Confidante

Well it appears I have achieved the impossible and managed to become M's confidante again. I'll see how long this lasts. Through gritted teeth I offer support and concern for her well-being. There must be a portrait of Poor Cliff in an attic somewhere, with a nose that is extending each day. One member of staff is about to hand in their notice and emigrate and another one, is about to be given the boot. So that will be her wages bill reduced by oh, some 70k over a year. Can I have my days back please?

I'm not paranoid.

Referring to my post of 1st September when I commented that thought that D makes my life a misery on purpose, I have had it confirmed by his secretary that he does. He insists that all her communication to me is cc'd to him, so of course I only reply to her. If he is monitoring my work, he should tell me. If he is simply doing it for curiosity to see how and when I reply.... well, where did all the trust go and surely he has better things to do? He has to make sure that I do little things, menial things, that other people could do just as easily. And once again, he is unable to look me in the eye.

At some point I have to organise the annual appraisals. That should be interesting. Last year he told me that I was irreplaceable. That if they were to try to replace me they would need two people to do it. Hah! I must be super human, doing 10 days work in 3 days. How much money they must be saving!

Small victories

What has happened to M? I've got my three days off all together - finally approved by the Board! How long did that decision take? I'm not sure how to take the fact that this was important enough to have to be approved by the Board (her, D and W - you can guess what that stands for). W is an external consultant, who despite all the financial crises and panics M & D have gone through, has not reduced his consultancy fee. He and D are in their element, cutting back, being 'ruthless businessmen', doing what is necessary to survive in this hard market.

Ruthless - yes, a word when attached to 'businessman' aligns neatly with 'bully' in my books. Someone who gets other people to do their dirty work. Someone who intimidates over the phone and email but when face to face can barely look you in the eye.

M even sent me a supportive email being non-antagonistic when normally she would have been.

But the woes indeed continue. The person who, like me, had to contend with reduced hours and reduced salary has left today. The manager has had to take up the slack and do their job and their own for no extra money (he did ask). Someone else has been suspended for gross misconduct. Oh yes, and I was the one to tell them.

Who can do my job?

Let's face it. It's not a difficult job to do. Coordinate people and events, liase, support, solve. But one of the simplest things is to fill out a form and gather information to go with that form. So how come, in the light of recent events, am I the only person who can do this? I had to laugh. Meetings had to be changed to work around my availability in order that a form could be completed and sent out to meet a deadline. OK, it wasn't the simplest of forms, and some information in it apparently only I knew or knew how to get hold of. But really!

Oh and now, M has discovered someone has been fraudulently claiming on their expenses. Yet another one up for the chop eh?

Oh Joy!

You know if I start with a heading like that it's bound to be a lie. Yes, M & D are back at work. After their 6 week long sojourn M is back and friendly, D is back and a pain in the arse. I swear he does it on purpose. He is as pedantic and nit-picking as he can be. I would have thought he had more important things to do than to worry about a £15 spend per month on a software licence. Seems not.

M, on the other hand, is sweetness and light so, however hard it was for me, I was too. Dissembling will become second nature to me... I've asked again to keep my work days consecutive, otherwise I find it too stressful (switching on and off daily).

One of the reasons D said that he employed me was because I could withstand stress. Now I can't.