The Not Happy Thread

Hmph... I have almost 56 main characters... where are the fucking stories? I have concepts and roughs... I do have a handful which have a roughdraft written or midway through their rough. but where are the stories? WTF....

 

Best of luck to LeeLee and you, too.

 

Good luck to you and LeeLee. Hopefully your canine companion will be returned to you hale and hearty, sans lump.

 

Hope everything goes well @Wreybies and LeeLee.

 

So I got upset yesterday with my supervisor and it became a big thing.

Basically, the near one year I've been working here I have gotten a handful of breaks—from the start, the few occasions I attempted to take breaks I was forced to work even when I'd be sitting in the kitchen. Not just breaks, but lunches too. I have decided this was a condition of working here and just decided whatever (and for my lunch, I always leave the premises and go for a walk for an hour).

Well, I park along the street and of course there's only a little stretch of all day parking. So yesterday, my firm rented out a huge portion of our office to a film crew so when I got to work an hour early to find parking, everything was already gone. I circled the two blocks for forty minutes and finally had to park in two hour parking.

So I needed to move my car at in the morning, so I let my supervisor know that I would be moving my car at such-and-such time because she doesn't like not knowing where I am—even if it's in the conference room for a pre-scheduled meeting she personally okayed (which is where my requirement to always notify her when I'm not DIRECTLY in my office sprung from). When I got back, I got to work and then noticed a Skype message asking me to come into her office upon my return. So I went but she wasn't there. I found her and we went into her office.

She then told me that she wanted to be clear that my re-parking my car constituted for my breaks that day.

First, that had always been my intention.

But what irritated me was that I had been called in and spoken too like a rebuke when I am ALWAYS punctual to my work hours, NEVER exceed my lunch break, and basically never even get my two 10 minute breaks.

So I said as much. And she argued that I'm entitled to breaks and if I choose to opt out, that's my decision which is not what happened. I shared that every other hourly employee I mentioned that I was going to try to take my break didn't even know they were entitled to breaks or how many or when. And again, the firm doesn't respect anyone's rest periods and constantly requires people to work during them.

She then started a different fight about a case to which I asked my case attorney to be present, who came, backed me up on that front, and requested that any further questions regarding case work on that matter be directed to her. (This is a whole other issue that I can't even begin to delve into.) So anyway, the two of us walked out of her office and back to work.

After my lunch break, I saw an email from HR (who is not inhouse but an email address and a one-day-every-other-month visit for the whole office) saying there was a call scheduled with her and Sandy. (My case attorney told me she also had a call before mine.)

I've already had an issue with this HR personnel because when we were understaffed and I was overworked, when I met with her and she said everything was confidential, she afterwards sent an email recap of what she thought I said in our meeting to me CCing my supervisor (she actually said the wrong thing, but I wasn't going to correct her because SHE CCed MY SUPERVISOR WHEN SHE SAID IT WAS IN CONFIDENCE).

So when the call took place, I calmly and simply stated what had happened (she actually didn't know what the call was for either—she thought it had to do with a daily report not being turned in). I started off by apologising that I had gotten upset. I then shared my reasons for getting that way, still owning my responsibility for it, and shared about the conversation that followed about how the office doesn't respect or allow breaks. You can ask anyone in the office—because the attorney who owns the firm works during her mealtimes and doesn't break, everyone is set the precedent to accost and make people work during their rests. This is probably fine for exempt salaried workers.

However, HR got defensive, said I knew about my right to breaks and it's my responsibility to take them. When I told her about how I was continually told to work on them all the times I had initially tried in my first several months (particularly by my past supervisor) she said it was my responsibility to say no or when I can't say no, work and take it later.

Which is nice and all, except the few times it was "later" I worked a 10 hour day without a lunch or a break because I kept being told "later." Because all legal work is urgent. And no task anyone asks is five minutes—it's typically several hours. And if I have several deadlines to different attorneys and case managers and everyone is telling me "do this now, break later" that is how my predicament of my never having breaks came about.

And again, I never complained or fought or made an issue.

I only got flabbergasted that I was rebuked for doing something properly and it being implied that I was being underhanded with company time when I have bent over backwards to give my best to this company.

And HR said that if I was having issues with the environment and the not respecting of breaks, maybe I should work elsewhere.

I swear to God HR gets paid for each new hire and resignation they have to handle—because nearly everyone I started work with has resigned, quit, or been fired and people are still giving notice.

And my case attorney was also told she could find work elsewhere if it isn't working for her (although she took it kindly as a nice suggestion and not how I am at all, but she's only worked here for two months).


Anyway, I'm probably going to be putting out my feelers for other employment.

Which is a shame, because I don't actually hate the work and I like a lot of the staff.

I just find it ridiculous that instead of improving simple things in the work environment, everyone is encouraged just to quit.

Why is it, when the restaurant's on fire, they tell those who can't handle the heat to get out of the kitchen instead of putting out the flames??

Bleh

 

HR seems to be a little more concerned as she has now asked in email for the names of the individuals who denied my break, wants their exact wording (whether they said "no" or "later"), the dates, and a bunch of details.

First, I didn't memorise dates, and while I can for sure state several individuals who have done it on several occasions, everyone at some point has done it. I have been told to do it to others on THEIR lunch breaks and rest periods (to which I've refused and always waited, which everyone in my office knows about). A male coworker was given instructions to tell a female coworker to stop using the restroom immediately—she was rightly indignant and actually ended up resigning a month or two later (although for stated medical reasons).

But most importantly, my point was never to narc on anyone. I never complained to date because I accepted it as a company given and something I would deal with.

I brought it up ONLY in light of the double standard of my suddenly being held under close scrutiny and demanded to be accountable for utilising my break in a manner that was absolutely my right to do so.

So I'm not going to name any names or go into further details. I'm going to restate my case that this is an office wide issue that ought to be addressed as such. This is not a witch hunt. The fault is the firm as a whole, not of specific individuals.

They just need to do their damn job of training everyone on their rights and of their coworkers and subordinates rights and to respect these rights.

It's actually very simple.

But I'm sure they realised how liable they are to lawsuit for infractions and are trying to save face by going after a few "culprits" or else by trying to discredit my complaints.

Politics of work are so much fun~

 

I hope things get better for you at work.
Sounds like things are crazy their at the present.

That is because they haven't mastered Pro-Mallow roasting yet.

 

Those poor, poor souls.

 

Poor lobsters

 

Shared e-mail might mean everyone got the choice/right/something to read all my e-mails, but if something comes directed at me, with my name on it and all, would it be too much to ask that I'd be the first to read it? And if you must open it, can you mark it as unread because I'm 90% likely to miss out on it if it's already open.

 

Got a bad case of writer's block. Been staring at a blank page for what feels like hours. It's so frustrating because I actually have time to sit down and write now and yet...absolutely nothing. I want to blame it on a medicine that's supposed to be a mood-stabilizer but seems to have me locked in an numb, emotionless state.

 

My go to for writers block is I get up, make a cup of tea, read a couple of short stories, and take a shower, because all of my best ideas seem to come in the shower for whatever reason. How I deal with being numb and emotionless is a very good way to get into a lot of trouble, so I wouldn't recommend it.

 

I get ideas during the day but when I try to write them down it's like writing in a language I don't know, I can't find the right word or any word at all. It's just so frustrating since I know this happened before with this medicine.

I kind fo want to know anyway, but well, I guess I can come up with some ideas myself. Thansk for the advice anyway!

 

Stan Lee died.

 

Finally got caught up on GoT and wow... The show's kind of(read: REALLY) declined since they departed from GRRM's source material. Which sucks because it was one of my favorite shows.

 

Whaaaat. I hadn't heard. That sucks. Loved that guy.

 

Unfortunately, yes. I'm going to miss his cameos

 

Yup, they're the point when I know it's safe to stop watching the Marvel movie since the best point has passed.

 

<---

 

I bought a $30 amazon card at a grocery store last night. Guess what was not in my bags when I got home. Trying to not think the worst of anyone, I went back to the store, recipt in hand, to say it had been left behind; did the clerk bring it to the customer service desk... nope. The clerk was there when I went in and claimed she handed me the card, I must be trying to pull a fast one.

Someone at that store got a $30 bonus last night. Lesson learned.

 

If only there was some superhero who could swoop in and save the day...



Nope, that would be silly. Let's try this on for size:

 

Fucking Humanity, I'm tired of humanity. Here's hoping an asteroid takes us all out. Or nuclear Armageddon is fine by me