I didn't mean to cause any trouble last week. But I could only get in touch with my friend was through her Facebook page. I only wanted to post my condolences and comfort her after she had been fired that day by our employer.
If she hadn't taken so much time to care for her daughter who is dying of lupus, my friend would still have her job. She did put in extra unpaid overtime hours whenever she could. But it didn't matter. In fact, with our company being run as it is, do such efforts really matter?
I asked this because, earlier that day, I had been called into an ominous meeting. Apparently, our customers don't want what we have to offer. It's up to us engineers to rush development of more products - similar to what the customers aren't buying now. The top VP told we weren't putting in enough 12 and 14 hour days. And if we didn't start giving the company more unpaid hours, there would be "some serious bloodletting come January".
So that night, I commiserated with my unemployed friend on Facebook. I told her that a lot of us would probably be joining her in the unemployment lines soon.
A few days later, our HR person discovered my posting. Outraged by my legitimate remark, she sent a screenshot of it to the company president. The next day, one of the VPs paid me a visit. He spoke of an upset company president who would probably be calling me into his office in a matter of days.
I expressed my sincerest regret for publishing what I thought was an sympathizing observation; I immediately offered to delete the offending comment. That action seems to have helped since I haven't been called to the principle's office yet.
So this week, as I hear more reports that the company is actually making money – just not enough money to satisfy the bankers and investors - I repeatedly bang my head on the concrete floor of my work space until the urge to laugh hysterically passes. Of course, I put on my OSHA-approved head gear because our health insurance won't pay for self-inflicted brain damage any other way.
Maybe if my brains suffer enough traumatic stress, I won't care about the good people that I work with. Maybe I'm just a few blows-to-the-head away from becoming upper management material. Nah. I'm still stuck with the annoying condition called a moral conscious. And I don't think employees are a necessary evil when running a business.
1 comment:
I used to manage an employment office and was privy to a lot of horrible stories about unfair employment practices and ungrateful SOBs that call themselves bosses.
How is it that someone was spying on the fired person's FB acct? She (or was it a he) is an ex-employee so their FB acct. should be off limits. Actually, yours should be as well as you do have your 1st Amendment Rights intact.
Sounds like a crap place to work.
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