Did That Make You Feel Any Better?

There is occasion from time to time when I feel like breaking things. I haven't quite figured out why, especially considering that it doesn't really make me feel any better, nor do I like cleaning up the resultant mess, but it is true all the same. Tonight at work was very much one of those occasions. Of course, the evening progressed well up to a point, and I really could find no fault in anything up until the bitter end... but that end came, and has since went.

It is a reasonable thing to be expected to do a job until it is done. I respect the fact that every day certain things need to be done, and sometimes the occasion call for more things – or all possible things (as pertaining to a series of job functions) to be done, before the work is considered finished. In tonight's case, all on-inventory product had to be put away completely before we could leave because we're going to work tomorrow morning doing inventory counts.

Of course, I use “we” in the above sentence loosely. We as meaning me, mostly, and a few team leads and supervisors. How I ended up in that group is beyond me, but I was left with certain tasks that, with a group, could have been completed within 10-15 minutes. Instead, I spent over 70 minutes because it was decided that I was “already on it,” so no one else was needed.

Of course, I will concede, to my own credit, that very few others would have been willing to take the time to do what I was doing and do it accurately. That said, however, I do not feel that I was given the appropriate level of respect (not to mention compensation) for the hassle involved in completing those tasks and staying until 10:30 PM whilst being expected to go into work tomorrow morning at 9AM.

Completely unacceptable.

Of course, I also must concede, much to my frustration, that I would have probably still been there until 10:30 tonight even if I hadn't been pulled in 10 different directions, expected to do the jobs of others, and talked to as if I'm insignificant. One of the two cars remaining in the parking lot as I sped away belonged to one of my team leads who was still feverishly working on our normal duties, the so-called “Look Fors.” Don't ask. Anyway, I imagine he was just as frustrated as I was...

In fact, I may owe him an apology now that I think of it... I wasn't trying to be a particularly nice person near the end of the shift...