And though I had slain a thousand foes less one,
The thousandth knife found my liver;
The thousandth enemy said to me,
'Now you shall die,
Now none shall know.'
And the fool, looking down, believed this,
Not seeing, above his shoulders, the naked stars,
Each one remembering.
--John M. Ford, The Final Reflection

The Asylum Director

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"The only thing I was fit for was to be a writer, and this rested solely on my suspicion that I would never be fit for real work, and that writing didn't require any." - Russel Baker

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Not In My Job Description

Maybe it's the laziness in me, or it could be that I'm just so bored that even this I'm willing to actively dislike, but I simply can't bring myself to like a job where I'm being told to do something that I don't think really falls under my job description. I'm the sort of stubborn fool that firmly believes in the elliptical logic that if you were hired to do one thing, paid to do one thing, and are being told to do something that is not the initial thing, then you've got every right to complain.

Yes, I just made sense. Do not question me.

Anyway, as I said. I don't like being told to do things that I don't believe are in my job description. I'm willing to make leeway for modifications of existing tasks, and even quietly accept additional tasks that are related to my previous tasks, but I draw the line when I'm given something that simply is no longer my job.

For now, I'll bloody do it. I'd just like to openly state that I don't get paid enough to put up with this new shit, and my patience has been strained enough recently by work and other factors, thank you very much. Like I said before, I think I finally need to move on and find new work, or at least take a couple of months off as a vacation - a well-deserved one, some might add. We'll wait and see, won't we?

You don't just assign people (an entire division, no less) a bunch of arbitrary tasks that not only take up half of their working hours to complete, but are also well outside what you hired them for. It's like asking a horse to pull a plow - sure, he can do it, but it isn't the task he's supposed to be doing. Not one of us has spoken up about this, naturally. Jobs at risk, and all that. But the thing is, if none of us do, won't they just eventually pile on more bullshit tasks on us? Things that are more than just arguably outside of our responsibilities, as implied by our titles and job descriptions?

At one point, I guess somebody will buck up and say something. Who knows? I sure as Hell hope it won't be me, but then, doesn't my doing this technically count? Bah.

All I can say for certain is that, somewhere down the line, this needs to end. One way or another.

Me? I will endure, and in enduring, grow stronger. That, and maybe focus my attention on better ways to spend my time. Or job-hunting. Whichever. I need to re-design my black aggro from scratch, anyway.

Random Note:
As of today, whenever I am capable of obtaining adequate paper, I'm starting a little project to help me relax. A piece of Japanese folklore I picked up once said that folding 1,000 paper cranes as an offering to the kami will get a person one wish granted. True, I don't believe in the "wish granting" bit, but I'm not about to deny just how relaxing I find folding paper into cranes to be.

I ought to buy one of those origami books one of these days.

Anyway, I think I'll start if off today. Wonder if I'll ever make it to 1,000?

2 comments:

me said...

did you make those cranes?

pretty neat.

i tried doing complicated origami while bored at work once. and well, it's too complicated. i can't even figure out what folds go where.

having fun at work, huh? hehe.

Cough Syrup Junkie said...

i hope they're not asking you to do janitorial tasks...