Bramble Tamble

I spent part of my Labor Day evening sobering up and reading some of my old blog posts about my old job. (They can, for the most part, be found under the category "Wage.")

It's been a year and a week since I finally got the call and made the move into project control. I can't say it's been smooth sailing for 53 weeks, but I feel like I've learned a lot. There have been times when I've feared for my job because I'm just not up to its demands; Nemesis, for instance, works about 50-55 hours a week, and it's not that I can't do it - I just won't. My family comes first, and while I'm sure that everyone loves their families, I feel confident in my decision to put my money where my mouth is. If that's not good enough for the position I am in, then I will be happy to go back to dumbass menial Very Important Front Desk Work.

And I've made some mistakes that have been pretty glaring - ultimately, they're my responsibility, but there were some circumstances surrounding those mistakes that I won't delve into here, other than that I have had the distinct misfortune of meeting someone who I've actually wished death upon, much to the consternation of my wife.

This particular waste of sperm and eggs is no longer a part of my life, as he no longer wished to work with me because of my supposed incompetence. Which ... well, I may be a lot of things, but incompetent isn't one of them. He's the one who's micromanaged the ever-loving shit out of his contract, even though he couldn't manage his way out of a wet paper bag. I tried to keep up the best I could. And I came up short.

It frustrates me, though, that I failed in my dealings with him, because no matter what an awful human being he is, I still wanted to see it through, no matter how it was affecting my life at work and my life away from work - and I'll just say that it was affecting a lot of things pretty negatively and leave it at that. Still, up until this person stepped into my life, I had never met anyone who I couldn't win over with my general outlook and attitude, but he is the meanest, most abusive, most hateful, most malicious, most despicable piece of shit that I've ever known. And I've known a lot of useless human beings, but most of them had at least one redeeming quality. Hell, I might have said a lot of not-very-nice things in this space about Doom, but he trusted me most of the time, and that means a lot.

Compounding things in this mess was the fact that I got no support from the manager of this particular contract. We had a pretty close relationship at one time, but it has deteriorated in the last couple of months because she has no backbone to stand up for her employees in the face of unreasonable demands from this "customer"; instead of "You have no right to treat my people that way," she instead pointed the finger at me and asked me why I failed. Listen - I don't care if I am in the wrong, but at least have the decency to stand up for your employees. I don't care what kind of potential dollar figures you're dealing with - if you're too scared to confront a bully when that person is causing your support staff all sorts of problems, then you don't deserve to be a manager.

Conventional wisdom says that the customer is always right, and that's one of the worst phrases ever put to paper. It's a built-in excuse for so much abhorrent, assholish behavior: "I can yell and scream and point fingers and call names and be an overagressive, tiny-penised bully because I am the customer and, ergo, I am right."

Fuck the customer. Not my call to make, but if I get asked, they can put me down for one "yes" on the question, "Should he get gangfucked by angry goat-scorpion hybrids in a very warm place for all eternity?"

I've been reassured by superiors that I have a "bright future" in my company, which doesn't really make me fear any less for my future. (After all, how many coaches in sports have been fired shortly after receiving the dreaded "vote of confidence" from GMs or owners?)

Other than all that, everything's fine at work, thanks for asking.