January 19, 2007
The Story of Wenchie & the G.M.
In the beginning, I was a part time temp here at Company. I had, like, three other jobs (nanny and church secretary at two churches -- weird, huh?), and I'd work when I could.
I was the only staff support that my department had. This was back in the days of my Previous Boss (P.B.). P.B. really wanted to hire me to be their full time secretary, and I really wanted to be their full time secretary. But there was an obstacle. A 500-lb. obstacle.
General Manager. Yes, the G.M. of Reading My Emails Fame and Soda Machine Outrage Fame. He didn't want me working there because both my sisters already worked there, as secretaries in different departments, and he apparently was afraid that we would pool our supernatural, secretarial powers and take over the entire company. Wonder Twin powers -- activate! Form of... an ice fax machine!
At the time, all the department heads, including P.B., reported to G.M., who basically had control of the whole company. Ahhh, but with great power comes great responsibility, and since G.M. is no Peter Parker, he abused his power and got "promoted" to a position where no one reported to him. Hee!
P.B. hired me on the spot. Double hee!
Fast forward to G.M. reading my email conversations with Nicki and discovering that we both hate him. As does everyone else at the company. Awwwwwww, he got his wittwe feewings huwt.
Here's my thoughts on that. When you're a petty, spiteful tyrant, you can't rationally expect people to respect you. The best you can hope for is fear. And an assassination that kills you quickly. But you should pretty much assume that people despise you and have started a betting pool on when you're going to retire.
I'm fine with G.M.'s feelings being hurt. And I'm fine with him hating me. I'm even fine with him throwing darts at my photo. But what I'm NOT fine with is him using his authority to totally fuck with me. That's unprofessional and shouldn't be tolerated by anyone.
Now, I didn't mind covering the Switchboard every other day in December because, frankly, I didn't have much else to do and was basically biding my time until I was only working half days. The G.M.'s Assistant's Assistant was brand new and just settling in to things, so I didn't mind helping her out.
I was under the impression that it was a temporary gig and would eventually be taken over entirely by G.M.A.A. Especially since I was cutting my work hours in half, which doesn't really jibe well with sitting at the front desk, trying to beat my high score in Zuma.
Imagine my surprise when, with the consent of no one, it was assumed I would be doing ALL morning Switchboard breaks, once I went part time. Ajeckamonga-HUH???
To be continued...