Xeluan

WARNING! RANT! WARNING! RANT! WARNING! RANT!

I read Dilbert and it scares me because it actually does reflect what I see around me in my daily work.

When I watch "The Office" I cringe out of recognition of the situation and despair.

How the hell did it come to all this? What I am referring to is the soulless, demeaning existence that is being stuck a rung below middle management in the corporate world.

I try and approach my dealings with people in life in the spirit of mutual repsect and integrity. Yet when something goes wrong at work all I hear are lies. When I ask direct questions of my colleagues I get lies. I'm at the stage when my manager speaks to me I take everything she says with a grain of salt and wait for her to change her mind the next day and then berate me for not reading her mind.

I am of the old school were how you treat people in all interactions is a reflection of who you are. I know that many of the people I work with seem to be good parents and spouses. Yet at work they behave in manners unethical or amoral. All in the name of not being accountable for anything they do or advancing their so called career.

Given my current status regading buying a house etc I can't just quit. Yet it despairs me that I work with people who when faced with concrete evidence that they have screwed up will still try and find a way to deny it. Managers who will tell you one thing and then do another. People who tell you that you are right to your face and then tell everyone else that you are wrong behind your back.

I make mistakes. Yet I take responsibilty for the mistakes and will rectify the issue. Yet the mistakes are insignificant compared to those who make decisions that cause the company to lose millionsof dollars and 40% of the workforce. Their reward? Promotion and big salaries.

My reward for being accountable and truthful? Being disenfranchised and isolated from areas that are my responsibility.

Does society value the truth anymore? Has the mediocre risen to the top? Is corporate culture a reflection that the lack of morals is not about sex but about daily interactions between people?

The best I can do is not stoop to the level around me. I may not be perfect but I have some sense of dignity and ethics.

ImGod

I know how you feel. How can you quit when they have free coffee and office supplies. I think the office supplies are free.

I've found that my office life is all about politics. The work we do is "paper work" and I usually end up with little to show for a final product. Our ideas may eventually be built, implemented, or manufacturered, but all I see is the paperwork.

That gives us minimal job satisfaction, so the people here make up additional excitement with politics.

You know the first rule of politics?...Lie. I feel out of place because I don't like the soap operas that others here create to feel better about their work life. I just want to do a good job and have something to show for it.

Endless meetings, sub-meetings, and impromptu discussions end up boring me. Most of the time the meetings start an idea and the sub-meetings rail on different groups and the discussions rail on different people. Soon few remember the orginal idea or refuse to work together and the idea dies.

I'm developing my own buisness area so I can get out from under the typical office trappings. It's tough to do without "political support", but it's better than playing the game.

NialScorva

I just find the magic words are "I'm going to need a [change request|statement of work|requirements doc] for that". Gives you a paper trail.

Marduk

�I read Dilbert and it scares me because it actually does reflect what I see around me in my daily work."

Dilbert is real, Adams worked for Pac Bell and most of his cartoons come from email people send him about their own jobs (I�ve sent him a few myself, I also worked for Ma Bell back when it was Bloody Godallmighty).


�How the hell did it come to all this? What I am referring to is the soulless, demeaning existence that is being stuck a rung below middle management in the corporate world.�

Because you need money, else you will die in the street.

�Does society value the truth anymore?�
No
� Has the mediocre risen to the top?�
Yes
�Is corporate culture a reflection that the lack of morals is not about sex but about daily interactions between people?�

Probably. But it isn't just Whoreporate Culture, have you looked at who is in The White House, and politics (no point in mentioning the church

Image and style are everything, substance is nothing. Bend over. Welcome to America.
Have a nice day.

Godless Dave

I think the capitalist business model encourages, almost requires amorality at the top levels, and that attitude trickles down, especially to people who want to advance. Say you're a high-ranking executive in a multinational company. You have had to pull thousands of cases of baby food off the shelves because the FDA has deemed it not fit for human consumption and potentially unsafe. If you dispose of it all your company is out the money to produce and distribute it, plus the disposal costs. Alternatively you can sell it to a distributor in, say, Africa. The African countries in question have no laws that would prevent you from selling it there. Your legal department tells you the lawsuit risk to the company is minimal to nonexistent. So your dilemma is, do you A)dispose of the bad baby food because you don't want to be responsible for African babies getting sick or B) sell it in Africa because it's the cost-effective thing to do? If you chose A), not only are you risking your job because you have not maximized profits, you are risking a due-dilligence lawsuit from shareholders for the same reason.

Friar Bellows

"Corporate life." An oxymoron?

butswana

Yes, the apathy and lack of accountability in a corporation can be demoralizing. But hey, I've got high-speed internet access!
I just think about the best part of the day. Walking into my house and having my 4 & 1.8 year old happy to see me.
Maybe I should get back to work. Fuck it, nobody cares.

POST # 666. weeeee

Godless Dave

I recently started taking some refresher courses at the University of Minnesota. My employer no longer has tuition reimbursement, but they provide me with all the 3-ring binders, notebooks, and pens I need for school.

King Rat

The latest insanity from my corporate hell is a doozy.

In my department we are scheduled to work over 40 hours a week. They need people on the phones. So we get a few hours of overtime on each paycheck, no problem right.

Wrong.

The head office has just issued a decree that due to the current economic downturn absolutely no overtime is authorized, and no schedules will be altered. So we are scheduled to work over 40 hours, but no overtime can be authorized so we can't work over 40 hours.

Our first solution was to have everybody come in 10 minutes late every day. But our manager caught shit from above for punctuality. So our second solution was to send people home early on Fridays. But our mangager caught shit from above for lack of manpower on Fridays.

It's ridiculous.

DBT

Well here I am in Australia working in shipbuilding,and everything thats been said apply's to the situation here,its only the setting and tools used that are different.