DEPARTMENTS

I have many stories about this particular Chairman of a company I used to work for, but this is my favorite.

The Chairman hired two assistants to run his office. The woman was "Kate" and the young man was "Alan," but the Chairman called him "Seven". For days Alan endured the Chairman calling them into the office by yelling down the hall, "Sue! Seven!"

Finally, Alan asked, "Why do you call me Seven?" The Chairman replied that he was the seventh assistant hired that month.

Aha. Alan got it, but kindly asked, "Why don't you just call me by my name?"

The Chairman said, "Because you're not going to be f*!%ing around long enough for me to learn your f*!%ing name!" He then pushed passed Alan, shouting, "Kate! Get rid of Seven and get me Eight!"
LINK

I am a woman. I worked on Wall Street where the C.E.O. (a man) convened a meeting to explore "Women's Issues on Wall Street." Successful women from the firm were invited along to share their opinions.

One woman, "Diane," said she thought mothers shouldn't take maternity leave, and that women just had to work harder and longer than men to get ahead.

The C.E.O. appointed Diane as "Head of Women's Issues." Diane's boss was forced out and she became co-Head of our department, meaning that I reported to her. At 35, I had been trying to get pregnant for years, and, as everyone in the group knew, was using fertility drugs. Happily, I became pregnant with triplets.

I was a very good producer for the department, but Diane was not happy about my news. She suggested, "as a friend," that I abort one or two of my children so I could "better manage my career."

After giving birth to three beautiful children, and taking my full maternity leave; I found a new job on Wall Street. With three babies, I did not want to fight that fight. Diane continues to move ever-higher on Wall Street. LINK

Working on the helpdesk in a four-man IT department, I discovered how abused entry-level workers are. On Saturdays I had to work until 11 p.m., spend an hour commuting home, sleep for 3 hours, then return to work for 6 a.m.

I decided that on those days it was more efficient to sleep in my car at a local truck stop. However, this meant I was constantly tired, and I finally snapped and was kicked out of my parents' house. With nowhere to live, broke, and earning $9 an hour, I sold my car and began squatting at a nearby warehouse.

Finally I was pulled into a meeting with two managers who informed me of their disatisfaction with my appearance and smell. I explained my sad story to them. They listened to this and decided that I was unable to meet the requirements for the position, so they fired me. LINK

I work for a large locomotive air brake manufacturing company. The department, or rather sub-department, I work in is recieving. It is myself and my compatriots job to remove large crates from the backs of trucks (using a forklift) and then place the items contained therein (typically large chunks of metal weighing from 50-200 pounds) in the appropiate areas, by hand.

I hate my job.

However, for the most part it was bearable and I had a good arrangment with managment. That is until corporate ordered us (and all other repair shops) to institute a "Quality Assurance" program. The little weasel that they hired, was tasked with "assuring quality and safety." Let me explain something to you, my department is located very close to the repair department for pracitcal convenience. No one wants to carry huge brake valves any amount of distance at all. Naturally it is very loud here, taking rusted metal studs and stripped screws out is noisy. My job is dirty and standard safety gloves are required to protect hands but almost always tear and larger gloves inhibit lifting. None of us ever handled tools and thus none of us ever wore safety goggles. This was not a problem prior to the advent of "Quality" Assurance.

Within a week of assuming his lofty position the weasel had stated that we were the most "unsafe" department in the company. As a result I am now required to wear huge leather gloves to protect my delicate skin from scratching on any sharp edges, tiny "one-size-fits-no-one" safety goggles to protect my eyes, and ear plugs that prohibit any and all communication with anyone.

Faced with my new inability to grasp anything (try wearing a large pair of stiff leather gloves and lifting weights), see anything (I wear glasses that do not fit under the goggles and side-shields were deemed "unsafe"), or communicate with my underlings we soldiered on as best we could.

A week later we were criticized for our "falling effeciency level." LINK

You don't always have to get paid to be abused! I signed up to volunteer as a group facilitator for teens in abusive relatioships. It was supposed to start at the beginning of autumn 2005.

As soon as I met the resident overlord I suspected incompetence and a very bad character, but I believed in this cause so I stayed on.

Indeed there was incomptence. It's now Feb.2006 with no start date in sight.

We were trained in December by a person from the CDC. We were put in groups of three to work on problems that might come up during a group we were leading. I was put in with the resident overlord and another social worker. The topic? What to do if you and a co-facilitator disagree during a group session.

As I'm not a social worker, nor am I officially a staff person I waited for the others to lay out their ideas first. Dead silence. I waited a little while longer, still no response. I considered a call for life support but decided to initiate the conversation instead. Big mistake.

I asked the other team members what they would do. I took notes on their answers and reconfirmed that my notes were what they wanted me to present to the whole group. My overlord was seething because I had taken the lead in the group.

After I finished laying out what each person had said the overlord stood up over me and pointed vigorously at my head. She practically screamed that everything I had just said was wrong. She then went on to explain the "correct" version,. whereupon she literally repeted what I had said almost word for word.

There was a stunned silence and some uncomfortable laughter. I was impressed! She'd really showed us what not to do when a disagreement arises.

After that I was just too busy to help out any more. Too bad, because I believe in this cause but I don't believe in volunteering to work with a bully! LINK