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The Bully at Work
Wednesday, March 26, 2008 The New York Times, March 25, 2008, has a rather fascinating article on the bully at work. I find that article to be rather timely. I was talking to my mother about how Corporate America is actually an extension of junior high or high school. The same asshats that you disliked or were bullied by at school, end up being coworkers and supervisors. So the hell of working with a belligerent jerk never ends. In this case, because one needs work to eat and survive this makes the situation worse. With all the debts people have, the difficultly of job jumping, the commute, our personal obligations, health benefits, and so on, sometimes hell is the only place we can work. I'm not surprised companies are losing billions of dollars in lawsuits, people are taking extensive sick time, or just walking off the job. I've walked away from a number of people I wanted to knock the stuffing out of. It's not even just about rudeness, they know you don't want to be labeled a troublemaker. This is about power. Nothing else. This quote from the article, is pretty much standard at every job I've worked at. It's happened to me and I've seen it happen to others. Oftentimes, I wonder why there aren't more shoot-outs at job sites. According to the NY Times: The work bully sets out on a course of constant but subtle harassment. It may start with a belittling comment at a staff meeting. Later it becomes gossip to co-workers and forgetting to invite someone to an important work event. If the bully is a supervisor, victims may be stripped of critical duties, then accused of not doing their job, says Gary Namie.I'm a vendetta minded type of person. Not only do I thoroughly document disgusting and rude behavior, I also retaliate. I don't let people mess with my money. I see that as life threatening, and I respond in kind. People have and will lose jobs after I'm done with them, because I'm willing to lose my job just to get my revenge. Labels: bully, corporate America, work posted by GoldenAh
email this! | article source | 0 comments | post a comment I Hate Corporate America Thursday, January 3, 2008 I love to work, especially when I get to use my brain power. I love figuring out puzzles, following clues and solving problems. I'm all for intellectual inquiry and resolving obscure issues. What I don't like is working for corporate America. I've hated working for that soul draining monster, since I left college. I wasn't overly fond of college either, but at least I saw the results of my work: decent, unbiased grades. I've stayed jobs over the years, misconstruing that the problem was with the individual company. Well, after the enthusiasm wears off, be it the third week, month or year one thing becomes apparent: it's the same all over. I've run out of interest in it all. There is no difference between a career and a job. People show up to a job because they work to live. People who have a career live to work. No matter which way it's played out, people are trading in their time - a precious commodity - for dollars. I'm angry at myself, because I feel I've been conned, yoked and suckered after so many years. I had hoped that of the years I've worked at a company, any company, there would be some satisfaction for a job well done. Hah! I enjoy being busy, at a good, interesting, well thought out, and methodical task. Yet, there were times when work was slow or non-existent. Yeah, try and find your manager for something to do. Would you believe most of the work I ever did, I gave to myself? I mostly created all of my own projects. Those dead work times were the most stressful for me. It's limbo time. I've been told that the project will start, or continue, as soon as so and so signs off on the budget. Or head honcho Chief Doubletalker is over in Europe and we must wait for his return. Or it could be the case that the manager is in over her / his head and is frozen into inaction. Name the scenario, I've been there. It happens everywhere, and it happens all the time. Now, I'm someone who doesn't care for much of the niceties of socializing at the job. I'm not a water cooler plant. It's like mingling with the cattle as we're about to be slaughtered. I feel that after spending 12 LONG hours a day with these people, I don't want to see you after I leave the building. No offense. Nothing personal. I just want to keep separation between corporate church and state, which is my life. Ever really read any of those career advice columns? I used to, until I realized that it was never about competence. It could never be. These articles have been and always will pertain to how to be the best brown nosing ass-kissing suck-up at the office. The fact is if you are attractive, which almost anyone can achieve these days, you will get ahead. If you are a phoney, unpleasant, non-compliant, take-credit-for-other-people's-work cretin, and a two-faced backstabbing liar at the job, that's the way up the corporate ladder. But what if you aren't a sociopath? If one can find a way to make a living, and not head off to the jail-cubicles of corporate America, make a run for it and don't look back. You'll be happier person for it. As for me, these people can keep their damn jobs. I've had enough. Labels: college, corporate America, jobs, work posted by GoldenAh
email this! | article source | 0 comments | post a comment Your Money or Your Life Friday, December 28, 2007 Your Money or Your Life, is the non-fiction book by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. It describes in a no-nonsense, hype-free manner, the step-by-step way to transform a life full of debt without direction to one of financial freedom and limitless possibilities. It is not a get rich quick book. To me, it is a how-to on thriftiness, frugality, being poor (not really) and loving it. However, they answer a universal question (well, my universe): Where do I get the time and money to follow a few dreams? The authors flip a number of because-that's-the-way-it's-done on its head. Freedom from debt is the goal. The solution they offer, goes up against a lifestyle of consumption, debt, and scrambling to keep up with the Joneses. Debt is a ball and chain. If it becomes big enough it distorts most decisions made in life. I've read the book several times, it is one of the few I have dogeared. Most books I read are so pristine they look new. I've read (and still read) it religiously, but honestly, I am unable to follow all of their advice. In some areas, I can, but the whole kit-and-kaboodle? Nope. Trying to manage my spending is like trying to watch my eating - it's an eternal diet. I've tried to record my eating and spending. After a while I just forget (fatigue of trying) to tally every penny spent and every bite taken. I can follow most of the goals and hurdles set forth: it is the last steps that I can't handle. Your Money or Your Life, is great at emphasizing how to take back control of your life. It's fantastic for all areas of any sort of money management you desire to follow. Get a different job, a change of "career", move to a dream location and just be ready to make sacrifices. It's an excellent book because of that reason alone.
Labels: bonds, debt, financial independence, money, residual income, savings, work posted by GoldenAh
email this! | article source | 0 comments | post a comment Economic Inquiry: How Does Moving Jobs Overseas Benefit US Citizens? Sunday, December 23, 2007 I haven't purchased or read any books on Globalism, I usually peruse articles on the topic. I'm sure they're nice books, especially those written by brand name journalists such as Thomas Friedman. Plus I loathe the idea of putting money into their pockets. I'm bemused by the argument that unemployed Americans improve our overall economy. Friedman's book, The World is Flat, is one of those treatises that claims Globalism is great. US Citizens should celebrate the transfer of jobs from the US to developing countries (India, China and the like). Why? Well, it helps them (and us) because, you know, somewhere down the road (decades from now) as their standard of living goes up - they'll be able to buy stuff from us. Since our manufacturing base is shrinking, and moving overseas, exactly what stuff can these poor countries buy from rich ones? It's easy for tenured economists, and their journalist ilk, to write about the joys of Globalism. Universities and media companies aren't eliminating their particular jobs. They enjoy tenure and have no competition. At least not yet. When one is employed in a market that is 100% closed, it is easy to write that the suffering of others is acceptable, even warranted. If a guy making $35 per hour is let go from a job he worked at for 15-20 years, how does that benefit the rest of us? Oh right, his job goes overseas to someone who'll make $35 per month. Yeah, the "savings" are passed back to the CEOs that run the corporation and there is product price reduction, but what about the other side of the damage? What's the other side of the damage? The US Citizen's $35 per hour salary necessarily supports the infrastructure of his local neighborhood, his state, and his country - not the rest of the damn world. This citizen's money went to: Social Security and Medicare / Medicaid - the entire FICA scheme, his retirement funds, local property taxes, sales taxes and whatever is left is disposal income. The US economy survives on over 70% consumer spending. In US politics, the rest of the world should never come above and before the interests of US Citizens. If fair trade practices mean we buy their goods, I'm all for it. Yet, how does a job in India and China contribute to our infrastructure? Didn't a bridge in Minnesota just collapse this year? Isn't this country running a deficit that in bills could reach the Moon? How does this help America again? Oh that's right, cheap products: lead based toys, poisonous pet food, polluted fish and produce, and who knows what other garbage they ship. Why do we get this crap? Because it is cheap! And how have the lower earning among us been making do? With credit cards. Any income gap that the low wage job didn't cover came from borrowing. People were encouraged to employ equity loans. Their cash machines came from the rising value of homes, because the money certainly wasn't coming from a well paying job. Is the subprime mortgage mess making sense now? Labels: globalism, jobs, subprime mortgage, work posted by GoldenAh
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