...that was a very angry title, but sometimes I can't believe the stuff Boss pulls.
Boss has had an entire electronic file folder removed from my network drive. Without asking me, or more importantly, without telling me.
When I asked our network administrator where my file folder had disappeared to, he confided that Boss had told him to remove it and deny all knowledge of doing so.
SysAdmin tells me it's not gone, it can be restored; but he can't do it unless Boss tells him to.
So I have to pretend that I think my file folder has evaporated.
However, I haven't been asked to stop doing the aspect of my job which pertains to that folder.
Which means I have to, naturally, try to reconstitute those files with whatever little information I can dredge up from other sources.
It's ultimately a huge waste of my time and therefore Boss' money -- money, which is dear to Boss' heart, and which is probably the motivating factor for "disappearing" the information held by that file in the first place. Because I'm sure Boss thinks this information pertains to money. It doesn't. Even if it did, this behaviour is closing the barn door after the cows are gone.
My quandry is, am I supposed to go and inform Boss that my file is missing? And will it be considered a breach of working ethics, i.e., a firing offense, from Boss' perspective, if I do not do so?
And when asked, are you sure you didn't delete it? I will have to suffer through the farce of saying, I haven't touched it; it's not in my trash can; I don't know where it is. I will have to suffer the indignity of keeping my mouth shut when Boss looks me in the eye, feigns inculpability, and implies that it's my fault.
For heaven's sakes -- the computer always doublechecks before deleting files both into, and out of, the trash can; how could I not notice? I would have had to voluntarily delete it four times for it to be actually gone.
Which is what I suppose Boss will try to claim that I have done.
I don't want to do the nonsense work of re-creating existing documents. I don't want to have a no-win argument with Boss. So I've decided my official line of dissembling is: it's there. But I can't see it. It's an invisible file.
I'll have to play the waiting game, as that is the only thing in my power to do. I am hoping the file will be re-established when the emotional wind shifts.
This kind of thing makes me angry, less because of what was done -- because, it can be argued, Boss owns everything in this business down to the brass tacks, including my electronic files, and can therefore dispose of it as Boss sees fit -- but because of what it does to me.
I want to take satisfaction in having accomplished something valuable every day; but every time Boss exerts more control, I actually end up with less work to do; and in my bitterness, I'll quite happily write it off as, "Oh well, less work for me, more time to goof off. If Boss wants to pay me to do less, then so be it."
I want to do a good job, but having the definition of that change arbitrarily from day-to-day inclines me to leave work incomplete, as I am left at a complete loss for the "right" way to do it.
I'd be happy to devote myself to putting in an honest day's work; but behaviour like this makes me feel quite justified in spending all bloody day wasting time composing this bloody post.
Boss is the subject of many hard-to-fathom-yet-it-'s-completely-true-I-can't-make-this-shit-up kind of anecdotes; my friends were inspired to get me blogging in the first place because of the stories I told about Boss. Like I mentioned in previous posts, it's amusing, in a schadenfreude kind of way, from a distance; it's unbelievable until you've worked here; and it's terribly intimidating if one ends up in the line of fire.
So please forgive me for griping about work. I'm happy to be employed. I like some aspects of Boss; or at least I'm determined to keep finding things that I like about Boss even though it gets incredible challenging some days... that's probably the martyr aspect of my Catholic indoctrination - uh, sorry, I mean, education - rearing its ugly head again.
Stalked by Death
It reminds me of those "you've-escaped-Death-and-now-Death-is-hunting-you-down" movies. I'm living life completely innocently, and all the while something insidious from another dimension is invisibly bearing down on me with malicious intent; and suddenly something quite unexpectedly horrible happens which I'm powerless to prevent; and it seems the only thing in my power to do is panic.
I should have seen it coming, but I've become so used to finding the computer that I turned off before I left turned on, and things on my desk moved. This morning I found a whack of paper files (the paper versions of the now-missing virtual file) which normally live in my cabinets, piled on my desk - the same files which Boss had sent a peon to collect from me several days ago, and which a high ranking VP had conspired to get back to me because... because...
...well, because Boss' fascinating psycology is both very complicated, and yet simple in a very animalistic way... but I suspect that's a theme to be explored in another post... assuming I still hold this post.... :)
Posted by edgar at January 22, 2003 02:24 PM