The gap.

There is a gap in my life between the person I am and the person I would like to be. Most of my days are spent trying to figure out ways to bridge that gap. I haven’t been able to make the leap yet but, I keep trying.

Today, I got a nasty email. Well, maybe I should qualify that statement. I got an email that was derisive and chiding in tone. Under the circumstances of the last week I have to admit my patience with such things is fairly thin. My first impulse was to respond in kind, a lot of that has to do with feeling rubbed raw over the last few days but, I caught myself.

In the past I wouldn’t have done that, I would have just acted on first impulse and written something nasty back. In this instance, it was a signal. The signal was that the time had come to end an association which had long ago outlived any usefulness. Nowadays, there is a very strange dynamic which seems to occur in the workplace - I think of it as battered employee syndrome. Battered employee syndrome is the lose/lose scenario where no matter what an employee (contractor, vendor) does, they’re wrong. I find it is emblematic of poor management.

You know the whole employer/employee relationship is a bit of a contract - people are hired to come in and perform certain functions - this would be known as ‘the job description.’ Hence when an employee is hired for a particular position, there are certain parameters of experience and expertise which must be met if the employee is to fill the position and perform their duties in a competent and timely manner.

One of the hallmarks of a dysfunctional company is when a manager asks a subordinate to write their own job description. Whenever I have heard of this happening the first thing I usually advise the person to do is to look for another job. Think of it this way, ‘We hired you, we pay you but, we really don’t know what it is you do.’ That’s comforting, wouldn’t you say?

Well, I digress. In this instance the ‘entity’ in question has repeatedly demonstrated absolutely no loyalty to their employees through the years. The same problems crop up in a place year after year and while the focus continues to be in one specific area the cause, and source of the problem never gets addressed. So, we wind up in battered employee syndrome.

It’s like a game of what have you done for me lately? So, if the only thing you can get out of a place is money, no career advancement, no job satisfaction, no reward or recognition for good work, does it make sense to stay in a place? If the only good thing you can say about your job is that it is bearable, isn’t it incumbent on you to seek out ways to make the situation better and failing that seek out a better situation?

Don’t get me wrong, it’s called work for a reason, in the memorable words of Red Forman: If it wasn’t “work,” they wouldn’t call it work. They’d call it “super-wonderful, crazy-fun time!” Or “Skippedydoo!” So, in regard to this one particular place, we’re not talking the land of Skippedydoo but, if the door doesn’t swing both ways, well what’s left?

Then, as more time passes I lose the ability to even be annoyed about it - life is too short for such stupidity.