Ask Lemmy

I've had countless shitty jobs and shitty bosses. Now I'm in charge of a team and, as a product of who I am and my own lived experiences, I treat them fairly and with a degree of kindness and sympathy that I've never really had from my former bosses.

I overlook a lot of the petty paperwork and have various on-going deals with staff whereby I'm extremely flexible and they reciprocate by often going the extra mile for me. Our team mostly runs well and my own manager is pleased.

However, I really feel unappreciated by some of the staff who have been there so long that they've forgotten how hard it could be if I was inflexible, stuck strictly to the rules and came down on them a lot harder - which an other boss could easily do.

I worry that some mistake my kindness for weakness, even though I have always dealt firmly with folk in private on the extremely rare occasions that I've had to.

Truth is we're local gov, the perks are good, as is the job security, but there's an element of complacency and an awareness that you have to do a lot wrong to get fired - and it's a long process.

So yeah, I mostly don't mind my job, but I resent staff who haven't had it as bad as I have in the past and don't seem to understand that their decent conditions are because of who I am, and are not really the norm in other departments.

Work is just nothing more than being a meaningless cog in a machine designed for mediocrity. The system wants you mediocre so you can be controlled, through religion, economics, or politics.

My producer and I have been doing what we were meant to do for a few years, and it doesn't require even leaving our homes at all.

Our Thanksgiving prime rib was over-done. We've been a bit slow lately, and so I've had to take more vacation time. Or, sit at my desk and do nothing. We don't get as much free company apparel as my last job. There, we got Carhartts, Nike quarter zips, Weatherproof jackets, coolers.. that was pretty nice.

Oh, and the main thing is the customers. I wish the program managers could do all the interacting with them so I would never have to talk to them.

I enjoy my job and would do it even if I didn’t financially need to.

I don't hate the hours, but I hate the constant process of it all. That we are expected to be at the computer about 8 hours every day, even if it's clear that our efficiency has dwindled.

And I'm in a lucky enough situation, that I wouldn't even really have to do this. I could easily take a few days off sometimes, but I just ... won't until it's actual vacation time. So after the vacation ends, I end up working efficiently for a month, so-and-so for 3 months, then absolutely shitty for a month and then it's vacation again. Because I choose to.

Employer.