Why do some places of work expect you to act like responsible adults but continue to treat you like kindergarten children? Boggles the mind really…so I say the most appropriate response is to behave like a child!
First off…I love my career – I love offering advice, support and guidance to people in any way I can through the many Human Services fields I have worked…with children, teenagers, families, education services and government services.
I have been working now for over 25 years….and I’ve worked for many different types of organizations in England and Canada, and just want to share my frustration with being exposed and subjected to this mind boggling practice of adult-childrening.
Offices are usually arranged like mazes with little passage ways between quads of desk (leaving just enough room to flutter dance thru) and supervisors’ walking around those office mazes with green attendance folders. Some supervisors…and this applies to supervisors on an international level….take this part of their role overly serious and tend to record the “L” for arrival anytime after 8:30.31 (“L” code is for lateness)….generally these they feel one should be gracious for the extra 31 seconds! Being the child-like protester…I have reverted to childhood habits of putting my hand up and announcing my “present” status whenever I hear my name or see a green folder. Sidenote…many of these organizations also have these fancy attendance management (harassment) program; if you are absent for more than a specified number of days thru the year, regardless of the circumstances like attending chemotherapy or care-giving for elder parents/special needs children or undergoing medical procedures, you’re placed on the program and harassed for the following years.
This parent-employering doesn’t stop with the morning attendance….it seems you can go through the day with random supervisors chasing you through the people maze. They are making sure that you solely focus on customer service…customer service in the office, and customer service on the phone, and customer service at your desk pushing paper (cause apparently now I am selling support services…and you can get a free rebate cheque with every purchase application). Yes I am a government worker that actually works really hard, along with many of my co-workers, and we front line workers even put in extra work towing that so called government gravy train for all them mayors…again on an international level…to sit freely and dip their chicken sandwiches in!
See I work hard for my idealistic fluffy belief and offer supports to better society. As you can imagine, I spend my day hearing about other people’s life crisis’…..mostly sad situations having brought them to the bottom of their rocks and now in need of support. Once you start talking with a client/customer, you could spend upwards of 2 hours trying to help this individual/family work through how they can survive thru this crisis, pick themselves up and climb up to the top of their rock again.
Now, I just wanna walk through the office maze and try to wash off the latest sad story…I stop to talk to a group of co-workers (washing off their own experiences with sad stories) and we end up on a random topic about how the youth today cut off their jeans shorter then cotton brief underwear. Not even 5 minutes into the conversation, a supervisor comes to the little quad to ask “I was just wondering if you were all on break” (and she is also pointing to her wrist watch). Apparently the union and organization have agreed on the designated break times for the adult-childrening employess!
I’ve seen these supervisors play the authoritarian antics to many colleagues on the maze floor…and at one time I’ve even been challenged for having a legitimate case conference about a case. It is like a teacher employing bullying tactics with inappropriate threats of insubordination (imagine writing up someone for insubordination because they were actually doing their job…and therein lies some of that gravy train wastage). Then you see how, through-out the day, various other supervisors come in and out of her office having a laugh and a joke…the glass office wall doesn’t actually hide the gossiping looking smirks on all the faces gathered around her desk or the loud bursts of laughter. Then you come to the end of the day, there is a supervisor standing at the exit, pointing to their wrist watch quoting “where do you think you’re going, your hours are from 8:30pm – 4:30pm and according to my watch it is only 4:28pm”. It is of no consequences to them that you may have arrived at 8:00am and answered calls and pushed paper! At 4:31pm, it is time to leave and the supervisor responsible for closing rushes everyone out the door declaring “leave now, it’s time to leave…whatever it is you’re doing can wait till tomorrow”…and when tomorrow comes, you will then be told you should have dealt with it yesterday in the best interest of the customer?!?!?!
I have, on numerous occasions in numerous organizations, submitted my request in triplicate that I be provided a fold up cot beside my desk for the routine daily afternoon nap and some jungle jim equipment outside for recess play time…and I would even consider being tied to my teammate by a string when crossing the road to the local coffee shop!!!!
PS..Thanks Asereht and Inot for watching my back!!
ADHD Made Me Do It 
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