Work matters..
After a conversation tonight, I got thinking about some of the workplaces I have worked in, and that I repeat the same mistake over and over again.
I worked for a training college and had a manager who apart from being a man, was big, ex army, walked around like he owned the company, and yelled alot. I note he also had one testicle as he told me in one conversation during a late afternoon coffee after a particularly hard day with screaming ADHD kids had found the coke machine across the road.
He shared information about his life with me, and I listened. I didn’t share much back because in my mind it wasn’t professional. But on the other hand, it meant that I understood him alot better and was able to work with him. Sometimes we fought about decisions I made, I forgot my place a few times, he called into question my professionalism and I would say nothing, or when I reported being sexually harrassed, he told me I was being oversensitive.
But still there were countless hours of being in his office, taking dictation, laughing at his jokes, making sure that he looked good. I did alot for him. I prepared his budgets, I rang up business partners to ask for the money they owed us for that month. I went over resumes and selected potential staff for him to look at and choose which ones to interview. Then when the company won a contract, he thanked everyone except me.
I got another job a while later and found that people said thank you to me for helping them. I’m much happier now. Thing is after he left, I found out that a few people in that office thought I was having an affair with him. I was with M at the time. I was pretty upset that people thought so low of me, or thought I was capable of it. I worked with them for over 2 years.
If you are going to work with a strong personality, you need to be loyal and try and smooth the ways if they frequently go off the deep end, and that’s what my old manager used to do. Thus is was my job to keep damage control in check. Things don’t really change over time. I still do the same thing.
August 15th, 2005 at 1:05 pm
Lori,
I guess that if you work closely with someone and that someone doesn’t tell anyone about the business that is conducted, well, what else would they assume?
Don’t worry too much about what other people think - not to the point of being inconsiderate mind you - but just be you.
August 15th, 2005 at 9:52 pm
well i guess you’d expect people to think that they are working and not having an affair. Perhaps i am a little naive but i think most people will think the best of others, however, its obvious that not everyone thinks like i do.
August 16th, 2005 at 10:32 am
well.. maybe not the best, but an affair is pretty screwed up..
Back at my old work we always knew WHO the boss was doing (when it wasn’t his wife). Including 3 of his children who also worked for the company…. an ethicall nightmare of decadence and perversion..