Boss

This entry is the first in the new category of "Fuck Off." And I cannot think of a more appropriate first entry than one for my boss, Ken Nelson.

A little background first. When I started working here at KAMU/EBS, Wayne Pecena was my boss. He was an absolutely great boss for me:

• He gave me tasks to do, and I did them.
• He hated confrontation. So his attitude when, one time, a co-worker (Tony Hockenberry) complained about me, Wayne's comment to me was, "Please fix this so that Tony doesn't bother me." I liked that. We worked well together. I loved this man in his role as my supervisor.

After a while, and a few more full-timers were hired, we had a change in our administrative structure. The significant changes were that I was no longer the supervisor for Margene; and my supervisor changed from Wayne to Ken. Ken also became the supervisor for Margene, and a couple others here.

Prior to this, Ken was a co-worker. We'd worked together just fine. In fact, it was before the change that he expressed interest in playing trap for shows at the theatre; but it wasn't until after this change that the first theatre gig for him was to come. That was weird. I'm pretty sure that was for Little Shop of Horrors.

Now he was my boss.

In the first meeting with him, he mentioned to me that he had really no idea what it was that I did around here. We came upon a solution to that: I was simply to copy him on relevant emails. That way he'd see the things that people were requesting of me and how I dealt with them. I liked that. It added no significant work to my day.

He also mentioned that he is a "hands-on" boss.

I absolutely choked on that.

I remember just fuming at the mention of that. I am an independant worker. I am goal-oriented in the way that I work; and I just hate being checked up on. So, this comment did not sit well with me. I even thought about focusing on Nikken and the St. Francis gig such that I could quit the KAMU job.

Well, I didn't do that. But managed to get past my initial fuming.

The most irritating thing about the way that Ken supervises that he is a stickler for 40 hours of work in a week. I tend to work about 35 hours. Well, I tend to be in the office for about 35 hours. My lunches are long; I come in at around 8:30 or 9:00 and then leave between 5:00 and 5:15. I always get my work done; I'm on call all the time with regard to the computers here - and part time with regard to TTVN. This is not a mode that the new boss can deal with, apparently. We worked out an "arrangement" whereby I stay after 5:00 the amount of time that I arrive later than 8:00 a.m. He emphasized that if I take longer than an hour for lunch I need to make it up later.

Then, from time to time, he'd say something that brought the initial "deal" to mind. For instance, one time when he saw me leaving earlier than he thought I ought to, he emailed me to remind me of the deal. At an annual review, he questioned me, saying, "Now, what hours do you work, again?" That came across to me as passive-aggressive. And I fumed some more.

Yesterday when I walked in at 2:30 p.m. after lunch, he caught my eye and then stood next to me near the Operations area (something was going on there that we were both paying attention to) and said, "Did you take an extended lunch?" "Yeah. I got held up at the bank." "Yeah, because I thought I saw you leaving at 12:30." "That's right."

The implication was that I should stay late and make up the time.

It's funny. Lately I'd begun to think that we wasn't so bad. He didn't mention time at all in the last annual review - only had good things to say. We were working on the music to "Footloose" at the theatre together. And all felt good. I was silly to let myself think that he was chilling out about this.

I submitted several job applications via geekfinder.com. Even went so far as to apply for three different positions at Real Networks in Seattle.

I feel like I'm being watched. I feel like I'm not trusted. I feel like I'm being perceived as stealing from the "company" because of the way that I coordinate my time. I fucking HATE this. And I'm going to get out.