Is it just me or do jobs always go sour after a while?  My previous job went sour because my boss couldnt catch my typos (when my job was designing,not writing).  He had absolutely no QC (quality control) guidline set up what so ever.  No wonder he missed so much!  His idea of QC was he'd "look it over" before he'd send it off to proof with a customer (who'd miss it too) or the printer (who'd miss it as well) and then blow up at me because I was the 'apex' of the project.

Now, this job I got with the local newspaper is turning into a bully-management system.

My original job when I got hired was this: From 3pm-4:30pm make retention calls (retention is calling people who havn't paid their bill in two weeks).  From 4:30pm to 5pm attend the counter.  5pm-7pm take any incomming calls, write them down on "The Long Sheet", and try to solve them.  Also, call all customers that started that day to make sure they recieved their paper, and call evryone who stopped for non payment to ask them if they want to restart.  Any calls regarding stops, starts, transers, payments etc I wrote down.

I also had a co-worker at the time, another clerk called the 'head clerk'.  They'd work 8am to 4:30pm.  Their job was to enter all the information that was left from last night (though if I took a call or got information for them to enter durring the day, I'd hand it right off).  After taht was done they'd run "Production", then the "Mail Production" and then attend counter for the rest of the afternoon.

This coworker decided to go part time, but instead of swapping jobs with me (as I was the part time person) she just works the morning hours, 8am to noon.  She does everything up to and including "Mail Production", but not the counter afterward.  I was granted two extra hours.  Durring those hours I was told I'd need to attend the counter and the phone.  Ok, that works. I'm skiddish but I'll learn.

I start the extra hours. A day into it they give me access to "The System" that allows me to enter stuff so taht I dont always have to write it all down.  Okay, fair.  It takes me a while but I'm doing it.  Then I'm told I have to enter credit cards.  again, it takes me a while but I get it.

Then come the whoppers:  I'm supposed to make retention calls twice a day now.  Between 2pm and 3pm and later between 6pm and 7pm, but, I'd get to turn off the phone at 6pm instead of 7pm.  This is okay, except for emergency situations.  the 5pm-7pm time is for when a route goes down and the phone is ringging off the hook.  That time is now cut in half.  Fine, whatever.  Their choice to lynch their business.  (also the "district mamagers" would no longer be with me from 6-7.  They were needed earlier in the day.)

Next Whopper: you're not doing your job well enough, even though you're doing it better than what it was when you started.  There are three ways to reacha customer: 1: I call them they answer their phone. 2:  I call them, their answering machine picks up. 3: I call, there's no answer, I send them a flyer.  I kept geting reamed for 'sending too many fliers'.  How the hey am I supposed to -force- customers to answer their phones?

Next Whopper: They want me to do telemarketing.  Sales was an option for me when I started. I'm not a sales person. I cannot sell something I don't buy into myself.  I was able to get by that one by metioning that it would be a 'health risk' for me.

Next whopper: Phone has to stay on until 7pm.  No "district managers" to stay with me. I need to make my 60 outgoing calls in 2 hours -and- take all incomming calls, and deal with them (which can be calling carriers and drivers, return calls to customers, runing papers myself, etc).  Suddenly my 5-7 portion of my job is a hell of a lot more complicated.

Current Whopper: I am now suddeny supposed to enter all of the information my morning couterpart would enter in the mornings.  And be dammed for even dare having a glimmer of a thought that it wasn't my job!  I get reamed a new one today for: 1: not entering the information while it's fresh (it's so fresh most the time it isnt finished untill I leave anyway). 2: Not keeping up on my work (which I only ever got behind on when I was sick because no one would cover for me).  3: Making my work too complicated for anyone to coer me (yet somehow they insist that 'they can do all this stuff and more at once!  Why the hell cant you?') 4: leaving too much for my coworker to deal with in the morning (I suppose so she can surf facebook, craig's list, ASPCA.com, Kirkish Furnature, realestate websites, yahoo mail, etc).  Which, she never had her morning hours cut, so why is it suddenly impossible for her to do her morning work?  and then I get reamed for it?  I don't know how to enter a new customer because I get "error zip code does not bring up a city" so I get reamed for "how the hel can you not know how to enter it" (When no one traned me)?

I aboslutely feel like this company's 2 cent cum guzzlign street hooker who's begging for more!  I work 34 hours a week and am refused  full time pay and benifits! I am the only one that works the Saturday shift.  No one else does and they turn up their noses at the dare thought of sharing the saturday shift (which is a zingger on my sleep cylcle and why I have a lack there of).  The only time someone takes a Saturday is if they 'need to make up hours'.  Great, glad to know my 'relief' is on a "When it's advantagious for me only" basis.

The real hard part is the dread.  The dread of going to work when I wake up int he morning.  The dread of getting picked on even more at work, the dread of going to bead because when I wake up it will be another day to go to work.  It's getting very much harder and harder not to give up and start slamming staples into my arm just to proove to them that, yes, they can make me snap!  It's so tempting to just give in to the urge to give up being sane about this! There is no sane! I get lectured and asked a question. I answer it.  I'm told the answer is wrong.  I can't come up with any other answer.  I get yelled at.  They give me the answer after making me look like a fool.  Their answer being the exact same one I gave when first questioned! I hand a customer their recipt and get told to take it back from them because it's supposed to be stapled. That's right, a staple. The customer doesn't care, I'm still told to take it back 'because we do things right here'.  That's right, a staple. I take it back and staple it and hand it to the customer for the second time. (this coworker seriously doesn't need a break, she need a retirement!)

And this isn't even the tip of the iceberg!  This is maybe a third of the ridicule I get from my coworkers!