Workin' for a Living

I had planned a perky little post about pickles, peppermint sticks and pomegranates. Instead, though I need to release some work-related mess.

Ours is a small shop, just nine of us to satisfy the demands of the business. Accordingly, we all were multiple hats. My hats are labeled anything related to the finances and the day-to-day operations, making sure *the office* runs smoothly.

Suffice to say, my days are pretty full, what with keeping the books, paying the bills, collecting the debts, dealing with service people, ordering supplies and being the answer lady. Since I don’t have any back-up or any assistants, any time off, means extra added burdens to the constant barrage of to-dos.

This week the captain has been in a snit. His snit is the result of multiple failures of areas under his direct supervision, sales, marketing and customer service. The guy charged with the day-to-day of these areas has fallen down on the job. In my opinion, he was never up to the challenge, but, nobody asked for my opinion. Truth be told, the captain is...well, he did allow this situation to fester for over two years.

GS has not ever shown any talent for organization, supervision or administration. He has been building, for the past 2 ½ years, a shrine on and about his desk. This shrine consists of files, mail, reports and whatever that else has come across his nose. He quite literally has stacks on his desk and on the floor around him topping off at three feet, I kid you not.

Captain, freely admits being unable to get an answer from this guy about anything, without him having to rummage through one of the various shrines. It takes hours to uncover information, if ever, often re-construction is necessary. Deadlines have been missed, goals have not been met.

The boss, the captain, shrugs, sighs and pulls his hands through his rapidly receding hair.

Thursday, the snit hit a fever pitch and as usual I’m holding the catcher’s mitt. "I’m going to ask you please to supervise the clean-up of that desk..I want you to look at and assess every piece of paper. I know I’m asking a lot, but..." The boss wants me to take on more responsibility, to enforce suggestions I’d been making to the BOTH of them for over two years now.

I started going through some of the stacks before I left work Thursday. Based on what I found, it is crystal clear that we should be looking for a trade. I don't know why it's taken so long for captain to act and I am not at all thrilled with the direction this action is taking. The trade talks may include a face the captain wasn't expecting.