100 Reasons To Hate The Daygig: #36 - The Repetition

Another overnight. This one was presented to me yesterday as the only solution to getting tonight's tasks done. I've been here as a manager for about eighteen months and figured I'd be the bottom head on the totem for a little while, and while people have left and new hires have occurred, the newer people have been hired at higher positions, knocking me back every three months or so.

I'd like to make one thing clear to you: I'm not the ideal guy for this job. The ideal guy for this job is 15-20 years younger, has no problem staying up really late, has worked in similar positions performing similar industry-related tasks (not 'The Industry', just the industry I'm currently in) and probably still lives at home. I'm too old, have too much going on in my personal life and have one too many sensible people at home who ask patiently whether the company thinks I sleep on a cot in the storage closet.

Did I know any of this when I got the job? To be fair, a lot of what this job is now wasn't a part of the scene back then. It should have been, but the fact is my boss back then, although capable, was not as ambitious as my current boss and things that are checked daily, even hourly now, were not considered vital back then. Now I'm expected to have a matrix of numbers at the ready from memory, an Excel spreadsheet fullscreen and constantly updated in my mind's eye. Yesterday I sat in a meeting and learned of new expectations and couldn't stop thinking how much I am not that guy.

Yes, I hear you, got it, say something. Great idea.

I did.

My boss told me I was taking things too personally and needed to take it easier.

Do something! Yeah! Outstanding idea!

I did.

Before my boss started here, he interviewed me for another job in the company, a newly-created position, one that I'd known was coming for a few months, something more in line with what I wanted to do and what my background has been. His first question for me was why did I want to switch from the management track I was on already? I explained that I'd known about this new position, inquired with my old boss, and she said I should take on the full-time management role to get a higher profile with the company and put myself in a better position to take this new position. He nodded and asked Question #2.

Question #3 was Question #1 with his head tilted.

Question #7 was #3 with his hand on his chin.

I was turned down for the job. Shortly thereafter, he was named my new boss and he revealed the five people he'd chosen for the new position. They were, in his terms, rock stars, the best of the applicants by far, exemplary and without a doubt the right choices.

Four out of the five were gone in six months. They had all quit with the caveat that if they had known what the atmosphere was like at my workplace, they wouldn't have taken the job. I'd been here and knew what it was like, wasn't offered the job.

I've got the job where I'm here at 2 am.

I just got word there's another overnight mandated by the company for one night next week. Guess who's scheduled that night?

So I will say something and I will do something. Again.

And what does this have to do with screenwriting?

I've just wrapped up the work I was doing tonight while some others on staff are still at it. I've got I.O.U. open on my desktop and I'm writing.

Puuuuush.