At my previous job...
For a company that wrote banking software...
Before Peyton PHlaCe...
Several years ago....
In September 2011 to be more exact....
I was preparing to train some coworkers on some of the finer points of Microsoft Office...
We had one conference room in this office.
It was pretty nice...
Several computer stations and a big screen t.v....
I was just getting ready to set it up for my training session...
It was a little before 9:00 AM on Sept 11th....
When, as you know, everything went to shit....
Suddenly the conference room was chaos....
People running in and out, watching the events unfold and frantically trying to get in touch with relatives, friends, and clients who lived/worked in NY.
Everyone was an emotional wreck...
I naturally canceled my training...
Or tried to...
My boss did not understand...
Work must go on she told me....
OMG...these people do not NEED this training to do their job...
It was something SHE insisted they learn...
I tried to reason with her that they were in no frame of mind to learn...
Nor I to teach...
I ended up having to flat out refuse to hold the class...
I was not going to shut off the tv and kick everyone out of the room....
Obviously she did not have friends/relatives living in NY...
Or compassion for those who did....
Or so I thought....
A couple of days later, suddenly, she becomes very compassionate...
She set up numerous fund raisers to help the victims of 911...
And she insisted on 100% participation....
She developed ongoing 50-50 office bingo...
While we were supposed to be working....
Winning numbers were being announced every few seconds by email...
The winner "won" 50% of the total amount collected to participate...
The other 50% went to some designated charity...
And most of the time the winner's share went to the charity too because they were shamed into it...
Too bad I never won - I would have kept my share...
Just because I do not like to be shamed into charity...
Another one of her great ideas that month was a sweater sale...
Her used - unwanted sweaters...
All profits go to 911 victims...
Unfortunately the lady had a really bad, really noticeable dandruff problem....
So the sweaters were not only unwanted by her....
They were unwanted...
Being my boss, she assigned me the task of organizing this sale...
I flat out refused....
Notice a pattern here???
I am not a good employee....
She found another underling who was a little more cooperative....
And who bought most of the sweaters herself....
I am pretty sure I noticed them in the trash bin on the way out that evening....
But I digress....
I have a late September birthday....
I had heard rumors that this boss was known to give good presents to her employees...
And take them to awesome places to lunch...
I had bad feelings about this...
I did not want to go to lunch with her....
Especially since the last birthday girl had the privilege of sharing an afternoon at the spa with this lady....
I do not do spas....
At least not with people I do not like...
I am not pretty in a towel...
And I am pretty sure she is not either....
But I was lucky...
No spa day for me...
The events of 911 saved me from that....
On my birthday, she presented me with a check in front of the entire staff....
A check for $50 made out to the charity of the day....
Everyone clapped and thanked me and wished me a happy birthday....
And I smiled and proceeded to my desk to send a thank you note to my boss....
Thank you for your generous gift. I know your birthday is next month and I hope you understand that I have a rule about not buying coworkers gifts...
Not for birthdays....
Not for holidays...
Not ever....
And then I proceeded to update my resume....
You are probably thinking that I am a pretty selfish bitch about now....
I really am not...
I do give to charities...
But I prefer to give what I want to give...
To who I want...
When I want....
I do not appreciate being conned or shamed into it...
Especially in the work place...
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6 comments:
Kind of makes you think the Mayans were right, eh?
Ed, I had to read up on the Mayans a little, but yeah - I think so anyway:)
The boss I had during 9/11 was a real jerk too. After the planes struck the WT buildings, a couple folks in my department tried to call friends / relatives to make sure they were okay.
My boss marched around and told folks they couldn't use their work phones for personal calls, then I overheard him making similar calls on his work phone.
A little later, our CEO announced over the PA that we could go home for the rest of the day. My boss blocked the door to our department and told us we couldn't go home until he discussed the situation with the CEO.
We left anyways.
It makes you wonder how they got that position in the first place and how they keep it. Well, I guess I should not wonder; some workplaces seem to thrive on that type of management.
Thanks for visiting and commenting, Scott:)
My workplaces rams a certain charity down our throats as well. I can't stand the charity. I do not participate. I may be the only one.
I recall my boss wanting to call to see if he should sell his stock during the first few hours of the 9/11 crisis. I was like "WTF?"
Wow...people never cease to amaze me...
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