by Demyx and the Doctor » Tue Mar 26, 2019 10:37 am
Dear JA:
Yeah, we all know the story about wanting to be closer to my family. Too far away, not enough support, wanting V to grow up closer to her family, yadda yadda yadda. But honestly? The real reason I left is because the business I left was not the business that hired me seven years ago. The business I hired onto back then offered good pay. Great benefits. Generous PTO. Competent leadership. Even a pension plan, for God's sake.
I suppose, when I heard about the holiday bonuses that had stopped just the year before, I should have twigged on that things were on the downslide. Ditto for the annual employee recognition parties that I only ever heard about, never attended. (Remember my five-year anniversary? I got handed a catalog from which I could choose some Very Special commemorative gift like an infinity scarf or a USB-powered desk fan.) The annual Christmas party dinner-dance was the first thing I actually got to experience that was taken away, supposedly because the company could only afford either the party or our annual raises that year. Then our raises got smaller and smaller - and while we're on that subject, would you like to hear about the toll it took on my mental health to try my hardest every single year only to be told that my performance was getting worse and worse, all so you could pretend I actually deserved the pathetic excuse for a raise you'd already decided to give me no matter how well I did? Or, for that matter, would you like to hear about how KS's classmates were earning more starting out at other companies than I was earning with seven years' seniority?
I know a lot of people are going to say that this downslide started with the merger. It did not. This place was going down the tubes anyway; now it's just going down the tubes under different management. Different upper management, anyhow. You know when I think the downslide in our department really started? When DF got promoted to Vice President, and you - pathetic, power-hungry, incompetent you - were promoted to department manager in her place. DF might have been hard to get along with, but by God, she knew how to run the place. If only she'd taught you how - assuming you ever had the capacity to learn. And then AB, with her sincere smile and sincere disinterest in her staff and her utter lack of self-awareness, got promoted to your old job. Thank god G got promoted to hers; at least G had some idea what she was doing.
Now look at who's in positions of power. I'm not sure the current lot of supervisors (G and DS excluded) has seven years worth of bench experience between them. KB worked for the company for maybe one year before quitting, and that was when I was a new hire; six years later she gets hired back and apparently that's enough to justify promoting her within a few months. Y was never a bench tech. M and KF had only ever worked in one area of the department before being promoted to supervise people whose jobs they didn't know how to do themselves. And DS...well, to be fair, she has a few years' bench experience, but have you ever actually tried to work with her for any length of time? I did for three years, and getting away from her was justification enough for switching shifts. AS was JM's assistant for two years; she was more qualified than anyone else in the building to take over her position after she retired, and now she gets to be assistant to someone who hasn't even been with the company for two years because she questioned AB's judgment once and AB has never forgiven her!
Long story short, the place is a mess and getting worse, it's very much your fault and the fault of the people you chose to put in power, and I sleep easier at night knowing I'll never have to see you again and won't have to go down with the ship you're busy sinking. Send my regards to KS, AC, and AP, along with my hopes that they find better jobs soon - they're too good for you anyway.
-The other AB
"'If you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullcrap' really is your motto, isn't it?"
"You only say that because you can't tell the difference!"
"That ain't brilliance I smell on your breath, Doc!"
"Demyx, talk less, run more, all right?"
