I'll apologize in advance if you're a lawyer.
The Boston Globe last week ran a piece entitled, BlackBerry: A high-tech ball and chain for lawyers. A partner in a law firm sent an e-mail insisting that lawyers should keep their BlackBerry devices on all the time - evenings, weekends, and even vacations.
Nice guy. Makes me want to work there. OK, I'm kidding. Sounds like someone who truly contributes to the advancement of humankind. Or maybe he's just a tool.
Your turn: Have you ever worked somewhere where leadership made unreasonable demands on employees? How did you respond?
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15 comments:
I think we've all worked for someone unreasonable before. Mine was International Fitness Center (though I blame one particular moron and not the whole company, which is now out of business.)
I worked 2 jobs for them: attendent in the drop off kid care center, and I cleaned the womens' locker room. After this guy came on board our pay in the kid care was suddenly down to just want the customers paid--which meant I earned about 75 cents an hour instead of the almost $4 I'd been making--and he wanted me to clean out in the gym area. That was no problem...until he declared I was to do it ALL in 90 minutes...it was a 4 hour job.
Then there was the matter of overall working 12 hour days 5 days a week and 5 hours on Saturday, and only making that 75 cents an hour in the kid center.
I responded by filing a letter of complaint with the state employment commission. I moved shortly thereafter, but got a nice $600 settlement check a few months later--and a month after that the entire chain went under.
I felt vindicated ;)
Okay, okay, I am a lawyer. And no offence taken at all. I walked out of a large law firm just before they decided to "give everyone a present, just because they could" - ie. a Blackberry. In the same way that the year prior, they decided to "give everyone a present, just because they could" - ie. a laptop.
That said, the issue really doesnt rest with the law firms that do it. Its their job to run the law-administrating factory with all of their robots. Rather, it is the lawyer who has to turn his Blackberry on silent. :)
I once worked in a place that I SWORE was run by the mafia. How did I deal with it? I quit. Not that exciting, the abbreviated story, but a way out nonetheless.
Yep - I complied, it's the nature of my industry.
eyebrow raised...i teach high school...unreasonable demands are my forte. what do i do? i meet them :) ok, i try.
I gues I have been lucky. Until 2 years ago, I had not worked for anyone but myself since I was 24. I nevermake unreasonable demands on myself!
I can't say I've experienced that except in such a minor way it isn't even worth talking about...I think working in the Theatre and TV, etc... things are a bit different than in the corporate world..(Unless of course you are up there in "Management", but that's not been my experiene,) Being a 'performer' or a writer/composer/creator, it behooves everyone to work together to try to acheive the goal at the end of the tunnel so to speak...
I don't think I could take the situation you described, at all!!!
Happy Hanukah to you Carmi...
When they start paying lawyers what the rest of us get, I'll demand they unchain the lawyers. For now, let's keep them busy 24x7.
I work for my mom need I say more about making demands...;)
I've worked for attorneys for the past 13ish years. I've met some who are like the one in your post. My last boss ordered "voluntary" overtime and we had to sign up for days of the week and alternating weekends; he made us give him our home and cell numbers and if he called and we didn't answer, we were called into his office the next working day; he routinely scheduled meetings on Saturday mornings at his house. My response was to be consistently late so he'd quit making me appear at the meetings and I gave him the local prayer line number for my cell phone number. He was a tool.
I worked at an auction house and my boss would tell me "In a perfect world ...." followed by what he wanted done.
I'd always think to myself, "When you stop bouncing my paychecks, I'll start acting like we live in a perfect world."
My money's on TOOL. ; )
My money's on TOOL. ; )
Eleven years ago, I worked in a place that was not unionized. There were many unreasonable demands put upon certain employees, as well as blatant favouritism and nepotism and lots of other nasty stuff that had been going on for a long time (very similar to what was happening at Toronto's City Hall, in fact).
I got fed up and starting using the word 'union' around the office, once even directly to the manager at the time.
Not surprisingly, my contract was not renewed. I have a very low threshold for injustices in the workplace. Perhaps this is why I work at home.
that is really more prevalant than one might think... next I'm expected to have a gps sensor injected in my........... arm? haha.
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