Friday, March 17, 2006

Who was who was who was the boss....

Ya know, I understand that in this world, there are hierarchies, and that unless you're at the top of one, you're gonna get shit upon. I don't like this, but I understand it. However, being reminded of it really irks me.

Take my boss for example. he and have not always seen eye-to-eye on things (and that's not just cause he's shorter than me. Can anyone say 'stereotypical Napoleonic Complex'?), but we co-exist by working apart as much as possible, and just agreeing to not like one another. The last few years, things have been somewhat cordial, which works well for both of us. But this week, I was reminded, yet again, of why I dislike this man.

Wednesday, he gives a letter to my coworker. It's a letter about some training that both she and I should go to. Frankly, it's something we could both benefit from. The letter was sent directly to him, the boss. It was sent directly to him on February 6. The training is for THIS Tuesday, March 21st. Registration deadline was March 8th.

When my coworker pointed out to him that the training was now less than a week away, and the registration closed a week ago, he became angry with her. Said whether she wanted to go to that training or not, he said she and I were going. As if she was pointing this out to him as a way to get out of going, which wasn't the case at all. When she pointed out again, that registration had closed a week earlier, he told her to call anyway, and tell the lady in charge that HE wanted us in. They'd make room. Like why could HE call and say HE wanted us in??? His phone broke? His larnyx not working??? Arghh!

Anyway, I just found out today, the lady in charge said there were open seats and we got our confirmation this afternoon....4 days before the training. Good thing I had nothing planned for Tuesday.

As I said, the training is soemthing we should have and would be beneficial, but then why hold onto the letter so long???

Actually, there this thing called the Peter Principle (kinda like Murphy's Law) which says that people are promoted in hierarchical organizations until they can be promoted no further, when they no longer can handle the job they have, so they go no higher. In other words, people are promoted to thier own individual level of incompetence. AND, someone else once said that the higher someone is in the organization, the less they know about office equipment, and GOD is that the truth. (Consider: my boss getting his tie stuck in the shredder; not knowing that the copier was simply out of paper and calling the copier in the fix the 'broken' machine; and answering the phone attached to the fax machine and then getting pissed off when he only heard a loud buzzing signal)

OH, frustration, thy name is "Boss".

POLT = listening to "Alison" by Elvis Costello

A chat with you and somehow death loses its sting. - Black Adder

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