A Little Rant

On Thursday we took our service users to the company Christmas party. I rode with my manager there. On the way we made small talk about things like my oven not working (their best idea is to get me a microwave that grills, etc. I don't want another microwave. I want my oven fixed. And Pascal wants a shower.), the rent on the volunteer flats not being paid since June 2002 (that's right, 3.5 years) and my CRB still not coming through. He also asked if I was homesick, and not having much of a buddy-buddy relationship with him, I shrugged and said that if I was home right now, I'd be taking my finals for the semester. He asked if I was taking a break from school, and I said no, I'd graduated in the spring. 'What did you study?' 'My degree is in sociology with minors in psychology and art.' To this he replies: 'Oh! If I had known that I would have been using you properly!' I decided not to let him off so easy by saying something like 'Well, now you do.' Instead I simply said 'It's all right there in my file.' He made some poor excuse about not having time or whatever. As I was only interested in getting to the party and getting done with it so I could be done for the night (I'd been working since 9 in the morning and with the party it was going to be a 12 hour day), I was neutral the entire time and didn't react in- for me- a normal way (read: mildly sarcastic, irritated, annoyed, etc.). Now here comes my little rant.

EO is new, so you do have to give him some patience when it comes to his disorganized, but after 8 months.... Anyway, Pascal and I have been there for 3.5 months now. And he hasn't even flicked through our files? C'mon! What is he thinking? I don't know about Pascal's, but mine has my original application to the YAGM program which clearly states in two different locations my degree. The deputy manager, JB, has even told him that I'm a sociology and psychology person. Apparently when I first came EO had been worried about my suitability to the placement because I was reading the residents' files- which I had been told do by JB- and wasn't doing anything. JB explained that sociology and psychology people study and read to get to know things before engaging. Or something to that effect. (By the way, I spent a week and a half reading through all those files, and I haven't found them to be in the least bit helpful.) Am I the only person to think there's something wrong with a manager who can't even take a few minutes to flick through a new employee's file before they start work? At the very least, within the first three and a half months?

And as my computer time is about up, there ends my little rant. Thank you for reading.