Multi-tasking - the new corporate buzz word...
I worked for Home Depot for a year
The #1 reason for people taking a medical leave of absence there was STRESS. You are expected to perform at 120% no matter what, anything less and you get \'weeded\' out. They claim they do this because they only want the best service for their customers; the truth is they want only 20 employees to run an entire store whereas 10 years ago there were 100. This means if there are 30 customers in one of your aisles, and you manage to somehow help (juggle) 29 of them, but the 30th one complains because they had no help, YOU, the rep for that dept, gets written up! They NEVER see what you do, only what you FAIL TO DO. Forget the fact that it is a management decision to run a store short on staff, it is YOUR FAULT! Everyone is expected to be at least familiar with EVERY OTHER DEPARTMENT, be able to operate EVERY MACHINE in the building, and be able to drive each piece of loading equipment. In the year I was there I was the only one who actually filled ALL of those requirements. Hey, why not? If they wanted to pay for the training for my 300 some odd certifications then more power to them. I thought this would endear me to the company, but instead it just made me more \'useable\'. They took advantage, and used me on every shift, and to fill in when other didn\'t show. The \"under-performers\" were never mis-treated this way, because no one wanted to use them any more then they had to. Myself and others, who actually did our job above and beyond the call of duty got shat on by the \"man\" because useful people get USED. I noticed, just before I left, that two people who were known for shirking and always \'disappearing\' when there was hard work to be done got PROMOTED to department heads. This makes a twisted sort of sence: If someone is doing a truly excellent job why move them? Give the MANAGEMENT positions to people who don\'t do much anyway (I actually had the nerve to ask my asst. Manager why this was, and he said because those are the type of people who are best at \'delegating responsibilty\"!).
My mother has worked for the United States Govt for 28 years, and its even more true there. She is a federal purchasing agent, and every year she gets in trouble for saving the Govt millions of dollars. You see, she does her job very well, and gets them the best price on everything from office supplies, to contractor bids, to toilet paper and computers! Unfortunately, it means her division is usually the only one left with a lot of money at the end of the year. Left over money = less money in next year\'s budget, something that is frowned upon by her supervisors. So... she spends 11 months out of the year winning awards for saving them money, and then spends the last four weeks scrambling around buying crates of $750 hammers... that just sit unused in some warehouse somewhere.
It is the nature of what our jobs have become... the duplicity in our lives if you will... that has made us all slightly unbalanced. When people are getting in trouble for doing the right thing then it is time we all take a long hard look at this little high-tech society we have built for ourselves and re-evaluate what is important in our lives.
My kids can\'t eat pride or self-respect, but they sure can\'t eat at all with a father who\'s dead from a heart attack in his forties.
