Friday, July 17, 2009

SNAFU rant

Defination of Snafu: Situation Normal, all fucked up.

Let me put this in perspective.

I make 40k less than directors in my office. 40 thousand. The director (who I will talk about) has 5 direct reports. I am not one of them. This director reports directly to a Vice Chancellor (yes, I work in academia).

I work in this office as an admin. I am the lowest level employee in our dept.

I used to be in management at a Fortune 500 company. I had 33 direct reports. I reported directly to a Vice President. Despite my current job title I have a lot of management experience. It can be a humbling experience to be in a low level position, it can also be very frustrating to make small money yet be expected to do some level of work that I'm not paid to do when there are people who should be making decisions and/or doing higher level work but don't. That said, I have the most amount of management experience over the 3 directors. I only have less than the Vice Chancellor the director reports to.

Today was a perfect example.

10 of us got an email from an admin in another dept telling us a meeting that was scheduled for next Wed needed to be canceled and rescheduled. No reason was given. As a participant but not a leader at this meeting I noted the cancellation but that was it. I am not required to do anything other than let them know my availability when it's rescheduled.

The director (who, once again I will remind you makes 40 thousand more dollars a year than I do) calls me on the phone. She says:

Director: So did you see that email canceling that meeting on Wed?
Me: Yes, I saw it.
Director: Well, do you think it's appropriate if I respond to that email asking why it's being canceled?
Me (thinking to myself) Why the F would she be asking me to tell her what she should be doing? This is not my job to tell her whether she should respond to an ADMIN or not. I verbally replied with: Yes, I think it's appropriate.

Now really, why does the university pay someone 40 thousand dollars more than me who cannot decide whether it's appropriate to ask why a meeting was canceled? Why have I been told I will not be interviewed for a low level job (but higher than my current job) if I can give direction to a DIRECTOR? What is wrong with her than she could not make this simple decision? If she worked for me and she did the things I've seen I'd be laying her off in a minute. She is dead weight.

I am spitting mad.

2 comments:

susan m hinckley said...

You know, I've spent 25 years on the sideline of my husband's career (which is its own kind of frustration, let me tell you -- lots of times when I want to yell "WHY DIDN'T YOU DO/SAY THIS???!!!!) and I've seen him go through similar situations 1000 times. I get sick to death of him training the people above him, making them look good, making money for them, etc. This is why I'm glad I'm not out in the work world -- if I weren't crying, I'd be swearing and throwing things. Good job keeping a lid on it, VO. Hang in there.

VO said...

It's such a bad situation there. The direct leadership in my dept is inadequate, passive-aggressive and self-important. A bad combo and one that makes my teeth grit.

It is unfortunate that I cannot quit my job.