Walking On Eggshells...
My boss is starting to really scare me. He's not been the same, "hard-ass-screaming-until-he's-red-in-the-face-at-all-your-moronic-actions" guy I have come to respect and fear. I mentioned this to one of the guys that has been longer than me. He paused for a second and said "You're right! He hasn't been yelling lately, in fact he's been very mellow." I asked him why he thought the boss had sweetened up, he said "We're so low on staff he doesn't want to piss anybody off."
I think there's something to that. Today, one of the other workers had a private conference and yelled about all the slacking and avoiding work going on by the other employees and the boss told he would "endeavor to get to the bottom of it." That, was really strange. When I first came here, he would have told you to "mind your own business and get back to work!"
Sure, we're still getting stupid memos. But with the low levels of staff, and the new recruits not panning out, or not showing up for work the next day after they leave with that shell shocked look, I think him and the rest of management are in a world of hurt. I think he is literally walking on eggshells, or trying to keep his own head down until things improve.
It's quite a liberating day when you figure out that apart from gunplay or, waggling part of your normally covered anatomy at the entire accounting staff, there is pretty much nothing you can do to lose your job. It doesn't make you love your job any more, it just helps you not to sweat the small stuff. I've figured out even if my performance is spotty, the time and investment they have in me, is worth more because of the training involved.
Even in this apparent situation of power I can never totally relax and become an uber-slacker. The incompetence of those in power can never be underestimated. Their mysterious ways of decision making never fully divined.
I remember working at a company once where they had a one man sales and customer service office. The new manager fired the guy who took care of all the customers and entering all the orders on Friday, and then on Monday asked me why Dennis wasn't there that day. "Because you fired him on Friday...." I said. "Oh", he said, "That's right..." . In forty-five minutes he had managed to secure a temporary secretary to answer the phone while he tried to figure what he would do next...
There are two things in this world that always amaze me. Number one, how many truly kind people there are. Number two, how many truly stupid people there are. The cruelty of the world repeats itself so much I consider it a constant.
