Sunday, January 6, 2019

Hmmm; This Annoys Me About My Supervisor. It's A Fine Point, But A Salient One, At Least For Me

OK, this situation arose out of a perfect storm of circumstances, and they are so jumbled that I will not describe it with any sense of justice nor clarity.  But I'll write anyway.

So I was at my old department yesterday/Saturday.  Work was slow all week, but it somehow seemed to pick up after lunch, so I was inundated with going through the files.

The rotation of the seats was such that I was at the right-most.  That is right next to the window through which these files are passed into my department.  It is also closest to the scanner.  You see, when this folder is passed through the window, it is quickly riffled through for red ink and tears that might affect the applications as they go through the scanner.  Once they're prepared, it gets sent through the scanner.  Once they're scanned, they're logged in and placed in a hanging rack where we sit.  It's important that the files be scanned so we can enter the data on each application in our software system.  And it's important that we eventually get the physical folders after all the information is entered so, if need be, we could look at the actual form for discrepancies and any pieces of information that are not totally clear on the image of the application.  Got that?

In short, it's important that these files get worked through the scanning process.  Without it, the people working down the line don't have any work.  And for now, and usually on Saturdays, there is only one person dedicated to scanning.  One has been OK for this past week.  Hell, the work was so slow half a person was more than enough.  But especially on Tuesdays, when work is at its most, we need two.  Still with me?

I am still not sure how to do this part of my job.  What to enter and what not to enter -- shit like that I think I have finally gotten down (or at least I have just let it pass, one of the two), but there are still huge swaths of things I have either not done or had done so long ago that it might as well be new to me.  One of the latter is scanning.  One of the former is reading the flow of work and knowing when to key and when to help prepare and scan these folders that are coming in.  Know what I mean?

Oh, and my supervisor had a half-day but was bitching about wanting the full day because I think his kids have a basketball tournament.

Oh, and I usually have my headphones on because I'm bored as shit at this department.  And the Wild game was on.  And I hate this department.

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OK, so I set the parameters.  But I need to add this: I have been warned in the past not to bury myself in my headphones because, from time to time, someone will call for me, out of the blue, for something.  You damn right I have ignored those warnings, and I'll keep ignoring them.  Why?  See above.

My supervisor has this super-annoying knack to, whenever he needs something, he will just call it out, into the ether, while not looking at my direction.  That is apparently what happened early yesterday afternoon, but since I was buried in my work, I only half-heard him, you know?  I had enough of a spidey sense to rip off one of my headphones just in case he was talking to me.  And he was talking to me.  Oh my goodness, he was: "I told you to start prepping."

Oh, did you now?

OK, one thing that I just popped into my head: I don't remember if he used the word "told" or "asked."  As I am ginning up my memories about this incident, my feelings of embarrassment and anger are also welling up inside me, and in my triggered state, there is one hell of a difference between "asked" and "told," and I hope you can just tell the difference without me needing to spell it out for you.

But my original bone to pick with what he said to me is the first part: "I told you ..."  I understand the need for the work to continue to flow.  I still can't tell when to drop everything I'm doing and go to the preparation station, but that's because I was, you know, actually doing work.  My supervisor and I are probably on the same page on that.  It's what we're there for.  Moreover, I'm guessing that he didn't want to be there.  I've snapped at people while at work before, so I understand that sometimes people will snap at me.  (Hell, it's already happened.)  I'm not leaving this job immediately over this, but I'll just keep track of how many of these angry retorts he says to me over the years, and maybe it'll accumulate to a point where I'll say to hell with this job.

Anyway, I take a large amount of goddamn umbrage with the phrase "I told you."  When one says that, one is telling you that he thinks you need to know he is repeating an order to you.  In fact, you are saying to me that you feeling as though you need to repeat an order to me is as important, if not more important, than the order itself.

Well, shit, I got some fucking news for him -- I don't give a good goddamn that he had to repeat himself.  His petty annoyances of me listening to the radio because I don't want to hear the chitchat he and my other co-workers are saying during the workday don't mean shit compared to what needs to get done.  He can just say, "Start prepping."  He should just say, "Start prepping."  Ideally, he should look me in the eye when he says, "Start prepping," even though that sure as shit ain't gonna happen.  But I don't care if he or any other of my authority figures have warned me before about shutting the environment from my ears because I don't want to hear.  He'll probably have to fuckin' repeat himself a hundred times the next time he wants me to do something.  I don't care how he fucking feels when he repeats himself.  Tell me what needs to get done, and leave your fucking feelings out of it.

And of course I'll be warned about not paying attention to the work environment, and I'll say sorry, I try and be better at it.  Fuck all this. ...

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