bah humbug
Nov. 13th, 2007 08:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
llywelaBoss managed to piss me off royally today. Well, actually, she does that quite a lot and I let it wash over me, but today I was really cross.
We were hosting a meeting of the various managers from across the UK, plus a few other people, to do with Impact Assessment. Fair enough. But Boss always gets a real bee in her bonnet about these things. She's such a snob - always wants to play at being the most perfect hostess, which means expecting me to run around like a skivvy, because of course she has to stand on her managerial dignity to keep up appearances. Yesterday I checked with her what she wanted me to do on the day, and she asked me to make sure the meeting room was set up for tea and coffee, and she would provide all the food, water, juice, etc. herself. Fair enough.
So this morning I made sure the meeting room had everything it needed - tea, coffee, milk, sugar, cups, etc. People started arriving for the meeting. I took the first couple upstairs and put the kettle on, then went back downstairs to see how the others were coming along. The Scotland Manager asked me to help her get some last minute photocopying done for the meeting, and while we were doing that everyone else went on upstairs. We finished the photocopying and I'd just picked up the tin of biscuits to take up with us, when Boss phoned down from upstairs to ask why I wasn't up there making tea and coffee for everyone!
First, bloody cheek. Second, nowhere in my job description does it say anything about providing a waitress service. I did silver service training when I was in 6th form, and chose not to become a waitress for a very good reason. Third, I try to be welcoming and hospitable and make drinks for people when they visit the office because it is good manners, not because it is part of my job, and she was bang out of line. Fourth, everything was already laid out for them - literally all they had to do was pour hot water into the cups. Hardly rocket science. Fifth, I actually have real work to do that doesn't involve running around catering for someone else's meeting. Sixth, the UK Manager was quite happily taking drinks orders because she understands the principle of mucking in, so it was just Boss being a snob about managers lowering themselves to actually make their own tea rather than wait for me to get back upstairs. Seventh, bloody cheek.
Not a good start to the day. Then it transpired that Boss had forgotten to get any water or fruit juice to go with lunch, after I'd specially asked if she needed me to pick anything like that up on my way in. I had to make a special trip out to buy some. I wasn't able to take a proper lunch break, because I had to get all their food ready for when they broke for lunch, and it didn't occur to a single one that it might actually be a bit awkward to single-handedly get food for eight people all the way upstairs through several sets of doors. Luckily I had a volunteer in who offered to help, or it would have been about half a dozen trips. And again, waitress service really is not my job. I'm the National Administrator. I could think of at least half a dozen things I should be doing that didn't involve putting sandwiches on plates and carrying them upstairs, and I wouldn't mind so much if Boss recognised that I was doing it out of generosity and hospitality, rather than because I'm some kind of skivvy there to make her look good.
The leftover food was brought downstairs on the platters Boss herself had brought in for the occasion. I asked about the plates I'd taken up with the rest of the food. "Oh, I didn't know if they were ours or if they belonged to the meeting room," she said. She watched me carry them into the room. She knew that everything had been taken up from our office, just couldn't be bothered remembering little details like that. How ignorant and inattentive. How rude. So I had to go all the way back upstairs and unlock the room again to retrieve and wash up all the crockery. The best bit? The managers had had a go at washing the dishes themselves, but had forgotten that when you stack dirty plates they get dirty on the bottom as well as on the top, so if you only wash one surface and then stack them again, guess what - they end up just as dirty as if you'd never bothered. Honestly.
I had real work I could have been doing. Did I get any of it done? No, I did not.
And the worst part? All the development managers are there again tomorrow for their quarterly get-together. What joy.
And yeah, I know this is all pretty trivial stuff in the grand scheme of things, but I've been seething all day and needed to let off a bit of steam. Will be all sweetness and light once more on Thursday when they've all gone away again, honest.
We were hosting a meeting of the various managers from across the UK, plus a few other people, to do with Impact Assessment. Fair enough. But Boss always gets a real bee in her bonnet about these things. She's such a snob - always wants to play at being the most perfect hostess, which means expecting me to run around like a skivvy, because of course she has to stand on her managerial dignity to keep up appearances. Yesterday I checked with her what she wanted me to do on the day, and she asked me to make sure the meeting room was set up for tea and coffee, and she would provide all the food, water, juice, etc. herself. Fair enough.
So this morning I made sure the meeting room had everything it needed - tea, coffee, milk, sugar, cups, etc. People started arriving for the meeting. I took the first couple upstairs and put the kettle on, then went back downstairs to see how the others were coming along. The Scotland Manager asked me to help her get some last minute photocopying done for the meeting, and while we were doing that everyone else went on upstairs. We finished the photocopying and I'd just picked up the tin of biscuits to take up with us, when Boss phoned down from upstairs to ask why I wasn't up there making tea and coffee for everyone!
First, bloody cheek. Second, nowhere in my job description does it say anything about providing a waitress service. I did silver service training when I was in 6th form, and chose not to become a waitress for a very good reason. Third, I try to be welcoming and hospitable and make drinks for people when they visit the office because it is good manners, not because it is part of my job, and she was bang out of line. Fourth, everything was already laid out for them - literally all they had to do was pour hot water into the cups. Hardly rocket science. Fifth, I actually have real work to do that doesn't involve running around catering for someone else's meeting. Sixth, the UK Manager was quite happily taking drinks orders because she understands the principle of mucking in, so it was just Boss being a snob about managers lowering themselves to actually make their own tea rather than wait for me to get back upstairs. Seventh, bloody cheek.
Not a good start to the day. Then it transpired that Boss had forgotten to get any water or fruit juice to go with lunch, after I'd specially asked if she needed me to pick anything like that up on my way in. I had to make a special trip out to buy some. I wasn't able to take a proper lunch break, because I had to get all their food ready for when they broke for lunch, and it didn't occur to a single one that it might actually be a bit awkward to single-handedly get food for eight people all the way upstairs through several sets of doors. Luckily I had a volunteer in who offered to help, or it would have been about half a dozen trips. And again, waitress service really is not my job. I'm the National Administrator. I could think of at least half a dozen things I should be doing that didn't involve putting sandwiches on plates and carrying them upstairs, and I wouldn't mind so much if Boss recognised that I was doing it out of generosity and hospitality, rather than because I'm some kind of skivvy there to make her look good.
The leftover food was brought downstairs on the platters Boss herself had brought in for the occasion. I asked about the plates I'd taken up with the rest of the food. "Oh, I didn't know if they were ours or if they belonged to the meeting room," she said. She watched me carry them into the room. She knew that everything had been taken up from our office, just couldn't be bothered remembering little details like that. How ignorant and inattentive. How rude. So I had to go all the way back upstairs and unlock the room again to retrieve and wash up all the crockery. The best bit? The managers had had a go at washing the dishes themselves, but had forgotten that when you stack dirty plates they get dirty on the bottom as well as on the top, so if you only wash one surface and then stack them again, guess what - they end up just as dirty as if you'd never bothered. Honestly.
I had real work I could have been doing. Did I get any of it done? No, I did not.
And the worst part? All the development managers are there again tomorrow for their quarterly get-together. What joy.
And yeah, I know this is all pretty trivial stuff in the grand scheme of things, but I've been seething all day and needed to let off a bit of steam. Will be all sweetness and light once more on Thursday when they've all gone away again, honest.
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no subject
Date: 2007-11-13 10:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-14 07:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-13 10:16 pm (UTC)Hugs anyway, and I hope somebody expresses some appreciation to you somewhere along the way!
no subject
Date: 2007-11-14 07:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-13 10:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-14 08:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-13 10:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-14 07:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-14 06:06 am (UTC)And what's with these 'managers' who don't know how to wash dishes??? I really don't know what the World is coming to.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-14 07:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-14 12:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-14 08:00 pm (UTC)