I Can't Fucking Believe What They're Doing At Work, The Sequel

This really isn't an addendum, more like deja vu all over again.  Out of the frying pan and into the fire, so to speak.

So everything is hunky dory with the new scoring place.  Well, the commute sucks and it's not the coziest of rooms people-wise, but at least I didn't have to put up with someone being elevated to my boss right in the middle of a project.  But on Monday, a whole new raft of people came in to start scoring.  That's not too bad; I heard that up to 11 people no-showed at the start, and they can only train on papers starting on Monday.  No big whoop.

But they added another immediate supervisor, too.  Huh?  I didn't think they would add one, especially since they (at least theoretically) staffed up that position to handle a certain number of grunts like us.  Since fewer grunts like us showed up, you wouldn't need another supervisor.  In fact, you could (at least theoretically) cut one because you have fewer people to supervise.  But here he is.

This is totally unnerving, but I thought I could at least just deal with this situation not being totally similar to the old test scoring place because I didn't think I would have to deal with this new person.  Except that yesterday (Wednesday), I got switched around when the entire room was broken off into other mini-projects, and he became my go-to.  So whenever I had a question or I had to wait for further instructions, it would be this new person -- someone who started off on this project after me -- who will tell me.

How is that different than the situation at the old scoring place, the one where I was so infuriated by the move that I quit?  Since Monday I'm trying to figure that shit out, to no avail.  In the meantime I am still trudging to work every day, fearing that I am nothing more or less than a hypocrite.

So I will try and figure out how this situation is the same and different from the old one.  This might be a little internal, but alas I need to stretch this out via bullet points:

• Like I said, he started on this project after me.

I really don't know where he came from.  However, I saw him around the building the previous week.  I assume that the room made her higher-ups aware that they had 11 fewer people to score on this project.  If so, possibly he was in the building because he was hired to supervise the new people they were scrambling to get starting on Monday.  I would have no problem with that if that is true.  Also, I may have overheard from some of the other supervisors that they needed to come in over the weekend.  If that is the case, did they come in to help train the new person?  That is also OK with me, because like a scenario where he was getting up to speed last week, both cases showed that this company at least knew to bring a new person in and trained him up away from the project.  These three sudden supervisors at my old job basically are doing their new jobs on the fly, and I couldn't take that half-ass stunt.

• He did not start alongside me on this material.

This new supervisor is not a grunt.  We were not in the same boat.  Again, he apparently trained away from us, preferably before Monday.  This forces me to change my perception on why seeing this babe supervisor in my old test scoring place bothered me so.  It looks as if he got onto this project after I did, which would mean that I should know more about this than he does.  But really, it doesn't.  I asked him questions yesterday and I took his answers to heart.  So maybe I got so mad at the old place because I saw with my own eyes someone who was once my equal raised up not to be my equal anymore.  The promotion was too in-my-face for me to deal with.

• I know the person.

He actually was my immediate supervisor last year.  And you know what?  I think he may be the best immediate supervisor I've had in this industry.  He is direct, he explains things, he will listen, he is flexible, and he occasionally is funny.  You need someone engaging and communicative, and he's got that in spades, last year and now.  Also, I know that he has done supervising for many projects for a long time, and that too gives me pause as to my reasons for walking away from the old test scoring place.  I keep telling myself that tenure isn't the issue, namely that I couldn't stay because someone who was at the job for a shorter amount of time got a position I had never gotten in all my years there.  Yet, I am totally going to see as legitimate someone who I have seen in a position of authority before and who has been in that job before.  And yet my argument was that it doesn't matter how long you have scored or even how much experience you have supervising -- if you did not start on this project at a certain position, you can't jump into that position now.  That should still hold true.  Therefore, I should still have a big fucking problem with this.

• This might be temporary.

The project for which I was one of his grunts is continuing on this year, just without me.  I had heard on Monday that this project is going to begin next week.  Presumably, then, he will be gone next week -- and, if I'm not mistaken, so will these new reinforcements; they actually all were assigned to this same project, many of whom I remember from last year.  If this is temporary and they'll be ghosts by Friday ... well, maybe I can put up with it.  Still doesn't make it right.

• One final consideration: I can't walk away from a second job.

It took me 80 minutes to get home Wednesday.  We are still clocking in only eight-hour days where I know the old scoring place still wants people to work nine, plus the weekend.  And unlike the old test scoring place, where you can put down your own time and they allow you to round to the nearest quarter-hour, at the new test scoring place you use a badge to swipe in.  That tells you exactly what time you came in.  I'm late a lot, and from time to time we are dismissed early.  That means that I lose a couple minutes in the beginning of the day and a couple at the end, so I will be nickel-and-dimed to the point where my paycheck here will be a fraction of what it would have been over there.

Saw my direct deposit receipt Tuesday; made $1,300 my last two weeks over there.  That was a lot of overtime.  And I have basically used all of it already; a grand to pay off part of my credit card, the rest for taxes (and I'll still have to pay a bit on top of that).  I won't come close to that amount at the new place.  Someone keeps telling me we will have OT.  I'll believe it when I see it.

And yet, I can't walk away.  I walked away from one job, and I doubt they'll let me back.  And I called my temp agencies; they're ain't shit they have for me.  So I am stuck, goddammit.  Even if things get progressively more inhospitable for me, I have no choice but to swallow down my fucking principles and take advice from a guy who, if he does in fact stick around, presumably knows less about this material than I do.

I have asked someone for an explanation for all the shit that is happening this week.  If I really, really don't like it, maybe I will quit the new scoring place and try to go back to the old one.  Hey, my immediate supervisor there shouldn't have the job and maybe doesn't want the job, but at least she's got a great ass and a nice rack.  All the while I'm angry that she gets the responsibility of printing out papers at least I'll get to see her shake her ass.

Maybe I should have stayed.