true story, my frustration

[bearded]

i'll start with the last thing.
i'm driving my cat to the vet for a spaying.  i carefully write down the directions.  notably; 8 w to the i5 n.  when i get on the 8 w i see my notes say i5 n, so i pull onto the 15 north.  looking for exit 23a.  about a half an hour down.  at which point i notice the problem, and turn around to find the 5.  about an hour out of my schedule.
i forgot to mention, the cat carrier was in pieces, fulfilling the role of, i dunno, a barbie dance club maybe.  so i put the cat in a box.  cardboard.  takes her about 5 minutes to get out and voice her displeasure from all over the car.  including my shoulder, top of the steering wheel, and the drivers floorboard.  somehow all at the same time.  from the one cat.  how do cats do that?
but let's go back to the night before.  i'm security at a research laboratory.  and we have a somewhat deranged man lying on the sidewalk in front of one of the buildings.  so, i tell my boss,
  "i've done this sort of thing literally over a hundred times.  i know how to handle it."  he says, no, let me handle it.  so he goes over and to make it short promises the moneyless homeless guy to call a cab for him.  he then gets on the radio and tell the command center to call the police.  fine.  sort of jerky, but not my call, hence not my decision.
  an hour later a maintenance man pulls up and boss tells him the situation, then asks me to go to command and fetch his water and cigarettes.  a bit demeaning, but i'm military trained, and i do as i'm told and ask question later, after any scenario plays out.  when i get back, he tells me to go back to my regular patrol.
  as i'm walking my patrol away from the scene, i'm starting to fume, get extremely frustrated.  i'm his most experienced security, and i've proven to him many times i know what i'm doing.  so, i do a quick fifteen minute walk, instead of the usual dragging it out 45 minutes, i go back to command and watch the cameras with the officer in charge.  on camera, the homeless is moving around loose limbed with sudden quick twitchy movements, approaching the boss and maintenance man.  this is around hour 2.  boss immediately calls the OIC and requests he call the police again.  the police put him on hold for 21 minutes and then tells him that they have a situation downtown and would not arrive for an indefinite period of time.  so i get on the phone with boss, and ask him if he wants me there to take care of the situation.  he agrees, he does, so i go. 
  before i get to the man, boss tells me to tell him "the cab can't come, they are swamped." 
  i said, "you want him gone?  and not to come back?  yes?  then we don't care about his feelings."  i turned my back on him and approached the man.
  i start, by the book, "Excuse me sir.  this is private property and--"  immediately cut off by boss, "cab can't come."
  so i roll with it, "that's right, you will have to wait for a cab on the public sidewalk, this is private property and i have to ask you to leave."
  and then.
  boss says, "if it was up to me, i'd let you stay all night."
  my mouth literally dropped open and i was silent in shock, staring at him.  recovering i turned to the homeless, "actually no.  we have cameras all over the place, we have your identity confirmed on cameras, and if you come back, we will be forced to call the police.  this is private property and the people in charge get nervous about ppl that don't belong here.  you have to have a badge, like this, to enter this site, even the grounds."
  he said some words, mostly peaceful, and quickly departed, with the promise not to return.
  it gets worse.  so, i'm in the command center with the officer in charge, telling him my frustration, as me and he had been something like, well, not friends, but on fairly positive agreeable terms, you know?  we share comics and graphic novels back and forth.  dialogues, 'have you read this?'  and 'who would win, dr who or silver surfer?'
at the end of shift we are all in the command, and the highest of the higher ups in the chain of command calls and wants a quick update before the full report.  now, fully understand.  OIC totally appreciates the things that had been going on, and in fact had made several comments about incompetence himself.
  Officer in Charge says this to the Big Boss:
  "No sir, the police never arrived, but (name omitted, boss) talked to the guy and took care of it."
  again.  i am shocked.  i turn and look at boss.  his face is blank.
  i say to him, "Good job, boss.  You did a good job tonight.  Thank you for your good work."
  i'm sure, i'm either going to be promoted or fired.

[Xenolith]

So, what happened?  I've been waiting for an update.

[thalaw2]

I hate when folks take credit for stuff they didn't do just because they have some "power".  If you get promoted will you be under the same guy?

[bearded]

i find out tonight.  i'll do a complete update.  i'm nervous, it could go either way.
when i got to work, i asked to read the official report, written by boss.  it was beautiful.  he had taken out everything he had said or done, and put his name in front of everything i had said and done.

[bearded]

so, one of you guys played counselor to me, i'll call him avatar (maintain the level of secrecy).  avatar read my story and told me it was 'the nature of the beast'. 
  "I want to let him know what I think of him."
  Avatar, "Well, it was a nice job while you had it.  Your problem is you want to 'fix' him."
  After some thought and deliberation, "You are correct.  In this economy I don't need to job search, and I'm not his daddy, to punish him."
  I read his report again, and I thought about it.  'He wants this from me.  He wants credit for my thinking and actions.  Ok.  What do I want from him?'
  Approaching boss, I said, "I want you to train me to do your job.  I'll start doing it on weekends and holidays when you aren't here.  Eventually when you move on, I will be in place to take the job permenantly."
  He looked thoughtful for a moment, then agreed.  However he needed to get approval from the account supervisor, upper management.  Last night when I went to work, he told me the staff meeting had been canceled.  It would have to wait till next monday. 
  "Boss.  I need to talk to you."
  He didn't even wait half an hour, he told me, "I'll email him tonight."
  This morning, I got approval.
  I will be promoted.  And until I am fully promoted, I am Incident Commander.  Anything out of the ordinary is routed to me for proper response.

[daglob]

Soooo... you are saying this is a good thing?

[Xenolith]

Huzzah!  That is a good thing. 

Good.  Now get back to that train map.   

[bearded]

i don't know from good.  i suppose we make our own good or bad. 
the good thing is i'll be able to get back to making hair models.  who is making a train map?

[Xenolith]

D'oh.  Somebody else is.  Nevermind. 

I hate it when  joke goes amiss. 

[bearded]

i mean, it's good i'm getting a promotion, more responsibility, potentially more money.  i'm not entirely happy that i didn't let loose with my true feelings, i don't feel true to self.

[daglob]

Going with your treu feeling is not always a good thing. There are people breathing today that are thankful for that.

Besides, you are being true to YOURSELF; you just aren't sharing those feeling with others who wouldn't understand (this board understands).

[thalaw2]

Forget about being true to yourself when it's about making some of that scrilla!  All about the ching ching and the bling bling! 

J/K

I'm glad you didn't get fired and i think your strategy was better anyway.  It's better to pick your battles carefully then the flare up over every thing in the interest of being true to yourself.  You really do have to "play ball" when it comes to jobs.  I know a guy out here who flips his lid every time he can't get something he wants.  I refuse to help him get another job because he acted up so bad when we worked together that it was embarrassing to my character and embarrassing to Americans

[Mr. Hamrick]

Just my my two cents here bearded...

It's probably best in the long run that things worked out the way they did.  If you told him exactly what you thought of him then you'd likely be out of a job.

I've found it best as of late to probably not tell certain people what I think of them.  Not just from the standpoint of ruining professional relationships but personal ones as well.

[daglob]

Besides, the job market is lousy, and NO ONE needs to be out looking for work right now.

[docdelorean88]

Besides, the job market is lousy, and NO ONE needs to be out looking for work right now.

Exactly. In your position i would have wanted to tell them how i feel aswell, but only if i knew i could get another job in a reasonable amount of time. I think this turned out reasonably well.

[bearded]

thank you all.

[Blkcasanova247]

I'm happy everything worked out for the best.