January 5, 2008

• A lot has been going on lately, and a whole lot of it not good.

  
  

  Monday was New Year's Eve and I worked my 8 hours and I drove home, feeling great.  When I was coming up to my house, I looked down at my phone and saw a missed call from work and a voicemail.  The voicemail was from Wei, my boss, and she said something like "Tessa... where'd you go?  You need to call me right now."  I called work but I couldn't remember Wei's extension, so I called Lindsay who has a cubicle right next to Wei, and she picked up and I asked "Lindsay, can you transfer me to Wei?"  It sounded like the phone was being ripped from Lindsay's hands and I heard Wei. 

  
  

  "Tessa!  Do you like your job?"
  "What?"
  "Do you like your job??"
  "Uh, yes, why?"
  "You need to come back RIGHT NOW."
  "Why?"
  "Why did you leave?"
  "...uh... I worked 8 hours?"
  "NO!  That is NOT RIGHT!  You have REFUNDS, they have to be DONE!  You come back right now if you like your job!"
  "Wei, Cindy told me today that I have until Wednesday to get them done.  Why do I have to come back?  Why are you yelling at me?  I don't appreciate this."
  "DO YOU LIKE YOUR JOB!?"
  "WEI, YES, I like my job, I don't understand."
  "You come back NOW!"
  Wei hung up on me.

  
  

  I was furious.  I didn't know what the hell was going on, I didn't know why Wei was so pissed and why she was threatening my job.  I called back and used the "company directory" to call Wei's extension.  No answer.  I called back and called Cindy, Wei's boss, and got no answer.  I called back again.  No answer.  I called Lindsay's extension, hoping that Lindsay could shine some light on the situation for me.  Cindy picked up.

  
  

  "Thank for calling AAPC, this is Cindy."
  Short pause, confused, why did Cindy pick up?  "Cindy, hi, it's Tessa, is there a problem?"
  "Well, yeah, where are you?"
  "Uh, I'm at home, what's the problem?"
  "Well, Tessa, we're all here working, including your team members, and we ALL want to be home with our families.  We can't go home and just leave when our 8 hours is up if there's work to be done."
  "I don't understand.  What did I leave unfinished?  Why are you yelling at me?"
  "Tessa, there are refunds that have to be done..."
  "And you told me that I had until WEDNESDAY to get them done!  So what is the problem!?"
  "Every time you have something to do, you can't procrastinate it until the last minute to get it done, because then problems arise and deadlines aren't met and if deadlines aren't met, then the thought process is 'oh well, we missed a deadline, so what?'"
  "Cindy, when have I ever missed a deadline?"
  No response.
  "WHEN HAVE I EVER MISSED A DEADLINE?"
  No response.
  "Look, YOU made me manager, YOU OFFERED this position to me and you entrusted me with it.  And as your manager I know my deadlines and I make them.  So as your manager, you need to trust that I will get it done and not call me, threaten my job over the phone, yell at me, and hang up on me!  That is NOT RIGHT, CINDY, AND I DO NOT APPRECIATE IT."
  "So you think you're doing everything that a manager should be doing?"
  Short pause. "Well I admit I could've asked Wei for permission to see if there was anything that needed to be done, but it's not my fault that something wasn't communicated with me.  YOU TOLD ME refunds had to be done by Wednesday, so if you wanted them done today, you should've told me today!"
  "By me telling you that you that the deadline was Wednesday, you shouldn't procrastinate, and you should've had them done today.  Why didn't you do them today?"
  "Because it wasn't necessary!  Stevi left for the day and Stephanie didn't even come in, and I wanted their help on them because as you can see there's a huge stack of them that have to be done.  If I did them myself I could've done that, spent all day doing them, but I chose to wait until Wednesday morning when I could utilize my team and get it done in an hour."
  "Well if you don't come in and take care of these tonight then we'll just see you on Wednesday and we'll talk about what we should do going forward."
  No answer, very long pause.  I didn't have anything else to say.  I still didn't understand why Cindy and Wei were yelling at me, threatening my job, asking something completely unreasonable of me, and at a co-worker's desk?  WHY was it that big of a deal? 
  "ALL of us want to be home with our families, and Wei, Lindsay and I can't go home until this is finished.  Lindsay has worked her 8 hours, and she's still here working."
  No answer.  Long pause.  Why was she comparing me to someone that wasn't even in the same department?  Lindsay and I don't even begin to do the same tasks.
  "So are you going to come in?"
  Short pause.  "I'm going to have to think about that."
  "Ok, well if you come in, great, otherwise we'll see you on Wednesday and we'll talk about how we'll want to proceed in the future.

  
  

  I walked inside the house, George was sleeping on the couch.  I told him a brief synopsis of what just happened and sobbed and told him "Well, I think this is it.  I think I'm losing my job."
  "Are you going to go in and do the refunds?"
  "I don't know!  I don't want to!"
  "You should.  You have to.  Just go in and do what they want you to do, then they don't have any beef on you."
  "Fine.  Well I guess there goes our New Year.  I'll be there until 8 at least finishing it because I won't have any help."

  
  

  So I went in.  I called Stevi, my employee, on the way there and, crying, told her the story and she reaffirmed it was bull shit.  Cindy had told Stevi, before she even told me, that refunds had to be done by Wednesday.  Stevi sympathized with me and said that she was coming in to help me finish.

  
  

  Yesterday Cindy, Wei and I had a meeting and Cindy basically was talking through the whole 30-45 minutes of it.  She started off by apologizing, saying that she and Wei knew that they were in the wrong for doing and saying what they said.  She said if it WAS necessary to have a conversation like that, it should've been in Cindy's office behind closed doors, and having it at Lindsay's desk for all coworkers to hear was completely unprofessional.  She also said that my job should not be threatened every time I turn my back, and if I really am up on the chopping block, that I should be well aware of it and the reasons why.  She said that I was not in danger of being fired.  Wei said that she wouldn't hang up on me again.  I sat there and I nodded, I said things like "Good, because you're right, it's not right" and "Good, thank you."

  
  

  Needless to say I'm looking for another job.  I'm ok staying at AAPC for a little bit until I find something really worthwhile, but this is not my ideal job, being yelled at by my superiors, and not being respected by my employees (a whole other story).

  
  

  Anyway...

  
  

  I just finished reading Harry Potter 7 this morning.  I read for about 4 hours last night, and I was dying to finish the last 3 chapters but by 1 I was having a hard time understanding what I was reading.  I have two questions:

  
  

  (if you haven't read the book and plan on doing so, don't read on:)

  
  

  
  
  1. I thought Harry was Tonk's and Lupin's son's godfather... what happened there?  In the epilogue Harry had two sons and a daughter, and they mentioned the son but you could tell Harry didn't raise him.
  
  
  2. I still don't get how Voldemort's curse in the Forbidden Forest didn't kill Harry.  I didn't understand much about what Harry and Dumbledore were talking about at King's Station.. something about how Voldemort took Harry's blood?  But Voldemort was unconscious and came-to at the same time as Harry. 

  
  

  A fantastic series and book, I want to read more.

  • 3:17 pm
  • 3 Comments