I've gotten myself into a bit of a pickle, but what else would I expect with my big, fat mouth? I have a friend who is applying for a job at another friend's office and I have been asked to introduce them. In fact, I feel obliged to make the introductions because the applicant is trying to leave his current job in part due to my aforementioned big, fat mouth.
I told him to leave. Actually I told him to "get out now." In the past year he has been practically always stressed out with the job. He used to try to change workplace dis-function but eventually he realized the futility of it all. His company only seems to care about profit and don't seem too concerned about the revolving door of employees, which is all but guaranteed when you under staff and overwork your employees. workers. There were too many similarities to my old job for me to keep my trap shut: the attitude of 'I was once an abused underling so now it's your turn to pay your dues', the boss showing the employee time cards on PowerPoint at the productivity monthly meetings with different color highlights to indicate how much overtime everyone worked as though over sixty hours per week was a badge of honor, the 'advice' that management frowns on people who don't volunteer to come in on weekends, the employee appraisals that seem to only focus on negative aspects of performance (how many minutes after 8:30am did you arrive to work even though there is no appraisal category for how many hours you worked the night before), etc.
After three years of that management style I was so bitter that it was a fortunate thing that I decided to take a few months off to decompress because had I tried to interview for a new job, I probably would have come off as mentally unstable. Because I probably was mentally unstable.
My friend is no longer making sense. He displays a strange approach to problem solving, which is to let the problem fester while it is low on the radar until it becomes a major problem, at which point normal options are taken away. Case in point: his sink was draining very slowly. I pointed this out to him when I was over for a visit. A few weeks later I was rinsing my hands and noticed that the drain was barely working. Have you called anyone to fix it or called your landlord, I asked him. No, the landlord probably wouldn't care. He had no reason for why he thought that the landlord wouldn't care since he rarely speaks to the landlord, so I can only conclude that the attitude at his workplace has carried over to how he believes other people operate. He would use his sink in the morning, filling it up, then go to work. By the time he came home it would have drained. Except last week it didn't drain fast enough and the water escaped down the side of his pipes and somehow made it into his neighbor's ceiling. Now the landlord is involved and has to pay for the neighbor's ceiling along with fixing the drain.
And I am introducing this guy for a job. He needs to leave his current situation but I'm not sure that he is fit for working in a 'normal' company right now. At least by observing him I have gained insight into how so many people in upper management are useless. If he stays in his current job, he will follow that path.
I told him to leave. Actually I told him to "get out now." In the past year he has been practically always stressed out with the job. He used to try to change workplace dis-function but eventually he realized the futility of it all. His company only seems to care about profit and don't seem too concerned about the revolving door of employees, which is all but guaranteed when you under staff and overwork your employees. workers. There were too many similarities to my old job for me to keep my trap shut: the attitude of 'I was once an abused underling so now it's your turn to pay your dues', the boss showing the employee time cards on PowerPoint at the productivity monthly meetings with different color highlights to indicate how much overtime everyone worked as though over sixty hours per week was a badge of honor, the 'advice' that management frowns on people who don't volunteer to come in on weekends, the employee appraisals that seem to only focus on negative aspects of performance (how many minutes after 8:30am did you arrive to work even though there is no appraisal category for how many hours you worked the night before), etc.
After three years of that management style I was so bitter that it was a fortunate thing that I decided to take a few months off to decompress because had I tried to interview for a new job, I probably would have come off as mentally unstable. Because I probably was mentally unstable.
My friend is no longer making sense. He displays a strange approach to problem solving, which is to let the problem fester while it is low on the radar until it becomes a major problem, at which point normal options are taken away. Case in point: his sink was draining very slowly. I pointed this out to him when I was over for a visit. A few weeks later I was rinsing my hands and noticed that the drain was barely working. Have you called anyone to fix it or called your landlord, I asked him. No, the landlord probably wouldn't care. He had no reason for why he thought that the landlord wouldn't care since he rarely speaks to the landlord, so I can only conclude that the attitude at his workplace has carried over to how he believes other people operate. He would use his sink in the morning, filling it up, then go to work. By the time he came home it would have drained. Except last week it didn't drain fast enough and the water escaped down the side of his pipes and somehow made it into his neighbor's ceiling. Now the landlord is involved and has to pay for the neighbor's ceiling along with fixing the drain.
And I am introducing this guy for a job. He needs to leave his current situation but I'm not sure that he is fit for working in a 'normal' company right now. At least by observing him I have gained insight into how so many people in upper management are useless. If he stays in his current job, he will follow that path.
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