When You Are In Charge, Then YOU Are In Charge!

One of the new bosses is x-military and very organized. Well, recently he was given oversight of the maintenance team. A new kitchen crew is starting to work the cafeteria this week and his maintenance crew was assigned to help prepare by performing a deep cleaning. This assignment was strange indeed, since x-military man was never informed about the task. When he found that his crew was out of pocket, working busily in the kitchen, he started asking questions. One request he made was to receive a copy of the contract, so that he would know precisely what role his crew was legally bound to perform. Well, this request hurt someone's feelings. And it became a huge contraversy and his powers over the crew were curbed. How a military man will ever cope with the mess that is our work environment, I have yet to see. I'm hoping to follow his lead, but so far he seems as frustrated as I do.

I received a new position, and a tiny responsibility was entrusted to me. I am in charge of all billing pertaining to one of our sublet companies. I have taken an unusual amount of pride in the assignment because the sublet company is run by a spineless man who our company constantly cheats. (For instance, he makes 52% of whatever we bill our customer. Every other sublet company who works for us gets 90%.) Well the pride is in the fact that I fully intend to run interference enough to ensure that the company is paid for all of the work they perform for us. Unfortunately, the spineless man doesn't realize that I am his ally. He keeps going to the gal who used to be in charge for every matter. Admittedly, he is receiving mixed signals, since the gal often decides to steal my work so that she can remain at work drawing wages while sending me home without pay. She also interferes constantly and scolds me rather publicly. I attempted to clarify her position, but the HR director left it up to the gal to define. I had thought that although she trained me, we were equals, but it seems much more of a mother/child relationship or trainer/dog relationship. I'm about tired of playing the kicked pup.

Today, I found out that she had told him that he was authorized to do a very time-consuming, costly job for us. After the work was done, he was told that he would be paid one fifth of the amount agreed upon. She apologized, but it meant nothing since she was the author of the lie. I suggested that, in the future, he ought to refuse to do anything out of the ordinary without written approval, which is what his own superiors later suggested. I took a fine scolding for that as well.