| March 2, 2003 - Indignity at the Bumbling Bureaucracy |
| Dear Friends, it's time for another BUMBLING BUREAUCRACY (BB) story! Throughout my tenure at the BB, I was usually on-site. That means that I had a cubicle and desk there and was pretty much there 40 hours a week. Only later in my career was I moved off-site and that generated a whole new slew of BB problems. Anyway, I came to work on-site one morning, walked into my cubicle, and discovered that my desk was gone! My papers were stacked all over the floor, as well as my coffee cup, my scissors, etc. I walked around asking different people, "Where's my desk? Where's my desk?" Everyone kind of just shrugged me off until this one guy, Tex, said that a "real" employee (non-contractor) needed a desk and they had given him mine since I was lowly contractor scum. I said, "Couldn't you at least have waited until I got in so that I could pack up my stuff?" "No, we couldn't," he answered. Now comes the piece de resistance. I had all of these manuals that I was typing and editing, so I wasn't certain what to do. This was in the days before each desk had a computer, so I generally had to go to one of the word processing stations to work on stuff. But I still needed a place to store everything. So I asked the Branch Chief where I should put my stuff and he gave me the lid of a xerox paper box and said, "You can keep your papers in this on the edge of so-and-so's desk." I can't begin to tell you how dignified that was, working out of a cardboard box lid! Now for the BB telephone dilemma. Under no circumstances were contractors to answer the phone. The way it worked was that a main line would ring, the admin. assistant picked up the phone, and then forwarded the call to the employee's desk phone. However, anyone could pick up the main line from his or her desk phone, if the admin. assistant was away. I guess the reason for not allowing contractors to answer the phone was that it would give the impression that the "real" employees (or at least the admin. assistants) were never at their desks. By the way, the method a typical admin. assistant used in answering the phone was to say, "Department Useless, may I help you?" Then when she found out who was wanted, instead of dialing the person and saying, "You've got a call", she would stand up and scream the person's name really loud, like "JOHNSON! JOHNSON! YOU GOTTA CALL!". You'll have to imagine for yourselves, Dear Readers, how that continual screeching could wear on one's nerves! I guess she did it that way so that she wouldn't have to wait for the employee's phone to ring several times only to find out that he/she wasn't there. Anyway, JOHNNYLEEN didn't know that contractors weren't supposed to answer the phone and had been doing so since it continually rang off the hook. I was warned by my boss (also lowly contractor scum) that I was not to answer the phones because it was providing services not in the contract. Also, I think some admin. assistant had complained that by answering the phone I was trying to steal her job. So I agreed that I wouldn't answer the phones anymore. Well, one day the thing started ringing like there was no tomorrow. I didn't answer it because I didn't want to get in trouble. All of a sudden a couple of "real" employees popped their heads above their cubicles and yelled, "JOHNNYLEEN, get the damned phone! Isn't that what you're here for?" I explained to them that contractors weren't allowed to answer the phone and that I had got in trouble for doing so. Well, that must not have gone over very well, because my boss came to me and said that there had been a complaint that I was letting the phone ring. I pointed out to her that she had just told me a few days before that I wasn't to answer it. So she went back to the "real" employees and it was determined that if a "real" employee didn't answer the phone by the third ring, then I was to answer. You can imagine what that was like! It's not easy trying to do your work and count the number of times a phone rings; especially if it rings every two minutes! I was also expected to let everyone know if I had to go to the xerox room (or anywhere for that matter) so that the phone wouldn't be left ringing with no one to answer it! Can you believe that? Next entry Previous entry Go to diary entries Go back home |