Why, yes we are.
txrad just deleted AmericaBlog from his favorites list. I told him I never go there. Haven't been there in 4 months at least. Don't even miss it.
As for me, I've had an unpleasant day dealing with corporate red tape. And if I get dealt much more piles of shit, I may delete my job.
I have bent over backwards and busted my ass for more than 8 months now. I never let anything drop through the cracks and I work long hours. I have no qualms whatsoever about working over the weekend. I'll do what it takes because I like what I do and I play for the team.
The only problem is my laptop is a piece of shit with a small screen and poor resolution. A few months ago I asked for and received a docking station with a pedestal for a nice monitor which is so much easier on my eyes than using the laptop alone. I've tried using the laptop by itself at home, and while I can do it, I can't be at the same level of productivity as I am when I have the monitor and a full-size keyboard. So I found a box in the mail room, and managed to fit all the components of the docking station into it perfectly.
I brought it home with me on the Thursday & Friday when I had to be here for the carpet installation, and I worked over the weekend. I brought it home on two other weekends. The most recent was last weekend, after we received instructions at the end of Friday which needed to be implemented as early as possible on Monday. I worked Sunday afternoon from 2:00 until 9:00 in the evening.
It's a bit of an inconvenience to box that stuff up and take it to and from work. I asked my boss today if I could get another docking station to just have here at home so I'd only need to bring the laptop, dock it, and do what I needed to do.
The reply was something along the lines of "we do not provide docking stations for when you opt to work at home."
That's the way things are at my place of employ. No explanation. No "I'm sorry but.."
They're just abrupt and to the point.
I replied, "OK, I'll just go on Ebay and see if I can find one cheap."
At least my boss had the courtesy to reply with a comical line: "Good idea. If it's any consolation, we have executive VPs who don't get docking stations at home."
I felt better. For awhile.
Later, I bumped into an IT person. I had emailed her earlier this week asking about getting a 2nd docking station, since there was obviously a glut of unused ones (supposedly over 100 people have given notice and left in the past month).
She started to apologize and I explained to her what my boss told me and I said I'm fine with it. I told her I'd just buy one off the internet.
Seriously, I never thought this was a big deal. I've researched them on Ebay and I can get the docking station & monitor pedestal for $99 plus shipping. We're not talking gold bricks here.
I continued my conversation with the IT person and she suggested I speak to someone else and maybe he'd approve it. Ahhhh, exceptions can be made. Imagine that.
But honestly, I'm all about convenience and getting my work done. I don't even need the $99 pedestal. I have found port replicators on Ebay that would work with my laptop for anywhere from $19 to $30-something. I have an extra monitor and I'd be all set.
I thought this was the end of my dilemma until I received an email from the IT supervisor late this afternoon. It went something like this:
I could not help but overhear a conversation in our IT department today about you and your docking station. Would you mind if I ask you how much equipment you have removed from [contrived new company name] on a regular basis?
OK, konagod, get a grip.
Knowing what I know about corporate culture, and it's been a long while since I have been in corporate culture, and I've NEVER been in one as big and corporate and bullshitty as this one, but I can see the writing on the wall. This guy was probably gathering data so he can load his guns. Shit is probably about to hit the fans.
If I am called into a meeting and presented with a piece of paper to sign which in any way casts doubts upon my intentions or my integrity, I am going to think long and hard about making their lives utterly miserable.
I am not a thief. What I do, I do because I am trying to manage an account as effectively as possible. I have huge responsibilities. I am solely responsible for about 30% of a major telecommunications giant's television ad campaign. And I'm getting shit over some plastic docking station and a cheap monitor?
My God. I can barely read this post without exploding.
If I were to walk out, they would need to hire 3 people to replace me. And that's no joke.
What is a joke is that they don't seem to know that simple fact.
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