Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Work Related Angst

In the not so recent past I was re-orged at work.  Meaning I was put into a new group and given a new boss.  And my new boss was given a new boss.  I like my new boss.  His boss is a pain in the butt.  We’ll call my boss “Mr. Nice Guy” and his boss “Mr. Pissy Pants”.  Honestly, it fits.  He is Mr. Pissy Pants.
So, Mr. Pissy Pants has not been a good team player.  He refuses to work with our former team and has created a barrier between people that formerly worked very well together.  In a matter of weeks squabbles about cubes and who “owns” what broke out.  We’ve been attempting to recover ever since. 
Mr. Pissy Pants (that’s just so fun to type) has also been trying to buy our love.  We now celebrate birthdays with extravagant birthday cakes.  Attendance is mandatory – unless you have a really good reason why you didn’t show up.  Mr. Pissy Pants takes mental attendance and if you aren’t there, he notes it. 
Mr. Pissy Pants asked my boss, Mr. Nice Guy, if we would figure out what to do for the summer event.  Mr. Nice Guy asked me to set up an internal survey to find out what people were interested in doing.  So I did.  After the results came back I let them both know what the group would like to do. 
As a side, Mr. Pissy Pants’ other group is as painful as he is.  I got several messages asking why I didn’t include things like indoor rock climbing and jet skis in my options.  When I replied that we have varying ages and physical abilities and we need to include everyone the answer was, “Well if people don’t want to participate they can watch.” Yeah, real inclusive.
Mr. Pissy Pants then requested estimates.  After finding out the cost of the first choice, I got estimates for the second choice. I figure we have a budget (and I kind of know that is) and the first choice of the group would go over that budget pretty quickly.  So I sent off the estimates to see what he would say.  He chooses the most expensive option I gave him.
Mr. Pissy Pants said I should plan the event, so I started working on it.  It immediately started falling apart.  The place we were planning on going to has closed.  Now Mr. Pissy Pants wants me to look into chartering a bus to take people to the event.  I am not kidding.  Who charters buses anymore?  How is that cost effective?  Shouldn’t we go with choice number 2, which is cheaper and timely? 
I know that I am irritated with Mr. Pissy Pants because he’s such an arrogant bastard and even though he is shorter than me he still manages to look down his nose at me.  I am also irritated because he treats all of us like his minions and cannot seem to allow us any dignity in any area.  He assumes we’re all stupid idiots that can’t accomplish crap. 
I’m trying to figure out who I can pass this particular assignment off to.  I’m doing it for three reasons.  1.  I want to work on my work.  2. I don’t want to work with Mr. Pissy Pants.  3. I don’t want to be able to say I know how much this little excursion cost.  I don’t think it’s cool to overspend in an attempt to please your employees.  Being a good manager on a regular basis and treating people with respect goes a lot further than a day of fun.