What Burns Me Up!

Okay, so my department...the 4 people left in it...had its monthly staff meeting today, which went okay until my manager said these words, "we will not necessarily be replacing everyone who's left (that's 3 people now). We will be looking at workload and capabilities to determine how many people we will be replacing." So basically, we had 6 people before, but now 4 people will work just fine...and 5 might give us all the breathing room we need. Wrong!

Now, we are finally getting around to replacing the person who left in August, but only because the third person resigned...shortly after we were told we wouldn't be replacing the August departee. And now we may not be replacing the two other people we're supposed to get? WTF??? It really was all I could do not to jump up and yell, "What the f*ck are you trying to do to us, kill us all??? Dash any hope of this department getting any better? Because you sure are doing one heck of a job, if that's the case." I mean, really...I know that they *might* replace all of the people who've left, but the fact that they're even considering not replacing everyone just blows my mind...especially when we're being asked to take on yet another type of project in addition to the ones we're struggling to keep up with now.

The morale of this department is already at the bottom of the ocean. We're all overworked. We keep losing people because of the workload and morale. We could really use some hope around here, and having a full complement of project managers would sure help! We aren't just machines with certain levels of capacity...we are human beings with emotions and limits. Heck, even machines have limits...and they break down when they're asked to do too much. Humans are much more fragile, but I'm not sure if our manager realizes that.

I mean, she told me I was getting "needlessly upset" by this news. If she actually understood us when we tell her about our huge workloads and general depression over the circumstances this department is facing, maybe she wouldn't see it as needless. Just because she is unemotional does not mean my getting upset is needless. Just because she thinks it's needless does not make it needless. If they were actually going to do something to help this department, then it would be. But from what I can tell, they don't listen to us even when we jump up and down and scream in front of them that we're overworked and PISSED OFF about how we're treated! They don't do anything about it when people leave because of it!

God, I hope this thing with the vendor works out (them opening an office locally). I'm not sure how much more of this I can take. I've actually started a list of complaints to go to HR about, since it seems they want details on my manager. Well, I have them, and they're going to learn everything they want to know first-hand. I'll make dead sure of it.

Tags: work, employment, management, mismanagement, downsizing, RIFs, morale, workload, employees