I changed departments about 6 weeks ago, so theoretically I'm still under the authority of a single department head (aka "Manager A"), as well as the company owner (who gets to order me around by virtue of the fact that he signs my paycheck). The reality is that I seem to have gained three more people who think I'm their bitch too.
This is not good. I'd dearly love to be able to shoot them the bird blow them a resounding raspberry and just ignore them, but it ain't happenin' as the saying goes. All three are in a position to make my life a living hell miserable if they so choose. And trust me, if I don't follow their orders, they will choose. There's a reason I think of them as The Enforcer, The Bitch, and The Predator. The first two I have to deal with daily, and at least for now, we seem to be practicing a little deterrence theory in lieu of actual détente.
And just what does any of this have to do with Mondays, pray tell?
It's very simple: Those are the days I usually get loaned out to another dept. head. (Let's call him "Manager B".) He's not the problem; he's easy to work for/with and the job duties I perform while under his direction aren't onerous. The problem is, that's the day The Predator has the most opportunity to order me around as she pleases once the company owner leaves the premises. She leaves Manager A alone (a wise decision on her part), but she doesn't mind playing dominance games with Manager B. In fact, she and the other members of the Bitchy Estrogen Brigade (aka "BEB") show damn little respect to or for him most of the time, and it really ticks me off to see a nice guy treated so shabbily. Hell, the BEB seems to think *he's* their bitch too, despite the fact that he's on the same level as they are in the corporate structure! The owner really ought to put a stop to such crass unprofessionalism, not that anyone there cares what I think....
Now, I could understand someone further up in the company hierarchy reassigning me if I were standing around with my thumb up my arse, but when I'm obviously working? And following Mgr. A's order to follow Mgr. B's directions, like I was Monday before last? And she's not even in my so-called chain-of-command? Not acceptable!
I know, I know, I could've told her to *piss off* as politely as I could manage (although considering past encounters and the brusqueness with which she'd addressed me, those would probably have been the exact words I'd have used) and then later taken the matter to the owner for an executive decision. Unfortunately, she has the owner's cell and home phone numbers and I don't, and with him gone much of the time, she'd get to make her case for public insubordination and rudeness by phone, well in advance of any opportunity I would have to present my side of the issue.
I have a feeling that before long, the owner's going to find me in his office, telling him things he doesn't want to hear. Yet again.
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