Sorry for spreading coals during this time of year, but this story is so incredible I just had to share.Last week the Sarge (my boss' boss – you know, the one that makes 140K and charges us $20 for the Christmas party) wins a free luncheon for 15 people at a restaurant. Being in the Christmas spirit she opens up the invitation to the staff on a first-come first-serve basis. A bunch of people (including myself) accepts the kind offer and sign up.
On Monday the Sarge tells us that we'll be obligated to listen to a "short" sales pitch about financial planning at the restaurant. OK, no problem.
Then on Tuesday the Sarge emails us saying that since this is not a company-sponsored event, any time beyond our normal one-hour lunch would have to be charged to vacation time – Huh? Oh and I must mention the restaurant is 25 minutes away near Almaden. So essentially we'll have to charge 50 minutes of travel time and 15 minutes of presentation time to our vacation time in order to get this "FREE" lunch.
In a normal world this would be deceptive and two-faced. But where I work, this makes perfect sense.
Needless to say, people were dropping like flies off the sign-up list. What seemingly started as a nice gesture has turned into an ugly outrage. The lunch was today and although the mood around the office was a little hostile, we enjoyed the peaceful two hours while the managers were gone.
Oh and one more thing:
This morning we get a memo stating that everyone is "required to work a full day" on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve and there is no early release. If you want to leave early, you must charge it to your vacation time.
Like I said, this makes perfect sense.
Now do you pity me??
Yeah, maybe a little of pity from me ... I'm working a full day on the 24th, 26th, and 31st. I'm also working at 7:00 AM on the 1st -- at least it's a half day (12 noon).
ReplyDelete