Letters to the Editor
mattielisbon
Published Letters: 80 Editor's Choice: 16
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What if you tell them and they don't care?
[Read the article: I still have a job, but I've completely stopped working!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]About two and a half years ago someone decided to place my position under a new middle manager who, despite being an engineer, prefers to do the mundane menial stuff that I found so satisfying at the time. And then an entirely new department was developed that does exactly what we do (we were "project controls" and they were "program controls" - total bullshit).
Anyway, so my cheese having been duly moved (i.e., several other people were doing parts of my job such that I had about zero left to do), I made it clear I was available! I can to X and Y and Z!! I developed this procedure and that report and I'm really good at . . .
All I got was the zombie stare. So I'd tell myself to take advantage, write that screenplay I've been working on at home, start a blog, write to Salon! But every few months I begin to lose it. I'm bored, I can't write screenplays at work because that requires I talk to myself and dance and play music and eat chocolate bits out of the bag. So I'm laughing out loud at something stupid on line or pounding away on an Israel/Palestine flame thread. I'm playing spider solitaire or sending Craig Ferguson e-mails. And hating my existence.
(Although Craig did read one of the e-mails on the air.)
So I'd suggest, cajole, intimate, whine. I can do more! I used to be important here!!
I had a review. "You do great work, we rely on you, and well, I haven't given you as much work as I could" said the boss.
But nothing changes. I bitch some more.
A meeting is held. We don't have to give you work, they said. And by the way, a "normal" person would have left by now, they said. But we love your work, we rely on you, and if you left, you'd miss us!
I haven't finished solving this, but I say if LW can stand it, find something else to do all day at that job while collecting the paycheck because hell, even if LW tells the boss, the boss might not give a crap the LW's not doing anything all day. Mine doesn't.
And I'm thinking there are an awful lot of folks around me who look very busy while producing nothing - they just don't mind doing nothing and can do nothing until they retire and get their pension.
But I can't stand it.
So I'm doing some building block stuff to pave the way out of there into something I want to do. And not having much to do gives me that much more time to plan a clean escape with a relatively soft landing.
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Two entirely different things
[Read the article: I still have a job, but I've completely stopped working!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There are two threads going on here: one about people who have work to do but shirk, and the other about people who don't have work to do to begin with.
It seems worse to me for us to know the bosses are aware of the situation and don't care. I'd almost be relieved if someone suddenly said "Hey, you over there, the one with the twiddling thumbs!!" If they wrathfully fired me at least I'd know they gave a damn.
One feeds into the other, i.e., I've WANTED work and had none for many months, and now when someone gives me something to do I sort of put it off and group it with other small assignments because it's like taking morsels of food and making a meal.
Or if they give me something particularly mind-numbing it's that much harder to actually focus on it, having been rendered useless for months at a time. And then dumb mistakes happen . . .
I often wonder how foolish it is of me to have pointed out my lack of work. It's almost like crabs in a barrel - STFU, Mattie, they say (with their eyes, I imagine), we're all a part of a tableau and you're fucking it up like a clown nose in The Last Supper.
It is rather like having your soul sucked away to feel you either have no work or if you don't do your work, no one will even notice.
We all want to feel we're making a difference. Go somewhere you can do that.
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Personally I don't care
[Read the article: "Idol" slayer?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]whether this whole this is a purposeful attempt to bring down AI or whatever. We'll all survive quite well - and with a few extra brain cells intact - if AI is brought down by this.
But folks here are attributing some sort of "self-awareness" to this guy - all I see is a dorky semi-talented kid who misunderstands Cowell's sarcastic "incredible" and "today wasn't horrible" as real praise and isn't quite bright enough to understand he really doesn't have much talent.
But he does point out the state of US right now, which is: packaging matters. He's the George W. Bush of AI: never mind that he doesn't have the talent and is oblivious to the criticism! Vote for him, the guy you'd most like to have a beer with/take to prom!
There is a market out here for dorky semi-talented kids. A huge one. So let 'em vote. The fact that "Idol" is in the title sort takes the wind out of all of this show's self-importance as an arbiter of "quality" to begin with.