Work/Office Gripes

[SupaFly]

Looking for your office/work gripes, past or present for regional article series. Have you ever recieved any requests at work- big or small- that you just couldn't believe? For example, are you the higher-up that is still asked to change the toner in the copier? etc.

Names/identifying details can be changed upon request.

Thanks,

Brieanne

[Karen_Spring]

I worked for a company where there were a lot of cliques. I really just wanted to go in and do my job and leave. For one thing from the day I got there, I had to give money for every single birthday -- and it wasn't cheap. At least $10/birthday for cake, card, and GIFT. Yes, GIFT. I found this so ridiculous and unreasonable and expensive. I'd taken a pay cut to go to this lousy job.

Then, people in different depts used to send out fundraising stuff for their kids to our dept. I was new and had no clue who these people even were! Plus the stuff was usually on the expensive side -- $20 and up. I made up my mind I wasn't buying anything from these people. I was a newlywed and we were trying to get our home in order, save money, pay our bills, etc. One day, this annoying receptionist stopped me in the hallway in front of a bunch of people and asked me why I hadn't bought Girl Scout cookies from the form she'd sent around for her daughter. Apparently, I was pretty much the only person in the entire company who hadn't bought from her kid! I was freakin' livid!!! Can you imagine the gall? But I came up with a good response: my nieces are Girl Scouts and I have to buy cookies from them.

This is the same company that when I gave notice several months later to begin my full time freelance writing career, my main boss called me into his office and told me I was making a huge mistake. How would I make ends' meet in freelancing? Had I put money aside for the "bad" days? How was my husband taking it? My hubby had ENCOURAGED me to make this huge step and my boss couldn't believe it. He tried to convince me to stay with a stable job. Needless to say, I couldn't have been more thrilled to have left that place. I made more money in freelancing my first year than I did at that awful job!

Hope that helps.

Karen Spring
karenspring@comcast.net
_________________
Karen M. Spring
Professional Writer

[skilledquill]

Before I became a freelance writer 6 years ago, I was working at an office where I had no fewer than six bosses, plus a power-hungry woman who wanted to be my boss. The person who had my position before me actually left her resignation letter on the hard drive at my desk and I read it. Ms. Power Hungry is why she left!

Ms. PH lied to my main boss and said I was "walking around the office wasting time" in an attempt to get me demoted and under her thumb. My boss didn't believe her, but she was never reprimanded.
.
I actually caught her painting her toenails, shopping, addressing her kid's birthday party invitations and reading the classified ads while on company time! And she thought I wasted time! Our sister company, which was much smaller and less complex though similar in other ways, employed one full-time and two part-time people to do the parallel to my job that I had to do alone. Plus, Ms. PH made me do her department's filing for them, even though it was completely unrelated to my job and was not on my job description. If I refused, she stabbed me in the back.

One more gripe: at a job interview for an office position at a small company, the hapless clod interviewing me actually asked, "Are you planning on getting pregnant? Because that's how I lost my last secretary!" As if my reproductive plans were ANY of his business! I replied, "Do you realize I could sue you for that question?" He gave me the job and I immediately sat down and wrote a human resources manual. He had also jotted notes on other applicants' resumes (a big no-no) to jog his memory as to who they were such as "fat girl," "cripple," and "black girl." Oh, if they only knew!
_________________
Deborah J. Sergeant
Freelance Writer
http://hometown.aol.com/skilledquill/freelance.html

[swan480]

My first full-time job out of college was the nightmare of all jobs. I knew there was something wrong with the company when I was told - before being interviewed - that the company's employees were only allowed to wear skirt suits and nylons. I ignored my feminist instincts and took the job...only to find out that the dress code was a symptom of other, more serious problems. For one thing, the small company - run by a man, of course - ONLY hired women, and told some of his employees that it was because women took orders better. (!) The job was supposed to be a technical writing job, but literally all I did was take dictation or copy-and-paste text that had already been dictated to another employee. Beside that, the boss was a horrible micromanager - we were all right under his nose, all of the time, AND he'd demand to know periodically what we were working on - even though we never were out of his sight, so it was quite clear we were working. We were constantly yelled at, criticized, etc. - it was a very demoralizing work environment, and no surprise that he was constantly hiring due to a very rapid turnover rate.

As if all of that isn't enough, here's the real kicker:

I am diabetic. I was hesitant to take the job because they don't have group health insurance plans - they just have their employees get individual plans, and reimburse them for it - but I was assured that it shouldn't be a problem for me. Of course, as a diabetic any insurance company can deny me coverage via an individual plan - only if it's a group HMO are they required to cover me. As a result, the only individual plan I could find was a conversion plan through my parents' insurance company, who I was still covered under when I got the job, as I was just about to graduate from college. As you can imagine, the plan was very expensive - $560 a month - but it was the only thing I could get. My employer agreed to cover it in full, as he did with all of his employees plans. Several months later, the rates went up - partly an annual increase, and partly because I'd just turned 25, putting me into a new age bracket. At this point, my boss refused to cover the entire premium, and I was left paying for part of my premium while my non-diabetic co-workers had theirs entirely paid for them.

The story ended happily, thankfully. Through my doctor's office - one of the top diabetic clinics in the nation - I was able to get in touch with the American Diabetic Association, and they got me in touch with a lawyer. The lawyer sent my boss a letter, and my boss ended up paying my health insurance in full once again, as well as refunding me the couple of months' worth of the premium that I had paid on my own. Of course, after that I felt that my boss - who had not liked me much for a long time, pretty much as soon as it was clear I was not one of those acquiescent women he likes to have work for him - was treating me even worse. It was only a few more months before I decided to quit and try freelancing full-time, and am I ever glad I did!

I hope there is at least something in my awful experiences that you can use. If you need any more information, I'd be happy to chat with you some more.
_________________
Katharine Swan
www.katharineswan.com

[LoriDW]

Oh, do I have stories for you! I was senior editor at a trade magazine. The new boss apparently did not want me to stay. From day three of his tenure, he would hold staff meetings and not invite me (and we were a staff of three!), put me down in company meetings when I spoke up, and he actually pointed to his computer screen once and said, "Print that out and bring it to me." He also asked me to call people for him--sorry, that's secretary work, pal!

The worst--for a graphic that went along with a story about a man who had been struck by lightning and had survived, he actually wanted the art director and me to superimpose a lightning bolt over the man's head!

He fired me after five months. It was the best thing that had ever happened to me. I no longer had to work with a complete lunatic.

[GamblingWriter]

My last job before freelance writing full time was as combination paralegal & secretary to an attorney. There was an earthquake which created (among other things) 4 landslides between where I lived and the office. The emergency preparedness people were also telling everyone to stay off the roads. So, I did. Phone service was sketchy, but I did manage to get through to say I wouldn't be in until the "all clear" was given to drive and until the landslides were removed.

The all clear was given 2 days later; the landslides were shifted enough to be able to get by a day after that, which was Saturday. I didn't go to the office as I never worked weekends. The attorney called me Saturday afternoon and told me I was fired for not coming to work that day when I had "missed" 4 days of work that week. He then told me I could "freelance" for him doing research as he had 2 big cases he needed help with. I agreed to do it because I wanted some income and I knew he hadn't done any research since I had started working for him and was too lazy to start again. After freelancing on the research for a month, he refused to pay me for any of the work. I had to sue him in Small Claims Court to get what I was owed. He then tried to avoid paying me by closing his office, bank accounts, etc. I knew his address & had a lien put on the propery for the judgment I had. I was finally paid when he sold his condo to move out of state. He had the nerve to call, screaming curses at me, because my judgment being paid out of his escrow meant that there was no money left to go to him for his move. You can be sure I cried great crodile tears when I heard his problem.

That ended the saga of my J.O.B. (just over broke) life. Freelancing has been substantially more fun, more lucrative, and less stressful. And my computer doesn't care what time I work, whether I have on makeup, or what I'm wearing.

[newwriter]

I doin't know why, but I found women more difficult to work for than men. I worked for a women who thought the title "editorial assistant" meant picking up laundry and walking dogs. I even had to put her drunken body in cabs on a couple of occasions. After working for her and a few other equally as wonderful women, I embarked upon my freelance career and vowed never to work in an office again.

[SHBueche]

Wow, these replies remind me why it's so nice to be self-employed. Had to smile when I read about the boss wanting you to superimpose a lightning bolt over a man's head, in a photo.
_________________
ShelleyBueche.com

[swan480]

You guys should all read The Devil Wears Prada... It's a horrifically funny book about the worst boss situation you could imagine!
_________________
Katharine Swan
www.katharineswan.com

[SupaFly]

[newwriter]