By: Revanche

Whoo doggy, it really IS all about who you know!

May 8, 2008

A couple of our student workers got their jobs here because their parents know the boss’s wife. One kid gets away with blatant insubordination, as described by a coworker:

1) When I asked him to write down instructions, he straight out told me no, and
2) When I asked him to look into a hard copy reviewer, he told me to “Chill.”


This coworker was put in charge of the insubordinate one, and wanted to know what punishment she could dole out if the kid was rude or refused to comply again. LB: Nothing. At most, a talk.

Nuh-uh! No wonder the kid doesn’t feel the need to do squat! His buddy was trained by me, and in MY day? If you didn’t want to do what I asked of you, you could go home. Forget authority, I just about kicked him out one day for talking back, and he never defied me again. I was younger, and rasher, then, so I know that maybe it wasn’t the best way to deal with things, but I’ll tell you what. It worked. He’s not contradicted me, and has been working diligently ever since. If he slacks off, it’s only a little bit and certainly not blatantly surfing the ‘net in front of me.

Another student, BB’s favored family friend, was finally fired after her list of responsibilities that she could handle correctly had dwindled from twelve to fifteen tasks to ONE. She also had the freedom to set her own schedule, but never showed up on time, if she showed up at all. I believe we were at a 1:3 show:no show ratio. The firing didn’t take, as BB undermined LB by telling her to come back anyway. Then she up and quit because she was bored here; privately, she told me it was probably best for the office so we could get a better coworker.

Guess what? She’s out of work again, a year and some later, and BB has decided to create a job for her, instead of looking at what help we really need on staff. Our already strained resources will now have to extend to putting a useless employee on the payroll so that BB feels good about himself, and the rest of us are just a little more screwed.

Daaaang, reeee-diculous. It’s all about nepotism and cronyism.

The funny thing is I can’t get het up about it anymore. It is what it is.

4 Responses to “Whoo doggy, it really IS all about who you know!”

  1. 1001 Petals says:

    I used to think, many years ago, that actually being good at your job and being a good employee would get me lots of money, recognition and advancement. Ha!

    I sadly learned that it’s mostly a popularity contest and having the gall to delegate all your work away to the people who won’t take credit and just work super hard to get all of it done šŸ™ One of the reasons I don’t think I could ever work in an office environment ever again. If I do something to generate money, it’ll have to be completely on my own terms. It’s just such a bummer (for lack of a better term!)

    I worry that you’re that pawn that just does tonnes of work and doesn’t get far from it. I guess you’d be able to judge. All the best.

  2. ~1001 petals~ I suppose I’m still naive enough to hope that being good at my job will lead to those things … no, I know I am still that naive. It’s just hard to comprehend how people get ahead by being good at manipulating people and not by doing their jobs well, even when I see it happening.

    To a small extent, I was getting rewarded for my hard work and lauded for it, but not enough until I spoke up. Now, though, things are different and I’m sure all my hard work up til the time I quit will not be appreciated at all.

  3. It’s all about “visibility” in the organization apparently.

    It’s total BS, but it’s the way the game is played, and lazy people get ahead….

  4. ~FB~ Visibility, influence of one kind or another … turns out the influence stemming from expertise is the most transient! šŸ™

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