THE FLOGGINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES!

burnedout submitted 317 days ago

My whole nightmare took place when I was working in the New Accounts department of a small investment firm last year. I took a scheduled Friday off to go visit family. I came back to work that Monday to find a huge stack of time-sensitive work sitting in the department Inbox virtually untouched since Friday. My almost useless coworker who was hired to do the same job I did refused to process more than two pieces of work a day, and hadn't touched anywork the day I was out. Our ostensible supervisor did nothing to make her do what she was hired to do or make provisions for someone else to do it. I sent an email to one complaining broker explaining that his paperwork didn't get done right away because I was out of the office when it arrived. Ultimately my email ended up forwarded to the new Senior VP who then threatened me for taking one day of scheduled use-it-or-lose-it paid time off. Only some fast talking by a supervisor about me "learning my lesson" kept me from further discipline. At that point, of course, I should have just given notice right then and there. Instead I never took another day off out of fear of falling further behind in work.
The company had been facing growing pain problems since before I had started. The firm had taken on more investment reps than its 50 employees could handle. It was firmly entrenched in the era of paperwork and snail mail and was slow to embrace new technology. Random reorgs every 6 to 8 months left it unclear as who was supposed to do what and who was in charge of who. Communication among departments and up and down the management totem pole was nonexistant. Employee morale wasn't even in the toilet, it had been flushed away through the sewer system and was being processed at the municipal treatment plant.
My job in New Accounts had traditionally been held by two people and turned over every year when the workload was a fraction of what it had become. I had held the job longer than anyone else and had gotten the reputation of a real work horse: "Give it to him if you want it done." Consequently I was consistently inundated with work, quite often items I had no knowledge off and should have gone to other departments. I tried to pass this stuff off to the right department but it would end up circulating back to me days or weeks later, long overdue with the rep upset and my name now attached to the debacle. My nearly useless coworker would let what little paperwork she accepted sit on her desk for days while she made loud social phone calls and got hostile with coworkers who would meekly back off and hand work to me instead. Once I was ordered to write an instruction manual for a brand new kind of complicated managed account. Marketing had rolled it out without bothering to inform New Accounts of its existence.

My last three months of work I was basically a zombie, going through the mounds of paperwork in a kind of haze, coming in early and staying late for no extra money, and making some stupid mistakes because my job had become a blur. Looking back the signs of my planned firing were there, but I was too burned out to notice. Off work I mostly complained about my job and started drinking heavily. I was looking for another job but hadn't found one yet. All the while the Senior VP had been building a paper trail looking to fire me (I had come onto his radar when I took that day off) to show the remaining employees who was boss. One Thursday while I was up to my eyeballs in paperwork I went to get a cup of coffee and got called into the Senior VPs office where he told me my termination was effective immediately and ordered me to leave the office. I was forced to leave the paperwork unfinished, my computer on, and my coffee still on my desk. Before I walked out the door the last time the Senior VP demanded I hand over my employee photo ID. The firm had NEVER provided photo IDs to employees but it was news to him. He was that clueless.

A few months later after odd jobs of day labor and worse I landed a contract position with another investment firm. This time I got to see see how competent management reacts to problems that arise. It hires new people, changes its procedure and engages constant communication to keep everyone in the loop. I even got photo ID my first day. Emboldened, I called up the Senior VP and asked him why he thought I had photo ID and why it had been my fault for work not being done when I was on a scheduled one day vacation. Instead of an answer I got a call from Head of Security at the parent company saying the police were going to be contacted because of my threatening phone calls. I called the Security Chief and told him even though I hadn't threatened the Senior VP I was clearly not going to get an answer and I wouldn't call again. I let the whole thing drop and decided to move on with my life.

Unbeknownst to me, much had happened in the previous four months. The Senior VP's yet-still-another reorg never happened. His management style of "The floggings will continue until morale improves" turned the normal trickle of employee attrition into a flood. Vacancies were never filled, with candidates balking at an offer of substandard pay and lousy working conditions. He loved to brag he had "20 years experience in organizational effectiveness" but in the end all he effectively did was effectively take the wheels off the buggy. Shortly after he refused to answer my question, the 40-year old firm that pioneered the concept of money managed accounts announced it was shutting down operations and laying off its staff. The Senior VP demagogue with a Napoleanic complex had fired a torpedo into an already sinking ship.

I still do contract work now. The pay is less than before, I get by on overtime and a second job on the weekends. But I get a decent night's sleep now, I've lost weight, and my family and friends don't have to hear me moan about my job all the time. The point of my story is this: Sometimes you can't tough it out on a job and it's time to look for something else. To which I also add: If you see yourself in a situation like mine, especially with a boss who claims he has "20 years experience in organizational effectiveness" don't even bother to find something else. Save yourself the agony of him firing you out of spite or going down with the ship when he tanks the company. You're better than that. Just walk.