Scrooge that!!

I swear, I must be growing a set, and it’s about time. Of course, being assertive and honest is not exactly inching me toward that big reward of the gold pen set, especially since it comes with an attitude. When I was younger and was just starting my career, I said YES to everything... every task, every chance for overtime (even unpaid), every new project… my hand was in the air. I wanted to do more, have more responsibility, get more respect, give 110% and be a team player. rah. rah.

Fresh despair!!

But after years of mergers, reorganizations, layoffs, failed marriage, loss of identity, ugly office politics, and seeing too many hard-working, long-suffering people who married their jobs, then got shoved out the door with gold pens sticking out of their backs.

When I starting working in this place 4 years ago there were 9 people doing graphics and website work. We are down to 4 due to people leaving, and in each case they have just divided up the duties of the now-missing person. How important is a person thought to be if they leave and aren’t replaced? And how important is a job function thought to be if the tasks can simply be redistributed among the lucky leftovers? It really shows a lack of respect and esteem for the people who work in this area. We ARE support people, and basically are here to assist those who perform the actual function of this entity, but we also have specialties… like photographer, web designer, technical artist and drafter, graphic designer, editor, and so on… also the pay is bad because technically it’s run by the state.

That’s where my attitude comes in. I don’t really feel obligated to take on every leftover task that still needs to be done, simply because some higher power doesn’t think that they need to replace a missing person. Second, I am getting too old and am not paid well enough to do a bunch of crap that I absolutely don’t believe in.

That’s why I refused to design and produce this year’s company Christmas card. I told my boss that I am a poor choice to do that because I hate Christmas, don’t celebrate it and am a big bah-humbug Scrooge. The person who is titled as being the graphic designer was probably not tapped for it because they are a Jehovah’s Witness. Heh heh!! Fortunately, the situation went away before I had to pull the religion card, these things can be unpleasant.

I think they should just do a company-wide survey, and anyone who reports not getting nauseous at the thought of displaying their company Christmas card gets the job of creating the next one.  More Despair: Burnout.

I think I may be getting uppity. ;-)