Work realted woes
May. 16th, 2010 06:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kippurbirdFirst because cats make everything better: A cat
Now for a mulchy mix of moo'foory. I'm not sure who is to blame for it. Could be me.
This all started, I believe, with the wonderful world of "oops I attached the wrong file..." . I sent in an article to a newspaper that talked about my library and the university that contains it. As it spoke about the university, it had to be vetted. I sent it off to the Communications department, they asked me to make some changes. I made changes and then sent off the unchanged version. Which got published. All seemed fine and dandy. I got a note from the head of communications that said Hey! Here's your article.
There was much rejoicing. (yaaay)
Several weeks passed and Wednesday I get called into the bossman's office. It must now be said that I have Asperger's Syndrome and so certain things -like a sudden call into the boss's office without time for me to process the information - is enough to send me into a high anxiety fit. I didn't think much about it at first, though. We're about to switch to summer hours, I thought he wanted to talk about my summer schedule.
No. Instead he had three things he wanted to talk to me about.
1. The article. The Higher Ups were apparently upset that I sent the version I did. Understandable!
2. Productivity.
3. Internet usage.
There would be an HR meeting about it all.
Now, these last two were a bit problematic for autistic reasons. You would think that productivity is down because of internet usage, but instead productivity was down because of a semi-logical semi not logical fear of finishing things. If I finish something, then it ceases to exist. So, of course, if I have a bunch of little projects. Like four books on my cart that need to be cataloged I'm going to try and put off finishing that fourth book as long as possible. If I have a deadline, then I'm good, because things need to be finished at the deadline. Which I was unable to articulate at the time.
Instead I got sent into a bit of a tizzy - panic attack. Thank God for my mom. I called her up. She came and calmed me down. And we talked.
Now, I know that internet usage on non-work things during company time is forbidden, however, I'm a bit of a monkey see monkey do. I walk around the university and look at other people's computer screens as I'm passing by and what do I see? Things like Livejournal and Facebook up. Obviously it must mean that the rule is one of those things that is said but never followed. Right?
However, I was getting flack for it.
My mother and I spent a good two hours at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf near my place hashing out a 'plan of attack' where we addressed the issues. First of all we discovered that getting paid or not losing my job weren't big incentives for me to do my job. Mostly because my fear of finishing things was much greater.
So, time came for the meeting. There was myself, my mother, two HR people, the boss and the rabbi. Boss took the beginning by saying that I was a wonderful person, good to be around, creative problem solver but... and then went on to talk about the three points listed above.
When he got to the part about the internet there was a nice bit of shifty eying and staring at the laps and the ceiling by the HR people and the rabbi. They seemed to be befuddled as to why he was making such a point of this. When he was done, my mom lay into him.
The end result is that I'm not allowed to use the internet on work time, even though everyone but bossman thinks it's ridiculous and I have to push past my fear and finish things. But I was given to know that they'll be longer projects to help with it.
I don't know who came up on top. Bossman was made to look foolish but I lost something that was technically against the rules but everyone did it. And I've been doing it for years now.
Now for a mulchy mix of moo'foory. I'm not sure who is to blame for it. Could be me.
This all started, I believe, with the wonderful world of "oops I attached the wrong file..." . I sent in an article to a newspaper that talked about my library and the university that contains it. As it spoke about the university, it had to be vetted. I sent it off to the Communications department, they asked me to make some changes. I made changes and then sent off the unchanged version. Which got published. All seemed fine and dandy. I got a note from the head of communications that said Hey! Here's your article.
There was much rejoicing. (yaaay)
Several weeks passed and Wednesday I get called into the bossman's office. It must now be said that I have Asperger's Syndrome and so certain things -like a sudden call into the boss's office without time for me to process the information - is enough to send me into a high anxiety fit. I didn't think much about it at first, though. We're about to switch to summer hours, I thought he wanted to talk about my summer schedule.
No. Instead he had three things he wanted to talk to me about.
1. The article. The Higher Ups were apparently upset that I sent the version I did. Understandable!
2. Productivity.
3. Internet usage.
There would be an HR meeting about it all.
Now, these last two were a bit problematic for autistic reasons. You would think that productivity is down because of internet usage, but instead productivity was down because of a semi-logical semi not logical fear of finishing things. If I finish something, then it ceases to exist. So, of course, if I have a bunch of little projects. Like four books on my cart that need to be cataloged I'm going to try and put off finishing that fourth book as long as possible. If I have a deadline, then I'm good, because things need to be finished at the deadline. Which I was unable to articulate at the time.
Instead I got sent into a bit of a tizzy - panic attack. Thank God for my mom. I called her up. She came and calmed me down. And we talked.
Now, I know that internet usage on non-work things during company time is forbidden, however, I'm a bit of a monkey see monkey do. I walk around the university and look at other people's computer screens as I'm passing by and what do I see? Things like Livejournal and Facebook up. Obviously it must mean that the rule is one of those things that is said but never followed. Right?
However, I was getting flack for it.
My mother and I spent a good two hours at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf near my place hashing out a 'plan of attack' where we addressed the issues. First of all we discovered that getting paid or not losing my job weren't big incentives for me to do my job. Mostly because my fear of finishing things was much greater.
So, time came for the meeting. There was myself, my mother, two HR people, the boss and the rabbi. Boss took the beginning by saying that I was a wonderful person, good to be around, creative problem solver but... and then went on to talk about the three points listed above.
When he got to the part about the internet there was a nice bit of shifty eying and staring at the laps and the ceiling by the HR people and the rabbi. They seemed to be befuddled as to why he was making such a point of this. When he was done, my mom lay into him.
The end result is that I'm not allowed to use the internet on work time, even though everyone but bossman thinks it's ridiculous and I have to push past my fear and finish things. But I was given to know that they'll be longer projects to help with it.
I don't know who came up on top. Bossman was made to look foolish but I lost something that was technically against the rules but everyone did it. And I've been doing it for years now.
