Has Anyone Here Ever Worked At A Job Where You Were Never Appreciated?

[Yavin4]

Where your predecessor was a complete incompetent mess and left you with a burning bag of shit to clean up?

And, even though you did a good job cleaning up the mess, your bosses and co-workers still kept criticizing you?

Have you ever worked at a job where you had to deal with dueling political factions withing your company where one such faction didn't want to hire you and works day and night to get you fired? Yet, you still have to work with that faction.

Your predecessor left such a mess that it will take years to correct it, yet everyone wants it corrected and IMPROVED within 18 months.

Ever work a job where a good number of the people there thought that you were incompetent purely because of your race or gender? No matter how much competence you've demonstrated.

Ever been in that kind of situation?

[hobbit709]

1. More than once.

[femmocrat]

2. Let me guess, this isn't really about "me", is it? n/t

[RandomThoughts]

4. When is anything only about a person?

Although a person many times makes themselves part of many ideas.

[blueworld]

3. One with free housing, transportation, medical, servants, publicity, pension, parties etc.? No. n/t

[Donnachaidh]

12. don't forget the lifelong pension and secret service coverage.

And all the other perks like invitations to other countries on a private plane, hobnobbing with industrial fatcats, etc.

Yeah, I had three such jobs in my working years.

FAIL.

[SammyWinstonJack]

36. +1

[Sea Witch]

5. We are supposed to feel bad for the President because he gets criticized?

I am thinking your post must be humor.

[emilyg]

27. I don't. He wanted

the job very, very much.

[pipi_k]

6. Well I can't say any of my predecessors left me a big bag of shit, but...

I have been in jobs where I wasn't appreciated.

One in particular it seemed like I could never do anything right. No matter what I did, it always seemed like I should have read the boss's mind and done the other thing.

It was so tiresome having to second guess the guy all the time.

[EFerrari]

7. Sure. And the situation was never improved by lashing out. n/t

[BeyondGeography]

8. All the time, actually...and principles mean less to people than we would like, it's all social

You have to win people over, get them to work for you, reduce the amount of time they spend on mindless politicking. And forget that they will never love you as much as mother did.

People are emotional, not rational; you can spend your whole fucking life emphasizing appeals based on principle and get basically nowhere with them. Figuring out what people actually want for themselves, OTOH, will get you closer to where you want to be on principle than rigid high-mindedness.

What this means for the legislative process would seem to be meaningful, although that's not my world.

[doc03]

9. Well let's see, I started working full time at 18 and retired

at 62, that would be like 44 years.

[Starry Messenger]

10. You mean like under a guy who said my colleagues deserved to all be fired?

I think you've got the power relationship turned around here, friend.

[murielm99]

11. Yes.

And I've done that without anyone pointing out that I was doing it or offering support in any way. I've done that with poor pay or no pay. I've done that to the detriment of my health and reputation.

So?

[slackmaster]

13. Many times

I put up with all kinds of lack of appreciation.

At the end of the day, if I conclude that an employer isn't paying me enough, I start looking for another job.

[closeupready]

14. I would never last in that kind of situation.

I would literally rather go on welfare than subject myself to such mistreatment.

And I have walked out of jobs where I was mistreated, not with the same panache as Mr. Jet Blue, but I have done it.

[closeupready]

15. Oh, are we really talking about the World's Most Powerful Person?

We are supposed to feel bad about the unfairness of it all?

[Javaman]

16. There was this guy I worked for once...

He was CEO for 9 months. Then there was a major failure on his watch. Everyone blamed him rightly so, but when he came up for a vote of confidence, even though he majorly fucked up, he got a pass.

Finally, this dumb bastard was canned and a new guy came in. Right away I saw he was different. I thought, "I will really enjoy working for him, he's looking out for me".

Well, he's been on the job for a few years now, a few good things have gotten done, but my job is still threatened, still having to put in more hours for less pay. While he promised a lot of stuff, few of those promises have been completely delivered.

But the overall problems with my job and how I am treated, still hasn't changed much at all. In fact, just the other day, his assistant assembled all of us in the lobby to give us an update. But instead of commending us on our hard work and support during these times, he called us losers and didn't appreciate what the new CEO has been doing, that all we do is complain and put in for insane requests, like peace in the office, health care plan that doesn't kills us, or my favorite, how we supported his hiring when he stated that he would sever our non-productive offices over seas that are eating the companies lunch financially and bring home our employees.

I know, we asked for too much.

I should be thankful I still have a job, even though I'm working longer hours for less pay, while they pile more work on my desk and lay off people all around me.

Got any Victory Vodka?

[Common Sense Party]

19. Your current health care plan KILLS people?

Wow, that's a bad HMO.

[Javaman]

21. wow, you miss the metaphor.

[Common Sense Party]

24. Wow, you miss the joke.

[Javaman]

29. Perhaps if you were funny. nt

[Common Sense Party]

33. Perhaps.

[gratuitous]

20. But the chocolate ration is up to 30 grams per month!

There still isn't any chocolate in the stores, but the ration used to be only a measly 20 grams.

[Scurrilous]

17. K & R

[SOS]

18. Every one of 'em since 1979

The pay and benefits sucked too.

[Motown_Johnny]

22. Everyone has, this is the norm.. Being appreciated is the exception

[Common Sense Party]

23. Yeah, I had to take over after a completely incompetent tool, who left

the books and the system completely screwed up, and had entered into some phenomenally stupid business deals. Our sales were way down and we had to let a lot of people go.

During the interview, I told them I could COMPLETELY turn things around. I would get us back into the black, get all the finances squared away, and extricate us from those lousy deals.

But after 1.5 years, the books are a bigger mess than before, more red ink, sales aere still down, we laid off even more people, the company is in free fall, and instead of getting out of the bad deals, we are still deep in them; I doubled down on one of them, actually. Nothing is better, and I'm actually following many of the same procedures as the screw-up before me. But at least that screw-up isn't here. He was a bumbling jerk.

I have a lot of confidence in my abilities and I keep telling them that everything is fine and getting better. They are very skeptical--which I take as a personal affront, and I bristle at the suggestion that thing's aren't improving. I think they are lame ingrates, and I told them we've turned the corner. Everything is about to get better.

But we're still pretty much doing things the way they've been done for a while...I'm hoping to stick around here for the next six years or so.

[Confusious]

25. Welcome to the freaking club.

Most of my life right there.

[Obamanaut]

26. A couple of times. But both times I was thrust into the position, did not

spend two years asking for the job, spending millions of dollars of donated money in the process, saying words to the effect that if they hire me, I'll make it better.

[Mac1949]

28. Multinational convenience store chain.

Twenty-seven managers over fifteen years. They were taught how to count the money- everything else I had to cover. When I received my fifteen year award I was called into the office, handed a plastic bag and told to get back to work. In the bag were my fifteen year pin and certificate of appreciation, along with the unsigned congratulatory card and the instructions for the presentation the field manager was supposed to make. I left a few months later for health reasons.

[Steely_Dan]

30. Uh....I believe he knew...

when he bought the ticket for the ride.

[SammyWinstonJack]

39. Yep, he did.

[Hawkowl]

31. Welcome to America!

I think that experience is very common. Most of us didn't whine about it. Most of us just did the fucking job we were hired to do.

[Taitertots]

32. I had one boss, the only times I saw him he was threatening to fire everyone

The stuff we were supposed to do was literally impossible. Every single person lied and said they did them. When confronted about the obvious impossibility of the situation he threatened to fire me. When I actually did accomplish all the tasks I needed overtime, so he threatened to fire me. When he found out I was skipping tasks because it was impossible to do all of them, he accepted that it was impossible and then threatened to fire me.

The worst part was that the main reason the tasks were impossible is that his daughter was incompetent and hired into an important position over large numbers of more qualified applicants.


Obama needs to stop acting like my old boss. Get rid of the incompetent staff(Duncan, Geithner, Bernenke). Stop attempting impossible goals(Iraq, Afghanistan).

[ljm2002]

34. Ooh, poor widdle Obama...

...he got left "a burning bag of shit to clean up".

Well guess what. He fought tooth and nail so that he could be the one to inherit that mess. He knew what the mess was.

He is smart and savvy, and he fought as hard as he could to attain the job.

Some quotes from a former president:

If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.

If you want a friend in Washington DC, get a dog.

The buck stops here.

My point? I don't pity Obama for the mess he "inherited", nor for having to put up with criticism. That goes with the territory. I do fault him for caring what the rabid right thinks, though. He kowtows to them and caves to them in legislative battles, all the while telling the left to "talk to the hand".

Pffft.

[walldude]

37. He was also handed majority's in the house and senate

but still chose the "bi=partisan" route. Even after having their hands bit off a hundred times they still counted on Republicans to do the right thing on the 9/11 responders health care bill and got it bit off yet again.

My problem is becoming that they ain't real bright...

[ljm2002]

41. Either they are not real bright...

...or, what is worse to me, they are playing it exactly how they want to play it.

[Liberal_in_LA]

35. yep n/t

[TNLib]

38. I recommended but only because you just perfectly described the last job I had

The only difference is Obama is the president and has complete control over his administration and how it is run. In my former job I had 0 input and 0 say in how the department ran.

[county worker]

40. self delete

[KG]

42. epic.