It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…
Monday, June 30th, 2014
It's been a heck of a month, and I've adopted Dickens' line from A Tale of Two Cities as it seems to fit my life amazingly well these days. I'm trying to adapt to the current environment at The Shop, but it's proving increasingly difficult the more I attempt to adapt, and in the end I'm left with the feeling that it's an abusive relationship where the more I attempt to adapt, the more I'm being exploited.
The work can be fun, and it's one of the two things I'd classify in the ... best of times... category. But there's very little real work, and far more people posturing and pretending and trying to get me to do their work for them. In most cases, I accept the work because it is, after all, the best of times, but then it becomes an abusive relationship when these people expect me to do their work for them, and get angry when I can't - or won't. I've enabled them to be poor producers in this environment, and by enabling that behavior, I've done them no favors.
Management is not supporting me because they are the ultimate benefactors of all the work I do, so the more I do, the more they like it. It's a very simple equation. I also have a manager that seems to be completely incapable of delivering any kind of bad news, so instead, he convinces himself that the right thing is to adjust his expectations, and have me to their work. If they then become happy, and all the work gets done (by me), then all the better. No more reason to deliver bad news.
But it's not healthy. It's not sustainable. And I'm getting to the point that I'm just done with this particular unhealthy relationship, and it's time to move on. I like the company, but not the people I'm working with. There are people here at The Shop that I'd like to work with, have in the past, and would enjoy doing so again. There are even people in this group that are decent workers. But the vast majority are not. And I've enabled their bad behavior for too long.
It's time to make them stand on their own two feet. That's the only way they will get better. And they need to know if they can get better, or if it's time to change jobs. That is what we all should have to do, but I've been keeping them from this by picking up all the group's work. Like I said, I wasn't doing them any real favors. I was doing myself a favor by keeping my mind active.
It's time to make some changes.