Oh holy hot damn

I need a good old fashioned vent, and here it goes...

The people that I work for hate their employees. Theoretically, my company is ranked high by the people who rank things, on employee training, and best places for women to work. However, the management team in my particular office must have broken give a damns, because they really don't give a damn about their employees.

Example 1. Recently, a team member of ours died. Her funeral services were today. The right thing to do is to offer the afternoon off to whoever feels compelled to attend the services and pay their respects. She was a valued colleague. I didn't know her very well, but I liked her well enough, and I would have appreciated the opportunity to show my respects. However, only a small minority of people were told the details of the services, even after we were all promised the information would be distributed as soon as it was determined.

Example 2. Her supervisor was supposed to work the late shift today, and in order for her to attend the funeral, she needed another supervisor to cover her shift. She first asked her good friends, all of whom said no, because it would cut into their happy hour time. Only my supervisor stepped up to help, even though it would mean that he would be late to his second job. He is a stand up guy, and did the right thing to his own personal expence. Her so called friends refused to step up.

Example 3. There is a "friends and family" group, and if you aren't in it, you get handed a heavier hand, and stricter standards. I am not in it. Because of that, my internet usage is monitored more closely, my smoke breaks are timed, my reading material is restricted. Yet the members of the friends and family club are welcome to spend all fucking day on facebook and myspace, and can be away from their desks as many times as they feel necessary, and nobody in upper management lifts a finger to discipline them.

Granted, I have a couple of perks that no one else has -- I'm the only one who can write my own schedule and take four weeks off to go to Africa. As long as I can prove it's required for school, I get what I need. I also have a doctor's note which allows me FMLA status, and I can call in sick without punishment.

But are these unique perks really worth the infantilism that I get put through on a daily basis. My daily life hasn't been this structured since grade school. I am not treated like the mature, college educated, almost law school grad that I am. I am treated like a petulant child who got caught with their hand in the cookie jar one too many times.

I am just not cut out for customer service work -- placating to someone else's definition of "good" customer service. I am not cut out to pee only at certain times of the day. Thank God this job is not my end all career. Thank God I was made for more noble work than this. Because I'm at the end of my fucking rope.

~~ The professionally frustrated Wig