going to get it tomorrow?”

Me:  “No, but it looks like it might ship over the weekend and we might see it on Monday or Tuesday of next week.” 

Computer Manager:  “But that won’t work.  I need it delivered tomorrow.” 

Me:  “I don’t have any control over the vendor or the delivery company.  All I know is that it won’t be here tomorrow.” 

Computer Manager:  “Would you please look again?  I need that shipment tomorrow.”  

Me:  “Sure, I’ll check again, but I’m confident that we’re not getting the delivery tomorrow.” 

Me: (after checking status again)…“It’s still in the production stage, so no change.  We’re not getting that shipment tomorrow.”  

Computer Manager: (in slightly agitated and bewildered tone) “Are you serious?!?!  (sighs heavily) I cannot believe that they haven’t shipped my order yet!!  What’s the hold up on their end?”  

Me:  “Again…I don’t know.  I don’t work for the vendor, but let me contact the sales rep and see if they can shed some light on this.”

Computer Manager:  “Okay.  You do that.  And tell them I NEED that order delivered tomorrow.”  

Me:  ” yeeahh…I’ll see what I can find out.”

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— — time passes as I’m waiting for an answer from the vendor — — 

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— — Answer finally comes from the vendor — —

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Me:  “The vendor sent me an email to let me know that the order is still in production and won’t be delivered tomorrow.”  

Computer Manager:  “Seriously!!??!!  I can’t have that!!  Did you tell them I MUST have it delivered tomorrow?”  

Me:  “Yes.  But seeing as the entire order is STILL in production, it can’t be delivered tomorrow.”  

Computer Manager:  “That’s no good.  Give me his number.  I’ll call him myself.”  

Me:  “okay…here’s his number:  ###-###-####”  

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— — time passes while I do other stuff that actually matters instead of waiting for her to contact me again — —

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— — unfortunately, she contacts me again — —

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Computer Manager:  “Okay…the sales rep told me that the order is still in production so it won’t be delivered tomorrow.”  

Me:  “yep.”  (color me surprised)

Computer Manager:  “what does the status “in production” even mean?  Does that mean it’s on the truck?”  

Me: (completely shocked (even though I shouldn’t have been) that question was even asked)  “Uuuhhhh…..no.”  

Computer Manager:  “Well, I need a tracking number so I know where it is, so if it’s not on a truck how do I know what the status is?”

Me:  “The vendor will provide the tracking number once the order ships, but since it’s still “IN PRODUCTION” and has NOT shipped yet, there won’t be a tracking number.”

Computer Manager:  “The vendor needs to be more specific about the status of my orders.  I can’t tell if it’s being shipped, in production or where it is.  This is so frustrating!” 

Me:  “Yes it is.”  (but I’m talking about her, not the vendor…fortunately for me, she’s too wrapped up in herself to recognize that)

Computer Manager:  “Well, stay on top of this and let me know the status once you have a tracking number.”  

Me:  “okay”

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Folks, I couldn’t make this stuff up even if I tried, but this is the stupid and pathetic I have to deal with on a daily basis and it’s frustrating. 

Having to be a lab rat in my little vortex of hell is pathetically exhausting.    

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