WHAT MADE YOU GRIMACE & GRIT YOUR TEETH TODAY?

Oh, so glad you have a potential B-plan and C-plan if needed... hope it works out for you PDawg - keep us posted fella. Best wishes. x

Do not quit being a vet. I know you're good. And you really care.

And if I can find a way to become a "team player," I'll be safe for the long term. But that'd mean the director growing a spine, which seems improbable, or being placed with somebody competent, which is eminently desireable but highly unlikely, given the degree of cronyism and mutual self-congratulatory masturbation on the board.

I do have some hope that the consultant, who's actually a former mentor of mine and knows how the business should work and is not at all afraid of making unpopular decisions and recommendations, might actually be able to effect some positive changes. We talked at some length, for instance, about our need for another technician, which is something we've been lobbying for since I started and have repeatedly been told there are no funds for, even as management types create new office positions for their friends. This may actually happen, bringing the average work week in my department down to maybe 45 hours, which will be 5-10 hours less physical and intellectual and emotional fatigue to make us mutter the 7 words you can't say on television constantly. She also seemed to understand, without my having to bring it up, the decidedly inequitable division of labor between myself and the senior veterinarian, which the technicians all joke about but about which the higher-ups are blissfully unaware -- because she goes to meetings with them, and the higher-ups think that meetings are "work" rather than, as is usually the cause, the opposite of work. (Incidentally, she's been called on the carpet a number of times for her own demeanor. I wonder if it's ever occurred to them to ask why they can't keep a veterinarian for more than a year without them turning into bitter, vicious curs?)




Really, to do what I want to do, there's only one game in town I'm willing to work for. The other big local player has recruited me repeatedly, but I think their methods are unsound (though they are well-intentioned) and I'd worry about poisoning my reputation with the local veterinary community and possibly getting called in front of the licensing board if I worked there for any length of time.

So I've got to 1) change my behavior, 2) compromise my career goals, or 3) relocate. I really don't want to do 2), and 3) is not feasible right now -- though there is a sweet gig in the Bahamas that a business acquaintance has recommended me (among others) for. So I've got to change my behavior. Which has been a lifelong struggle for me anyway, and I already know this. It just frustrates me to no end that idiots always end up in charge, and I've never quite acquired skills for dealing with that.

OK, I think that's it. Luckily I'm on my own this weekend, so the missus didn't have to hear it. Pity the drinking companions tomorrow night, though...

big hug for p-dog!
(((PD)))

Yeah, okay, thanks folks. That was a long screed from a bad dog.

So...how can we keep this puppy sweetly smiling amongst the merde?

Yes, tell me how...

That's why this is the vent-o-rama thread.

I hope you can find a way to make this turn in your direction, pppDog.

Is there any way to take advantage of one of your alternative options - and then come back to your current employer in a position of some community power?

Nope. At the top, the organization is poisonous and spineless -- when threatened, they terminate (I've lasted longer than previous dissenting voices). Which I know makes it sound like -- "OK, do something else, then." But the people at the bottom, in the trenches, who I actually work with on a daily basis, are generally excellent -- capable, dedicated, passionate, with a well-developed gallows humor, and accomplish great things in spite of the folks on top.

For which, of course, the folks on top take credit, are well-paid, take long vacations, and adopt the saintly mantle. And since they spend no time doing any of the actual work (or even observing it), they have no idea how many people are working unpaid overtime, forgoing lunch breaks, et al. to keep the place running. --- Actually, at last year's attitude assessment meeting, I explained this situation to the director, and she expressed shock. Her response? "That's not acceptable. That's illegal." But, since several employees (myself included) had been threatened with dismissal for working paid overtime (we'd work, say, 60 hours and clock in for 45 or 48) in the wake of a massive transfer in of some 30o dogs, nobody's putting in for overtime any more. But you can't just clock out at 5 o'clock and leave animals unfed, unmedicated, unvaccinated because OSHA says the day is over, y'know? And since the leaders leave around 4:30 (earlier on a Friday), they've got no idea how many people are scrabbling into the evening hours to get everything done.

At other shelters I travel to for spay/neuter services, the directors are right there on the floor with everybody else, hustling, sweaty, dirty -- and their crew aren't mutinous. But that's not our ship. Ours is a very large organization and prone to the same sort of stratification, inequitable division of labor, and vertical hostility as any large not-for-profit entity I've ever seen.

What I really need to do is just shut my damn mouth and not say what everybody else is thinking so we can go about doing the good work. Which I intend to do. I just wanted to unload it somewhere that was safe and where it hasn't already been heard before.

yep, unload away PDawg, we're here to listen.


<pfffffffffffffffffffst to the organisation bigwigs!>

as Gnossos Pappadopoulis once said. "been down so long it looks like up to me"

That's an interesting idea as a long term plan..


((((dawg))))

pffffft indeed.

Actually, after going in for 5 hours on my day off today (bringing me to a nice round 60 for the week, I think), I think it's an opportunity for me to step up and make a strong case for things that I feel need changing or are being neglected at the moment. Esp. sinc the only time I have their ear is when something untoward has filtered up to them. I think the consultant will be on my side on a lot of issues -- we've worked together in the past, we see things similarly, and she's the one voice they've listened to in the past (even when she's only reiterated things that staff have been saying for months). Eat some crow, make the case for why I'm more good than bad (and maybe those milquetoast bastards could use a little piss and vinegar around the place, though I wouldn't say so out loud), lay out what it is that's been pissing me off, and be done with it.

And if they aren't willing to make any concessions at all, maybe I do walk, since outlasting them* doesn't seem to be a viable strategy.




*I keep saying "them." "Them" really is the Direktor; her right hand, a hideous creature and old friend of the Direktor who appears to be in charge of pilfering donated dog toys and asking for free veterinary care (which is explicitly verboten per the employee handbook) -- sort of a cross between Himmler and Cookie Monster who was hired into a position tailored specifically to her remarkable lack of qualifications**; and a former technician, promoted from within, who usually is the sole means through which the wishes of the Direktor are communicated and who technically is my direct supervisor -- which means that every few months she cryptically informs me that I am supposed to meed with somebody higher up the chain, and will never reveal what the subject of the meeting is to be. Since my initial interview, the Direktor has not spoken to me beyond a plastic "Hi!" in the hallway except to admonish me, ascertain whether I intend to remain employed with this organization, or to try to order me to provide free medical care for Cookie Himmler's dog*** -- an order I flatly refused to follow and which was later brought up as an example of my insubordination.

** Said position was created at the same time as the position held by the erstwhile heir to the Direktor's chair was eliminated during a budget revision; she had been capable, but was not popular with the Board, and is now employed elsewhere.

*** Amusingly, not even Cookie Himmler's**** dog likes her. Given the choice of anybody else and Cookie Himmler, the dog always runs up to anybody else, including raving lunatics, convicts, and small screaming children.

**** I'm liking this "Cookie Himmler" moniker, but there already is a very serviceable and derisive three letter acronym (or "TLA") by which she is widely known.

Yeah, so I actually am a peurile ****, but whatcha gonna do?

I also liked the appellation, Direktor...

3 hour away-from-work with consultant/former mentor. Excellent exchange in both directions. We were both surprised by some things, I think.

Got some hope to keep the job and make it workable, especially as new info has come to light.

(Would still welcome a new boss, though, but I'm hardly alone in that...)

Well, that sounds great!!!

Any way you can tell us the new info???


I do hope this moves in a good direction for you.

Would be nice if you weren't so damn over-worked too!

We discussed this as a (not the, mind you) root cause of my trangressions. A number of organizational structures that used to exist for efficient operations fell by the wayside with mass personnel change before I came in. Going to try to reinstitute them. Some very good ideas, actually, don't know why they weren't kept up.

And much convo re: unbalanced contributions of docs and the importance (and acceptability) of my not worrying about stepping on her toes any more. Turns out the wealth of administrative responsibilities she's been attending to while holed up in her office aren't, um, her responsibility. Quite awkward, actually. Apparently administrations concerns in bringing in consultant went far beyond my couple of dust-ups around the joint.

Also discussion of steps to put me into the loop on decisions and to make the Direktor et al. at least somewhat accountable to staff when making decisions re: animal intake and movement. Hereto there has been no opportunity for input from medical or admitting staff re: new animals voluntarily brought into the shelter, and that has been a source of considerable tension.

And the uprising of unduly influen tial volunteers against certain staff members is being suppressed.

So, basically, I'm in trouble (fairly) for inappropriate responses to a host of very real problems that, at least partly in response to my outbursts, are now actually being dealt with. Which mollifies me somewhat that the Direktor et al. are at least capable of addressing problems when they receive pressure from the outside, and may be responsive in the future if somebody reasonably (and with a smile and in very small, easy to understand words*) exerts pressure from the inside. Nobody has been advocating for the medical staff, it turns out.

At any rate, she's gone for two weeks, so they definitely won't be able to fire me during that time, so I've got two weeks to try and make some changes to make things functional.

It doesn't mean that I'm not done, but the outlook for staying put and, more importantly, for conditions actually changing look a lot better than was initially presented to me.





* And in between cordial, sunny greetings in the hallway, another essential professional behavior I apparently have been neglecting.

Sounds like a damned weird set-up structurally. I have to say I have always been scared by volunteers.

Sounds like a bit of tail-wagging and play-bows are needed from you, puppy!

Hope the crazy stuff is addressed.