my boss and boss-boss are currently reading “management 101″ pages 4 and 5. the current lessons are “how to create incentives for staff” and “make yourself available to staff” so that it seems like you actually care.

the incentive is a meeting with people from other international offices. sounds good, doesn’t it? well, let’s look a little closer at the offer. it’s a meeting a mere one hour from wiesbaden. so the train ride will not be long and certainly not expensive. the hotel is being covered by the german government. and the food is paid by me because “at home i would also pay my own food”. so yeah, it’s a really big investment.

let’s have a look at the “i care about you” part. my boss-boss came into the office today and wanted to know (of course without any preparation on our part) how we (my colleague and i) feel about the work we do. mh, ok. you want an honest answer? then give me time to prepare and do not ask me in front of my colleagues! don’t get me wrong, i like her. but i think it is totally wrong to ask these kind of questions when the environment is not right. and “listeners” is not ok if you expect honest answers.

regarding my feeling about work, i said that i have mixed feelings…and my boss-boss jaw dropped! hehe. go me. i explained myself and let’s just say that every critique i had was either talked down or blamed on someone else.
you know, when i ask someone about their opinion, i listen, i try to understand, i ask if i don’t get it. nope. like i expected anything different.

oh, and boss-boss was also dissing colleagues who were not present. nice. makes you wonder what she does when i am not present.

why all this? boss and boss-boss probably realized that my probation period is drawing to an end. and also that of my colleague i share the office with. this means that our contracts cannot be cancelled that easily and of course, it’s a planning issue.
so boss-boss wants to know if we intend to stay. of course, that question was never asked. and i would not have answered, especially because i have my interview in leipzig tomorrow.

do i care? i would have, really. but not when it is so darn obvious that, in reality, they do not care. so why bother?

unfortunately, i have the bad feeling that boss and boss-boss are thinking about firing my one colleague who has been wanting to leave for months now. by knowing we would stay (as if) they would have some sort of planning security. fake one, of course. and that might make him replaceable. though the idea behind hiring two new people was that there is so much work that it is necessary to have 3.5 people working there, not just 2.5.

oh well. i’ll keep you posted on these developments!

for tomorrow, i hope you are thinking of me. i’m very curious to see the offer!

best,
franzi