You know, when I started this job 2 years ago, I was stoked! I was so excited I finally got my foot in the door for what I was sure was going to to turn out to be a fabulous government career. I was guaranteed a raise every year, pretty decent health benefits (hey, don't knock it... I spent over 10 years with NO insurance and I've got the debt to prove it), 13 paid holidays a year, and to top it all off, a damn good union - ensuring job security. Besides, everyone knows that you have to really fuck some shit up to get fired from a government job, and I was walking into this job with a vast knowledge bank for the position I accepted.
The first sign that my dreams and hopes were about to be slowly broken and melted down into a veritable fondue of bitterness, stress beyond belief, and a great disdain for those bumbling idiots in upper management was the fact that the previous person who held my job managed to completely fuck everything up and left a massive clean up in her wake that would make the janitors in a bulimic drunk house with faulty toilets say "No, thank you, I'll keep this job". To top it off, I had exactly 2 weeks to not only learn the accounting system, but also to try and decipher the previous employee's filing system (which, as it turns out, was just to simply throw stuff in random folders and baskets throughout the office, hoping that no one would need the receipt from the $4,00o trip last March - because, really, why would they?) and exactly 2 weeks to straighten out this huge mess in order to meet the state's deadline for the end of the calendar year reconciliations. I believe the exact words spoken to me on my first day were: "Yeah, you're kind of walking into a bee's nest of issues here. We have the utmost faith that you can handle it though!"
The first sign that my dreams and hopes were about to be slowly broken and melted down into a veritable fondue of bitterness, stress beyond belief, and a great disdain for those bumbling idiots in upper management was the fact that the previous person who held my job managed to completely fuck everything up and left a massive clean up in her wake that would make the janitors in a bulimic drunk house with faulty toilets say "No, thank you, I'll keep this job". To top it off, I had exactly 2 weeks to not only learn the accounting system, but also to try and decipher the previous employee's filing system (which, as it turns out, was just to simply throw stuff in random folders and baskets throughout the office, hoping that no one would need the receipt from the $4,00o trip last March - because, really, why would they?) and exactly 2 weeks to straighten out this huge mess in order to meet the state's deadline for the end of the calendar year reconciliations. I believe the exact words spoken to me on my first day were: "Yeah, you're kind of walking into a bee's nest of issues here. We have the utmost faith that you can handle it though!"
Go get 'em killer!
Well, through an awful lot of hard work on my part, and thankfully I'm an exceptionally fast learner (show me once and I've got it mastered), I managed to get every single transaction cleared by the December 31st deadline. I'm not even close to exaggerating when I say that at the first Administrative Meeting of the new year, when the question was posed to me as to where we stood on getting them cleared, when I answered in a very nonchalant manner that we were done, many cheers were heard through out our floor of the building. Apparently this was a completely foreign concept to this particular division. I was a hero.
At least for a few days, anyway.
That's when the work load started to get bigger and bigger. I was asked if I could help cover another sections (there's 7 different sections in our division) front counter. The person who had been the receptionist/law office assistant had been promoted to a Paralegal I position in another section, and now her previous section was without someone to answer phones and create case files. I was told it was really light work, and that I would only have to be up there until noon each day. They assured me that they didn't want me to feel over-whelmed, and that it was only for a temporary basis. Sure, I said. But, I need to be able to keep up with my workload first, I pointed out. This wasn't going to be problem, they said, they understood.
The first of many, many lies. Bastards.
At first, they said just go up, do the court run and sort the mail. As soon as you're done with that, you can come back to your office. So I did. Then it turned into "we need to make sure the attorney's motions are getting done". So I did the court run, sorted the mail, typed up motions for attorney's signatures and made sure they got sent out right away, then went back to my desk to resume my work. Then I was told I was needed to enter the case assignments. Then I was told I was needed to answer the phones for longer in the day.
Not surprisingly, my work load started to lag behind. First it was the filing. No biggie, I thought, that can easily wait. Then came the finalizing paperwork. No biggie, I'm sure the employees will understand that with the workload, their reimbursements will be a little slower than usual in getting to them. Besides, with the previous employee they were used to it taking at least 3 months. What's a couple weeks when you think about? Right? Wrong.
At first, my boss seemed like the coolest person. I could go in and talk to her about all sorts of things, have long conversations to pass hours when I really didn't have the focus to tackle my work.
When I went to talk to her about the current work load, and how it was affecting my actual assigned duties, she went into a long story about the previous employee and how bad things were, and how they were so grateful to have me now, as the previous employee was only ever able to handle the ONE task. No more, and apparently a lot less. I don't know how she did it, but when I left her office, all I could think was "ONE task? How pitiful! I can't even imagine!!"
This was my first 2 months working for the state. Little did I know, I had it SO easy at that point. If only I could go back to those carefree days of loving my job. How I so wish I could wake up in the morning and once again be eager to face the day!!
I feel like I've aged 20 years in these last 2 years. Thank The Union for good health insurance!
Well, through an awful lot of hard work on my part, and thankfully I'm an exceptionally fast learner (show me once and I've got it mastered), I managed to get every single transaction cleared by the December 31st deadline. I'm not even close to exaggerating when I say that at the first Administrative Meeting of the new year, when the question was posed to me as to where we stood on getting them cleared, when I answered in a very nonchalant manner that we were done, many cheers were heard through out our floor of the building. Apparently this was a completely foreign concept to this particular division. I was a hero.
At least for a few days, anyway.
That's when the work load started to get bigger and bigger. I was asked if I could help cover another sections (there's 7 different sections in our division) front counter. The person who had been the receptionist/law office assistant had been promoted to a Paralegal I position in another section, and now her previous section was without someone to answer phones and create case files. I was told it was really light work, and that I would only have to be up there until noon each day. They assured me that they didn't want me to feel over-whelmed, and that it was only for a temporary basis. Sure, I said. But, I need to be able to keep up with my workload first, I pointed out. This wasn't going to be problem, they said, they understood.
The first of many, many lies. Bastards.
At first, they said just go up, do the court run and sort the mail. As soon as you're done with that, you can come back to your office. So I did. Then it turned into "we need to make sure the attorney's motions are getting done". So I did the court run, sorted the mail, typed up motions for attorney's signatures and made sure they got sent out right away, then went back to my desk to resume my work. Then I was told I was needed to enter the case assignments. Then I was told I was needed to answer the phones for longer in the day.
Not surprisingly, my work load started to lag behind. First it was the filing. No biggie, I thought, that can easily wait. Then came the finalizing paperwork. No biggie, I'm sure the employees will understand that with the workload, their reimbursements will be a little slower than usual in getting to them. Besides, with the previous employee they were used to it taking at least 3 months. What's a couple weeks when you think about? Right? Wrong.
At first, my boss seemed like the coolest person. I could go in and talk to her about all sorts of things, have long conversations to pass hours when I really didn't have the focus to tackle my work.
When I went to talk to her about the current work load, and how it was affecting my actual assigned duties, she went into a long story about the previous employee and how bad things were, and how they were so grateful to have me now, as the previous employee was only ever able to handle the ONE task. No more, and apparently a lot less. I don't know how she did it, but when I left her office, all I could think was "ONE task? How pitiful! I can't even imagine!!"
This was my first 2 months working for the state. Little did I know, I had it SO easy at that point. If only I could go back to those carefree days of loving my job. How I so wish I could wake up in the morning and once again be eager to face the day!!
I feel like I've aged 20 years in these last 2 years. Thank The Union for good health insurance!
~GG
Fantastic! Great first post. Can't wait to read more.
ReplyDeleteI'm psyched to hear more about how your job is screwing you over. And I feel kinda bad about that.
ReplyDeleteSeriously. Awesome first post. Looking forward to reading more.
Excellent. Glad to know there is more corporate suffering. Keep the stupidity coming!
ReplyDelete