Plan B Forum

There’s not many places I can have a massive rant like this.

I am sick to death of working for a company that knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

if you has asked me two years ago about my feelings for the company I work for I would have told you I never wanted to leave... it was the best Job in the world, working with a bunch of great people who all had the same goals in mind.

Fast Forward through a credit crunch and recession...

We have had my team halved, my engineering resource is TWO operating systems behind on training and the company won’t fund more but I am still expected to sell their services for up to £1000 per day, despite the fact that pretty much ALL the jobs they have been on this year have been cocked up beyond belief, because they don’t have the latest skills.

My bosses don’t understand what we do, the commercial department don’t understand what we do, the company fails to understand why Apple won’t give us rebates for Accreditation when ALL other vendors do (well lets see, we make much higher margin on Apple as much as six times as we do on other equipment so would you rather have that or the teensy rebate model that HP give us ... oh no wait you've answered that haven’t you).

They’re trying to sell themselves as a solutions provider, but won’t invest in the solutions team ... oh no wait we had an interim “head of solutions” for 10 months who was billing the company £800 quid a day for his services, we now have a new head of solutions who’s just spent £3000 on a new computer for himself and he’s bringing in three more people from his old company... we can spend money on this but not £4000 on getting me and my engineers the training and accreditation we need.

So here I am the day before we break for christmas looking for jobs at other companies... this is a bloody tough call for me as I’ve been here for 8 years, I have been 100% loyal to this firm, but right now they can stick it up their collective arses.

Welcome to the club; management can change overnight in any company, and acquisitions occur every day. I understand loyalty, but to me that has morphed into providing a high level of service to the company as part of my work; I see no reason to dedicate my life to anything so temporary. If something better comes along, trust your gut and go--loyalty is a two way street, and loyalty to one's employees went out the window years ago.

Feeling powerless, eh?

I suspect there must be some mechanism in place for an employee to articulate a perceived need for additional training or accreditation. In my performance reviews there is a "blank" for "Personal Development" kind of things, and I have entered seminars and such that I thought would be beneficial.

It is always frustrating when you see your employer spending gobs of money on outside expertise when you know that the expertise exists in house.

It never hurts to see what might be available elsewhere.

I can empathise Daisy.

I've seen my team go from the cutting edge of psychosis treatment in Canberra, to the cutting edge of "providing management with reams of meaningless statistics on psychosis treatment" in Canberra.

They've forgotten that the aim of the service is to make people well, they now think my role is providing evidence that they are doing their jobs.

To make it look like they are doing their jobs they fuck us about from pillar to post by inventing new systems and data colectiuon, all of which are mandatory.

Their job should be in making sure the clinicians get the best chance of treating the ill. They seem to think that our role is negligible compared to ensuring they get their vastly inflated wages.

IT doesn't help that 90% of managers are fucking useless clinicians who have been kicked into management roles before they end up killing someone.

Yep, I feel your pain. I could explain but I don't want to think about it.

who’s just spent £3000 on a new computer

What kind of computer did he buy? You can get top of the line computer with monitor, printer and all kinds of extra's for less than 1/3 that price. And free shipping.

A 17" MacBook Pro, with ALL the trimmings...

Condolences, Daisy. You are very bright, though, and I have no doubt you'll find another place if you truly want to - even in this bad economy.

I've become completely disillusioned with management/bureaucracy over the past 10 years of post-educational full-time employment. There is so much Peter Principle at work, it sickens me.

I have a pretty decent boss at present, who treats me well because she truly values my quality contribution to her team. Still, in another 3 years when I have vested in the state retirement system, cancelled some student loans through public service, and have enough resources to cover the cost of private health insurance, I will probably take the plunge and hang a shingle so I can be my own boss and have nobody to bitch about.

Except myself.

When its time to leave, leave.

Don't pretend it will ever get better, just go.

yrs,
rubato