FOWC: Violation

The company I work for, up until a few months ago used to be a fun, place to work. I’m not saying it is this utopian place where everyone gets on, theres always bad eggs, always. But today really took the biscuit, to coin a phrase. The biscuits provided with coffee, were, by the way, superb; those massive cookie type, white and dark with similar coloured chocolate chips, soft, almost stale, but so good. I had one of each, I wasn’t meant to, fortunately not everyone indulged.

Today, a new way of working was revealed to us. A move to make us work remotely for days and weeks in remote ,strange far off places; Wales, the mountains. I wouldn’t mind really, but the way my new boss dictates to us, like Kim Jong Un would. He’s ruling with no particular empathy towards us, he was one of us, and now he seems to be there to do his ultimate master’s bidding. He suggests, with a few weeks before the detached duty, that he needs volunteers for the job, today in Wales, next time over in the East of England, he sends us out of the room, we split into two groups and we discuss, realising the fact the union can not help us, if we don’t decide today, he will volunteer some of us himself, this is the classic technique employed by a bully, he uses scare tactics, to force us to attend to his bidding, you should read this piece, very perceptive piece by Driftwood

This explains my boss to a tee, and does it far better than I ever could. He judges us on statistics which have no meaning, statistics which, over the course of a few months, have been falling, we have no answer to these falls, except to say we are the highest producing group, we have the best figures and are among the most efficient in the business.

When challenged about what the statistics meant, and how they are collated, he had no idea, really, you could see the cogs turning in his head, he back tracked and said that altogether we were in a good place to try and deflect the criticisms we so often receive from him, never a pat on the back, a well done here and a good work there. It’s a violation of our peaceful existence, we used to love what we do, now i’m not so sure, folk are now clock watching, counting down the days, months and in my case years (decades) until we leave.

Just before we left, as a passing shot, he mentioned that holidays may need to be sanctioned, with a maximum of 40% of us allowed to be away at any one time. I doubt more than 40% of us are ever away at the same time, at least not for prolonged periods anyway.

My friend said ,

“This is a violation of our employment rights, this requires agreement with the unions”

…quietly of course, we all wanted to get home.

Sadly this seems to be the state of things to come, one day when the company reaches critical mass and implodes on itself, i’ll tell the whole story of a little man with the whistle.