The ‘Office Space’-izing of my job continues
Going in to work on the weekend. Fun times.
The ironic/infuriating part is I had virtually nothing to do 90% of the time this past week at my BS long-hours job. So of course, I learn on Friday that they ‘need’ me to come in on the weekend because of their emergency (=other peoples’ incompetence, or worse). The open question is whether they will ‘need’ me to actually do anything, or just to show up to prove that my boss’s boss can throw his weight around. I put it at even money.
UPDATE (Sunday): It was the latter. Going in again today. Same reason.
Work
These are the concrete things I did at my “job” on Thursday and Friday:
Thursday. No work done of note. Total actual work time: 0 minutes.
Friday. Had a ‘meeting’ at 11 where my boss’s boss tried to reassure our group that everything’s ok. He did a good job (of speaking in reassuring ways) even though nobody believed him, because he’s a big phony. But very charismatic!
Later: One guy asked me for four numbers that we had created for him a while ago, but he lost the paper with the numbers on it when everyone moved desks. I found and reprinted the spreadsheet with the four numbers on them, and gave him the piece of paper. This was some of the most substantial work I have done since starting this job. Total work time: 1 minute.
The rest of my work day is primarily spent reading news - mostly, business news - on the internet.
Oh: you really don’t want to know where I work.
By the way, if I show up ‘late’ or leave ‘early’ from this ‘job’, my boss gives me a look and makes snide comments. Because I’m so crucial, you see.
Good old corporate efficiency
My boss is stuck on an out-of-town trip. So this time, I had to be the one get the numbers to my boss’s boss instead. My boss’s boss is in the same building, one floor above. But fine, I emailed the stupid numbers to him on time. Then I get a call from my boss (the one who’s out of town), saying that he heard from his boss that the numbers look weird and asking all sorts of questions. We get cut off (he’s on a cell). He has to call back. I’m just reading him the numbers from the web page I got them from, feeling more and more like a Kafka character. I mean, there’s really no intellectual content to any of this. “Yes, it says 489.” “489?” “Yes, that’s what it says.”
Q: If he had a question/problem, why didn’t my boss’s boss just talk to me directly? Heck, just come down and ask me? And I thought I was supposed to be the introvert. For that matter, why can’t he go to the same damn web page and grab the numbers his own damn self that he forces us to get?
Possible answers:
1. Because he’s a prick.
2. All of the above.
I cannot adequately convey how much I hate my job right now.
