h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

... why do I work in a bloomin' madhouse? (mantra: Kids Got To Eat)

I basically walked out of the office today... (pity it was about 10 minutes after I should have left anyway)

and I'm seriously thinking about not walking back in tomorrow morning...

For the 2nd day in a row the Logistics (Senior) Manager (hahaahahaha) shouted at me in the middle of the office for no reason other than:

a) he's an idiot who knows nothing (but he's from the same country as our Employer so he can be a senior manager)

b) he can't behave normally

c) (there always has to be a c) well... he's a Merchant Banker, basically

It's related to something that, at the request of our HQ and the customer I support (remember, I'm an assistant* not a manager) I had to do. Which was: move 4thousand pieces of our product from France to Mexico via our office in the USA (San Jose).

The shipping costs should be covered by the customer - but they took sooooo long to get back to me about it, it was a rather fraught (not to mention late) shipment. The conditions are FOB (free on board - which everyone in the universe who has anything to do with incoterms knows means that we bring it to the port/airport and then the customer takes the shipping costs from there). Frankly it should have been done by our USA office, but since I'm here it makes sense.

Only once I passed it over to the guy in the states (guess what, he's Korean) he kept passing stuff back to me ("oh you need to talk to Ms X in Juarez".... yah, right) etc etc

anyway, I've been asking the HQ guys and the USA guys for weeks to give us the contact address so that the french guys can send them an invoice. And yesterday we got our portion of the invoice. Which the logistics assistant gave to me so I could get 500 people to sign a cost approval form...

no probs. I signed it, my manager (Sales Director - he coordinates everything but I do his actual job, ie look after the Customer) and I took it to the controller to sign... who then asked me if the logistics team had got more than one price quote (as any normal company would do) and promptly went off to ask the Senior Logistics Manager... who promptly came to me and started shouting how it was all my mistake and ripped up the approval, and the invoice.

I was quite proud of me. Instead of shouting back I said we'd discuss it with the HQ guys tomorrow... but then he did the shouty thing.

so I waited till he finished, told my manager to sort it and that I'd think about coming in tomorrow.

This is the day after the SAME guy did almost the same thing, although yesterday he actually screamed that I'd made a mistake... while I was on holiday (his words). (again, I fought down my instinct to shout back and told him to be calm)

grrrrr...

I'm so mad, so depressed and totally relieved that my entire team stood up with me and told him to back away.

I don't know what to do. I've applied for loads of jobs, but all my applications have come back. The one interview (well, got shortlisted) I had, I didn't get. And I can't give up work because I'm supporting us all.

Oh poop. And now I'm crying again like some baby. What a life.

*actually, I'm called a specialist now, in a blanket move to "motivate" everyone who had been there 2 years or more...

It's so humiliating and unnecessary when things at work get you down so much that you end up in tears.

It's not worth it. At least that's what I tell myself.

Look - you sell computer hardware, right? I sell furniture. But if you take a step back and look at the whole thing, you must admit to yourself that the world doesn't NEED these things. If transport or customs formalities take a bit longer, or if something goes wrong, there's a penguin at the South pole, a dosser under a bridge and a baseball player in Atlanta who couldn't care less about it. So why should you/I get het up about it?

Being insulted and badly treated is a different matter all together, of course. And people who insult you and shout at you for some superficial reason (see above) aren't worth getting into a state about and have obviously got their priorities wrong.

Even if they could get you chucked out of your job.

Right - I've just got to convince myself of all that, now I've convinced you, and things'll be fine!

PS - I've had a mix-up over the payment of duties and transport, too, although FOB was all over the paperwork right from the beginning. This was with an Indian customer. He was fairly laid back about it and we remained good friends, though.

My customer is fine with it - there was a major mess-up on their planning side, and therefore they agreed to cover the costs.

I understand why he lost his cool (even though he shouldn't do it) because his team are under massive massive pressure to cut costs by around 30% this year. (I'm part of the team who are working on a solution to this - apparently it will "enhance my carreer management" )

However, I have repeatedly and in various ways, suggested that as well as trying to make us take on extra training to "become specialists at our jobs" that the managers should learn how to manage and not just either pass the buck, ignore issues or get us to do it.

Currently motivation is at an all time low: one person left last week and one handed in her notice this week. If only I could find anything close to home, even for less money, I'd go like a shot.

This guy, btw, is famous for doing this - he actually shoved one of our guys (also an assistant) who made a formal complaint and got a formal (but not public, as the shove was) apology.

He has no qualification or background in Logistics at all (he started but didn't finish studying "germanistik") and relies on his team to do all the work - his assistant manager (guess what? he's a bloke) will be the next to jump ship, I think.

I'm 43. I am very good at what I do, and frankly speaking if I were to walk tomorrow (or let my doc finally write me off for the 2 weeks sick-leave for stress that he wants to) they would be in big trouble.

The worst of it is, unimportant as it is, I actually like most of the actual job that I do - when I'm allowed to do it. But I have to accept huge responsibility because my manager is moving on to another business area and has basically switched off. The young lady (!) who was to take over what he did (ha) has handed in her notice. Now our most important customer has no manager to handle their account, and just me to help them.

I'm ignored by our HQ (they almost never answer my questions) and not taken seriously by my bosses. If I changed skin colour and grew a willy It would be a different story.

And they wonder why we're having problems recruiting the 3 managers we apparently need (to restore the imbalance: currently in my team we have 7 managers and 5 assistants - obviously we need more managers...)

sorry, it's something that I need to get out...

And yet for me, as a white, Anglo male, I am the invisible one in most circles. Odd how things can be so different.

I would actually encourage you to take your doctor's advice of a 2-week respite atleast. For your own health, sanity and balance ... such as any of them may be. But also to leave them somewhat in a "sink-or-swim" situation. Of course, only you can judge what might be good or seriously detrimental to your own position.

I really wish that I could offer something more substantial than good thoughts and wishes ...

Sho... check out this website http://www.bullyonline.org/workbully/index.htm

I've been experiencing similar issues at work and found it to be useful - if only to realise that I'm not alone, that bullies are like that for reasons that lift my self-esteem and it also gives some really good tips about how to change your body language and spoken language to disempower the bully.

Good luck
Fb

Sho, as you know, I work in retail, for a very big and popular firm.

If it helps, the customers can be as as they like where I work and I can always placate them, but the staff are my problem, especially the new ones. Management work on the old 'Time and motion' Studies, but only on selected people... Remember the film 'I'm alright Jack' with Peter Sellars as Jack Kite as the shop steward and Ian CarMichael as the novice?

Well, that is modern day commerce for you.

I am not a socialist, by any means, being a conservative with a small c, but I am starting to get a leaning to the left... But then so are the Conservatives of the UK!

Wish I could advise you, but it is a frying pan and fire senario.



MMF

Sho, I sympathise. I had to put up with something similar in addition to a series of racist diatribes until I finally lost it and erupted.

Best thing to do - smile. Widely as possible. The more he dumps on you, the bigger your smile. He'll find it disconcerting. Don't argue, don't snap back - that's what he wants. Just smile. Don't see him as a person, see him as the cash machine that puts money in your pocket.

In the meantime, look for another job. Life's too short. And start writing drafts of your resignation letter. That's quite good for letting off steam. Use it to tell your real bosses what an idiot this guy is.

thanks, all.
FB - I'm sending that link to myself at work and will leave it open whenever I leave my desk.

SWL - the problem is I am looking for work but I'm afraid my age is against me. But i'm still looking as you never know. I know I'm really good at what I do and for some reason I have a lot of company loyalty.

And, I nearly forgot that I am the only employee who is a member of a union. I might give them a call too.

Resignation letters? oh that is just about my favourite hobby! I did a few last night and it made me feel much much better.

so
anyone?

Yes!!! Brilliant, Sho I did various things to ensure that my bully knows that I'm countering his bull and there has been a definite change in his attitude. By that I mean he's now running scared of me a lot of the time Good luck and keep us posted.
Fb

Ooooh, just replay that fantasy again, the one where you hand in your resignation letter and they look all shocked and beg you to stay but you tell them to get stuffed and float serenely out of the door. One of my favourites, that.

Keep up the jobhunting, something will turn up soon I am sure

Oh Sho how awful. Nobody should have to tolerate that. If your doctor wants to sign you off for 2 weeks, go for it. Never ignore that sort of medical advice

I was in a similar situation many years ago and I now can't believe how much loyalty I had to a company that was exploiting my talents and making my life a misery. It was simply because at that time I was unable to find another job (which reduced my self-esteem further) and actually I quite liked the *work* ... it was the bosses that were the problem.

And the bosses had no company loyalty whatsoever. They all jumped ship when they had a good buy-out offer for the company. Company subsequently downsized to just 4 employees (from 40) and then relocated to Aberdeen.

So I have every sympathy. I also have a magic wand, as it happens, but I've never been able to get the wretched thing to work properly.

Mol

thanks all

so he wrote me a grovelling apology - which I subsequently showed to everyone who had been around when he shouted (as really, to be honest, no matter how much it hurts an apology should be as public as the original "offence" in my mind. Although there are circs when that would inflame things)

anyhoo...

my direct boss told me there had Been Words and that it won't happen again. We'll see. he probably won't shout at me, but his team suffer terribly from it.

And the reason/excuse is that he is extremely stressed because we have an audit coming up which will deeply examine his department etc etc...

anyway, I'm still looking for jobs and had a relatively relaxing day at work on Friday ignoring anything that was trying to stress me out.

Although I can see that I do have a terrible stress problem at the moment - my PC isn't working properly and I just wanted to throw things around and cry a lot.

Indeed, an apology SHOULD be as public or private as the original offence. That's just simply good management and people skills. Stress is never a valid excuse though (in my books) for personal abuse.

I continue to offer good vibes and hopes in the job-hunt department, Lady Sho. And you are welcome to borrow my axe and an old tree stump ... They combine to be a good form of stress and frustration release for me.

thoughts are whirring their way across the world to you, Sho

it's been good for my running
I did 5km yesterday lunchtime and will do a nice long run tomorrow morning too.

I've made yet another request that our managers attend some sort of management training - or that they think of another title for when they get promoted. "Manager" is an activity as much as a title but they haven't grasped that.

If I borrow your axe and tree-stump, will I be obliged to sing The Lumberjack Song?

Well yes, the the singing and the plaid shirt are just as important as the chorus of Mounties on the sidelines. The whole experience just wouldn't be complete otherwise.

Sho's a lumberjack and she's ok
But she worries at night
and she's stressed all day.........

Sorry, Sho - couldn't resist.

My sympathies and s.
Nil carborundem illegitimi - or whatever the cod Latin is.

You know, there are occassions when I begin to doubt my own sanity and stability. And then I come to hootoo and see posts like that one ...

I feel MUCH better now.

did someone mention Mounties?

@ Teuchter's post

My dad had a favourite tartan shirt that used to get me singing the Lumberjack Song everytime he wore it, he used to get really annoyed, I think my mum's still got it somewhere