Job Justice

Posted by fxckfeelings on October 28, 2010

As life and many sitcoms have taught us, the people we work with are like family; they can drive you crazy if you listen to them too much, make you forget that your self-respect should never depend on what others think of you (including mom, dad, and the Boss), and make unreasonable demands you can’t refuse. Just as you can’t change your mom, dad, or family cat Count Fluffington, you’re not going to change the Boss, so don’t try. Learn to tune out your office relatives and focus on your own standards. Remember, it’s only a job, and maybe your professional in-laws will take you in.
–Dr. Lastname

Work has been hard for the last couple years because times have been tough and the main way that managers prove themselves and avoid being fired is by committing their teams to unrealistic goals and then getting us to overwork while blaming anyone who objects. They see it as surviving tough competition. Meanwhile, the best people have left and the rest of us feel like we’re overly loyal and/or unmarketable losers. Anyway, the rising complaints caused management to bring in a group of psychologists/consultants to make the workplace happier and improve communication. The trouble is, they’re not asking the right questions and they don’t want to hear what we’re telling them. My goal is to get the boss to see that they’re ineffective.

You might think the consulting psychologists are incompetent, but if they actually could resolve the issues you’ve described, they wouldn’t be consultants, they’d be messiahs.

Yes, the consulting psychologists were hired to make things better and management is probably sincere in believing that. Consultants who tell the whole truth in a situation like this, however, usually find themselves, like employees who do likewise, without a job. Be warned.

The truth, as you describe it—and as the consulting psychologists are probably well aware—is that fear-driven managers are pushing the best workers away and destroying teamwork by disregarding realistic limits on productivity. They’re pushing their workforce to collapse.

In this situation, managers usually feel they’re performing a necessary dirty job while losing whatever respect and warm feelings they used to enjoy from their team. They feel hurt and misunderstood, and it takes very little additional criticism to make them boil over.

From the outside, it’s an episode of “The Office” because everyone is so touchy, sensitive and grandiose, and hey, it’s just a job. To those who work there, it feels like an Ultimate Fighting main event.

If the big boss were sensible, s/he wouldn’t let the panic get started. Once fear gets going, however, it has a powerful life of its own; managers worry they’ll be fired for appearing soft and workers for looking unmotivated. After a while, it can’t be stopped, and everybody’s running in circles, if only to look busy.

Instead of trying to halt the panic, think about the best way to cope with it by working hard and keeping negative feelings from showing. Don’t work too hard, or pay too much attention to what others think of your work, or you’ll over-react to their fears, burn out, and lose control.

Meet your own definition of a good day’s work and do your best to convince yourself of that fact. Then keep your communication with your boss positive, both about his work and yours.

Another major source of mental health is to look for work elsewhere. Whether you find it or not, the search reminds you that the office is not the world and that there’s always something active you can do for yourself.

In the meantime, keep busy, because even if the consulting psychologists can’t deliver, the real messiah might arrive any minute.

STATEMENT:
“It’s painful to work here when expectations are unrealistic and everyone feels screwed; but I know what a good day’s work is. I won’t stop looking for a better job; but, while I’m here, I’ll respect myself for the extra effort it takes to work here during hard times when smiles and praise are scarce.

The new bosses who took over our company think there’s a faster and better way for us to do our work, and I think they may be right. Unfortunately, my immediate boss is a member of the old guard, she’s hard to fire, and she thinks the new ways won’t work, so she goes along by assigning the new tasks to me, and then holds back on resources so I can’t possibly get the job done. When it flops, she’ll say it was a bad idea in the first place; they’ll blame me for not finishing it; and she’ll blame me if I complain about the lack of resources. I’m angry at all of them and want to get them to see that their fighting is wasting my time and making it impossible for me to do a good job.

This job might work out well for you in the long run because you believe the new management methods might actually work. Unfortunately, your boss’s resistance puts you in a tough, helpless position, and showing helplessness is a shit magnet, both in work organizations and families.

If you care too much about straightening things out or expressing how you feel, you’ll charge up the magnet, so don’t. Think instead about riding out the (shit)storm.

Borrow your approach from the consultants (maligned above) who try to stick with two central messages with the people who hire them: A, I’ve got a good product to offer you, and B, I’ll do everything I can to make you feel like a good, competent manager (without lying, or actually doing what you ask, which is impossible).

Don’t tell your boss that you can’t get the job done or that it will interfere with your other work, even if that’s totally true. If you do, it will make her feel as if you’re accusing her of being a bad manager, and you don’t like where that leads (i.e., unemployment).

Tell her other truths, like, that you like the work and want to meet her expectations. You understand she believes her allotment of resources will work best, but, just in case there’s a problem with getting everything down, and assuming of course that you’re working all out, ask her what priorities come first, and record her response (cover your ass) with a smile.

In the meantime, look busy and be busy. Show pride in your work, regardless of how frustrating it feels to be falling behind. When the shit hits the fan, if it does, present the facts of what you’ve done, what your orders were, and hide the frustration and criticism.

After all, even though you didn’t get to do it the way you wanted to, you were just doing your job. If you’re lucky, the (shit)storm will pass over and touch down on someone else.

STATEMENT:
“I care mightily about getting the job done but I recognize it is sometimes impossible. I will do a good day’s work, keep my frustration to myself, blame no one, and hope that my pride in my work deflects blame.”