amanda_lodden (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
amanda_lodden) wrote2009-03-13 04:02 pm
amanda_lodden) wrote2009-03-13 04:02 pm
Work update
It's probably not a surprise to much of anyone who has heard me complain lately that I do not have a lot of job satisfaction.
It's an inherent danger to being the spouse of the owner-- you end up being the one who handles all the crap jobs that no one else wants to do, and those jobs grow in size and scope until you no longer have the time and energy to do anything but try to keep your head above water. You can't fix the systemic problems because you're so swamped with the things those systemic problems cause. Owners get that too, but they typically have more options for passing things off to others.
The other fun part is that oftentimes, you don't get all the information you need to fix a problem, and a five-minute task takes an hour to track down all the pieces. Sometimes I didn't even know that I HAD a particular task to deal with until a customer inquired about its status or complained about it not being done. Yay!
What made me even less happy is the attitude that most of my requests generated. Often, when I identified a systemic problem, I was told that it wasn't really that big of a problem, or that I didn't have the capability to fix it so I may as well just deal with it, or both. Asking for information to actually complete a task is often met with a sigh and a "why are you bothering me?" attitude.
Wednesday, several things annoyed me, and while the items themselves weren't all that big of a deal, they were each the result of a pervasive problem. I complained, and got the usual "I didn't do it, it's not my fault, why do you even care, go away and leave me alone." And I snapped.
I quit.
I'd like to say that I gave two weeks notice and a detailed explanation of why I'd had enough, but that's not how these sorts of things go, is it? Besides, I've already said that I "snapped".
So, now I am unemployed. I spent today running around and getting some personal things done that have been bothering me for some time, and for now I am quite happy to be unemployed. Should that change, or an excellent opportunity drop into my lap, I'll reconsider. (Cash-wise, nothing has really changed, because my paycheck is actually John's paycheck, so that taxes can be withheld rather than having to pay estimates every quarter.)
[Amendment, because I know how he'll blame himself if I don't say it: Shane2 is a consistent exception to all of the above, and has always, ALWAYS been happy to give me any assistance he could. I feel a bit guilty leaving him holding the bag on some of the crap jobs, since John's already said he picked up a couple of them.]
It's an inherent danger to being the spouse of the owner-- you end up being the one who handles all the crap jobs that no one else wants to do, and those jobs grow in size and scope until you no longer have the time and energy to do anything but try to keep your head above water. You can't fix the systemic problems because you're so swamped with the things those systemic problems cause. Owners get that too, but they typically have more options for passing things off to others.
The other fun part is that oftentimes, you don't get all the information you need to fix a problem, and a five-minute task takes an hour to track down all the pieces. Sometimes I didn't even know that I HAD a particular task to deal with until a customer inquired about its status or complained about it not being done. Yay!
What made me even less happy is the attitude that most of my requests generated. Often, when I identified a systemic problem, I was told that it wasn't really that big of a problem, or that I didn't have the capability to fix it so I may as well just deal with it, or both. Asking for information to actually complete a task is often met with a sigh and a "why are you bothering me?" attitude.
Wednesday, several things annoyed me, and while the items themselves weren't all that big of a deal, they were each the result of a pervasive problem. I complained, and got the usual "I didn't do it, it's not my fault, why do you even care, go away and leave me alone." And I snapped.
I quit.
I'd like to say that I gave two weeks notice and a detailed explanation of why I'd had enough, but that's not how these sorts of things go, is it? Besides, I've already said that I "snapped".
So, now I am unemployed. I spent today running around and getting some personal things done that have been bothering me for some time, and for now I am quite happy to be unemployed. Should that change, or an excellent opportunity drop into my lap, I'll reconsider. (Cash-wise, nothing has really changed, because my paycheck is actually John's paycheck, so that taxes can be withheld rather than having to pay estimates every quarter.)
[Amendment, because I know how he'll blame himself if I don't say it: Shane2 is a consistent exception to all of the above, and has always, ALWAYS been happy to give me any assistance he could. I feel a bit guilty leaving him holding the bag on some of the crap jobs, since John's already said he picked up a couple of them.]