My second year at FinancialCompany is, in many ways, different from any other year in my life because I began working for a legitimately horrible boss.
A bit of explanation on the insane length:
I decided to squeeze this year into one monster, instead of chopping it up into parts. Thereâs a specific reason for this: I believe reading this enormous entry in one session will give folks a better feel for just how much was going on — specifically the relentless nature of the work. Iâll probably have to do the same for the next post as well (Year 7), because thereâs a similar amount of content.
Since there was no letup at FinancialCompany, neither will there any in these entries.
Thanks for sticking with me on this — now letâs go.
Navigation Tip: There are links to additional pages (1-9) below, under the sea of wordpress.com garbage.
I like your comment about just wanting to do the work instead of managing the work. I feel the same way. It seems like people think youâre some kind of weirdo if youâre not constantly striving to advance to management level. Personally, I find the actual work itself much more rewarding and less stressful than having to deal with personnel issues and being responsible for other peopleâs work.
“some kind of weirdo” — exactly. When I did finally leave FinComp. I remember telling my Dad that I was going to take a pay-cut to work somewhere else with potentially more satisfying work. His head nearly exploded: between the loss of title-based status and the drop in compensation, he just absolutely could not comprehend the rationale behind the decision. Heâs one of those guys that thinks “work is a misery no matter what, so you might as well get paid as much as possible.” PS, it turned out to be a good move anyways.
“It seems like people think youâre some kind of weirdo if youâre not constantly striving to advance to management level.” So true. Try being a secretary, always having wanted to be one, being really good at it and never having had any desire to manage people at all. So many people seem to just kind of fall in to secretarial/admin work because they canât get anything else and then try and use it as a stepping stone to other work (should I blame that Melanie Griffith/Harrison Ford film?) that, yep, managers seem to think youâre some kind of weirdo if you donât want to do what theyâre doing. I think at some point I came to the realisation that itâs only natural, since people will judge you by their own standards, so to speak, and if they have the ambition or desire to manage and move up in a company, they struggle to understand those who donât.
Glad I came back to finish reading through your archives, by the way. Itâs very useful and I think Iâm going to try and do something similar. I have no FU money and will never retire early but nonetheless will be handing in my notice by the end of this quarter (have a three months from end of quarter notice period). I just reached a point recently where I realised itâs the same old shit starting to happen that sent me to the brink of a nervous breakdown three years ago and itâs just not worth it. I think itâll be really good to look back on not just this but all of my jobs till now and try and remember the good and the bad about each of them. Itâd be good to have that stuff clear in my head when choosing my next one. Thanks.
So, were the coins really as big as your whole body (Mario graphic ref)? No wonder we like VG so much, you get to travel to inventive places and get rich just by jumping up and grabbing floating money. Interesting comment about your Dad, mine would be pretty surprised by my financial situation. He knows weâve had it good, and he had it good too, but I donât think he knows how different the working world is. Also, not to be to random in this comment, but I like how you are treating this as ‘the work experienceâ - itâs just one of many options available. I hated my previous choice, but is was necessary and I wouldâve chaffed at it being called an experience, but my latest gig is definitely an open ended ‘experienceâ.
Video games arenât an improvement over many parts of life (hiking, eating, and hanging around with my wife come to mind), but thereâs no question theyâre better than office life, hands down, all day, every day. On the subject of the parents — I canât even tell my Dad whatâs going on with me financially — he would shit a brick if he knew I was on the edge of retiring, and Iâm not sure thereâd be any way to calm him down. Itâs weird — he dislikes work but simultaneously accepts that itâs a mandatory part of life to be endured, at least through age 60. For me to tell him Iâve just short-cutted the misery, well, Iâm just not sure what heâd say. My first guess is “lazy.” If you ever tell your dad, Iâd love to read a post about the experience… To your ‘randomâ comment (love random comments btw): absolutely, even within a certain field or industry, things vary quite a bit from job to job, and each option ends up having its own distinct feel. Glad you left your own bad fit job and youâre somewhere that feels better now! Good for you, EV.
What am I missing? This is not a long post… is it somewhere else now? Was it removed? Thanks for any info you can give me.
There are links to pages underneath the all of the wordpress.com stuff at the end of the page.
I just added some navigation tip reminders to the opening pages of the job experience posts to help folks find their way.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
Durr got it! Haha canât believe I missed it. Thanks for the help! Iâm going through all your posts and quite frankly… theyâre awesome.
Your blog is really entertaining so far. Iâve been reading it from A-Z. You make me laugh!
Iâve been reading through your work stories over the last few days. Found my way hear after reading somebody elseâs particularly entertaining work stores on MMM and fellow posters talking about “Doom.”
Iâm really enjoying them but Cthuluâs behavior makes me a little physically sick. We all know there are bosses like that out in the world. But reading a detailed description of it is quite disturbing.
On a lighter note. I love the stories! Very entertaining writing with lots of introspection and interesting observations.
“JUSTIFY YOUR INACTION IN WRITING” had me laughing for a good minute. Great writing.