File puptcrit/puptcrit.0807, message 307


From: "Alan Cook" <alangregorycook-AT-msn.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Date: Fri, 01 Aug 2008 05:51:56 GMT
Subject: [Puptcrit] Crappy bosses in the real world


Hey Matthieu---

Welcome to the real world of crappy bosses and crappy jobs. It was the same for me working for an incompetent boss at Sears in El Monte way back in the 1960s, or at the old Broadway Dept Stores in 1950s/60s which eventually went out of business thanks to incompetent executves at the very top of the company. No matter what, THAT company's policy was to side with managers over mere staff. Sadly, many managers were promoted beyond their abilities. Same thing with the top CEO.

So you put up with the mediocrity as long as you can stand it, and when you leave you will feel liberated. Ever wonder why so many puppeteers work solo or in small companies? 

My worst job was as a teller at Bank of America, where the Bank deliberately made the job so unpleasant that people WOULD leave before becoming eligible for a week's vacation time. They'd rather train you for a week or two and then replace you.. The turnover is incredible in places like that.

I went thru bank training wih a young girl who lied about being 18 (she was 17 and unwed pregnant). She ended up as a bookkeeper where I was a teller, and after a month on her job, one fifth of the customer accounts were a mess--that branch had to mass-produce apology letters to local merchants for bounced checks  ---certainly an interesting thing to observe up close. The rest of us had to work 2 extra hours at the end of the day (for a month or more) sorting out the bookkeeping mess. So much for management!

They say military intellience is an oxymoron and it is truly a contradiction to many who served---it was in my experience anyway. A military saying was: There are three ways of doing things---the right way---the wrong way---and the army way. I replied, nope, just TWO ways.....the right way & the army way. There are plenty of businesses run in the army way.

At Sears in El Monte,  California,, I was in the Display Department. That department had a LONG list of those who preceded me in the job, written on the inside of a TALL plywood door of a storage space in our work space. Each departing employee added his or her name to the list including me.  I'm sure the list continued to grow at a dramatic rate until the store finally closed.  But just knowing the list was long helped put the crappy job in perspective.

A prominent puppet company with live shows and many TV shows was noted for employee abuse---they tended to overlook your final two-week check at the close of a run. But at least it was showbiz (not unlike the guy in the circus with the manure shovel in hand).

So take the money and spend it on food and puppets and make the job count for something positive.

ALAN COOK


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