This weekend was intense, stressful, revelatory, and résumé building. I spent 26.8 hours at work managing two events. I’d provide more details about where I work and what I do but there’s someone who’ll probably end up reading this that’s just nosy for no damn reason. He thinks for some odd ass reason he’s entitled to know my every move, that I should update him 24/7/52,  and he should provide unnecessary, condescending, second-guessing commentary for every action I take.  Well you don’t, you irritate the hell out of me because you do this and think when people attempt to inform you that your overbearing ‘advice’ is unneeded and unwelcome you: a)deny it, b)get pissy, c)start being condescending if you haven’t already, d)pretend you know best and that I’ll fail from a lack of taking your shit, e)bring it up out of context whenever you get the chance, and f)act like my ideas are worthless because I thought of them without your input. But I digress and you’re no longer worth the additional thought and frustration you cause. You didn’t even deserve that paragraph but I figured I’d write it so you can realize why I don’t take any time to talk to you.

[Backstory] So where to begin? I guess it all started two years ago when I accepted a job performing menial tasks. In theory, I was supposed to learn more about what I was doing and advance the ladder. Well that didn’t happen for several reasons. There’s a skewed hierarchy which I liken much to the treatment of slaves. Slaves were uneducated properly so they wouldn’t have the (mental) tools necessary to rebel. Well where I work if you’re not in the arbitrary clique with the supervisors then you basically aren’t shown anything other than the menial tasks and due to an enforced knowledge cap you aren’t able to advance.

But that’s not all. Asking questions about how things work and what has to be done isn’t really encouraged. Countless times I’ve shown up to work on time, inquired what had to be done, and was either told to shutup and wait or was completely ignored. But don’t dare do something the wrong way because you weren’t told, attempt to do something without knowing how, or stand there because you weren’t instructed what to do. Then the hypocritical shit hits the fan. I’ve suffered several ‘reprimands’ for standing around doing nothing after I’ve asked what we needed to do for the day and was provided no information. I’m not saying I’ve never just stood there not doing anything because I wasn’t told because I’ve stood there some times doing nothing because I didn’t feel like it. But when you treat people like crap and have a management style that is severely lacking and then wonder why they don’t show any enthusiasm for work and no longer make an effort to be on time for work, don’t be surprised.

Working for that employer I pretty much didn’t learn anything about my job and I couldn’t really tell people I had experience in it. It’d be like telling people I had experience being a brain surgeon when my ‘experience’ consists of the head surgeons telling you to run and grab gauze to wipe the sweat off their brow and then stand in the corner when you’re done. I can liken that to other experiences I’ve had with the afore mentioned person in the intro paragraph where they don’t respect you or your opinion just because they’re them and you’re not.
That all changed when a few months after starting that job, one of the old supervisors came back after a few years break (and was treated like a lackey as I when she’d been doing it far longer than they). Several months after she returned, she asked me if I was free one weekend to help another company she worked for do the same thing I did for employer #1. Well I agreed though I’m not sure why since at that point I didn’t like my job. It probably had a lot do with the fact I had no plans and she’s nice. Having started work for employer #2 doing the same thing, I: started to learn things related to my profession, was treated equally and with respect, got paid a lot more. Unfortunately, the hours were (and still are) scarce with that job since I started at the bottom of that totem pole as well.

Months after I started working for employer #2, I took a job Iowa State, doing- you guessed it- the same thing. I was tasked with more responsibility because I had (albeit limited) more knowledge of how things were run and done from my observations from the corner at job #1. Somehow employer #3 managed to acquire employer #1’s building without getting any staff knowledgeable enough to run things. I’m not sure why I took that job since I somewhat resented employer #3 for taking over and thus reducing the hours available at employer #1  and kinda wanted them to fail. And employer #2 was contracted to do the work for employer #3 since they didn’t have the staff or know-how to make it work. And I assured myself I’d never return to that building to work due to the numerous shitty experiences I’ve had there under employer #1. It’s probably because I didn’t really want them to fail and I like helping people.

From there I was tasked with more responsibility and the esoteric nature of the job was no longer a factor. Training for all job aspect was easily and readily made available to everyone and I gained further skill in my profession. A year later I ended up quitting there because it was requiring far too much effort for me to say I was available and not take hours elsewhere in hopes of getting the available hours there only to not be scheduled at all when I was available and knowledgeable.

After quitting, I started a job with what I’ll refer to as employer #4 for the sake of this post. And because technically I notified employer #3 I quit a month after I got hired by #4.
[Story starts here] I’ve worked at employer #4 since July and I’ve been tasked with things they’d never let me do at employer #1. In fairness to #1, they did let me do the menial part of an upper echelon esoteric task but only because everyone else was busy. This past weekend I was effectively in charge of making sure that everything went smoothly for the clients and that their every need was met. I manged to deal with not eating on time, the stress of their last minute changes which put us behind over an hour eliminating the staff’s chance to eat on time, and a few other hang ups. I effectively did the job that my supervisors at employer #1 do. From this I’ve gained valuable work experience that I can take with me to my other two employers, money to pay for stuff, and the knowledge that managing people and handling customers under duress is something I do easily and well. I even managed to make sure everything went as smoothly as it should have given the disadvantages of the day.

What’s that mean for employer #1? I’m not going to start a third year under their crappy management model. I’m refusing idly suffer another indignation at their hands. I will very politely and professionally inform them that 2 years of their poor management style was my limit, I refuse to endure another year of it, and they can either start treating those under their management properly or I will no longer be providing my services to their department and their transgressions will be properly documented and followed up with through the appropriate channels. I’ve dealt with the crap in the past and took it as a sign of professionalism that I managed not to do the instinctual response. Which would involve effective wording sprinkled with strong language that would probably end with me quitting or getting fired. I’ve realized now that saying nothing has done nothing for me and it allows people to think they can walk over me. Which you can for a while until I stab you through the Achilles, metaphorically of course.

It’s unfortunate that employer #4 pays me far less than my skills are worth and their pay schedule is the 15/last business day of month model. I’d love to take more hours there building up my management experience. But financially, taking more hours and employer #1 (different department but under the other department’s supervisors’ supervisor who hired me and is a nice guy with far better management skills) until I find a better job doing something I’d actually want to make a career out of.

This weekend ended up being that getting pushed out of the nest in hopes you can fly experience. I hit the ground running and pretty much took off. It was rather easy and I realized I’ve actually been managing quite a few of my coworkers without much effort, especially at my former employer #3. I just didn’t get paid for it. For now, which is fine because like my first few design clients, it’s pro bono publico. Eventually I’m going to stop doing it if I’m not getting remunerated properly for it, especially when I have the experience to show for it.