Work situation

[pez]

I work in highways engineering, currently as a senior engineer. The work being highways (also include local streets/roads), our clients are almost solely local authorities, TfL, Highways Agency etc. There hasn't been a great deal of exciting projects to do since 2008, I think even since before the Icelandic banks fiasco. There wasn't any design work, just lots of feasibility studies, report after report after report.

Around that time, the director who managed us went to Dhabi to open a new office. The whole office became managed by the directors from "upstairs" (we had 2 floors) - the megane!Steve & tall!Steve combo.

Also around that time, we started changing our internal systems to be inline with the head company in America. As we became totally reportable to the US, we have to comply with their regulations as well. But the system changeover was disastrous, as was the keeping-people-informed bit. To this day, nobody has given me any training on SOX compliance. Since 2009, I've had fuckall for training. They make me manage people and projects, but didn't even let me access the system for a year and a half. Once in a while finance would say things like "are you an idiot why are these numbers not balanced" or the client would want to know how much of the fee has been spent and I was like "I CAN'T FUCKING GET INTO THE SYSTEM." During those 18 months or so, I had an ongoing joke with my line manager, talking about who I needed to sleep with to gain system access. It also took them a year to print my business cards, and they printed it wrong.

The system is still pretty much a mystery to me. I poke at it like poking at php scripts, change one thing and see if it works or breaks.

At least they haven't asked me anymore about my engineering chartership. If I don't get any training/CPD even my membership is on the balance anyway.

Then we moved office to somewhere that's just one big floor. The Steve combo are still managing things. The recession happened. The Steves were clearly out of their depth, and were often out trying to win work, which meant they had no idea what was going on in the office. Work continued to be boring and crap apart from the one piece of work which I wrote the winning bid for, which was a £200k job, plenty of stuff for lots of people to get on with. (In comparison, the Streetscape I'm doing has a 20k fee.) To hell with "one company", if another office (London or the Head Office usually) needs people to do stuff and just for their own convenience doesn't want to send the work over (and also because they might be asked to actually transfer the job to us instead and they don't want us to earn the revenue that's "theirs"), the Steves always just bent over and sent us out. Which is fine if you can drive or don't live in bumfucknowhere in the middle of Tiptree and don't have a car, but that's what's happening. Every staff meeting, megane!Steve would remind staff to be flexible, hinting that if we refuse to move then our jobs are in jeopardy and guilttripping us about how inflexibility would harm the office. Never once had they told the other offices "hey, why don't you just give us the damn work if you've got too much on your hands," because the Steves are spineless and never stand up for us. If IB from London office said "bend over," tall!Steve would volunteer to pull down his own trousers as well. But don't let him fool you, he can be very passive-aggressive to his own office staff about stuff that needs done, about how we must go where he points us.

And that's how Buldy, who lives in bumfucknowhere, got shipped to London, and other people to Altrincham, Glasgow etc. Buldy is one of the CAD technicians. There is always CAD to do. There is always CAD to do. I've got two projects running at the moment - one of the Cycle Superhighway routes, and a TfL Streetscapes scheme. Both times I HAD to put him in as the CAD tech for the fee estimate because London and Croydon offices who are project managing would not let me use other CAD techs - Buldy is one of the lowest grades (G8) but is pretty good at it, therefore great value for money. Then London office got too much work, tapped tall!Steve on the shoulder and he bent over. Buldy said no, with good reasons - it's hard to go to London everyday from his house, and he's got plenty of work in our own office. But he was basically told that if he didn't move then "it'll be hard to find work for you here". Because we're all just pawns, not people.

So Buldy went, despite having done site visits with me to both my schemes. I was suddenly left with no technician. I couldn't get my drawings done. The project managers for my two schemes, based in Croydon and London, started getting pissed off with me, although it's not my fault and London office basically shot themselves in the foot. Tall!Steve told me to use KB because KB had nothing to do, but fee-wise I could not because KB is G6 and therefore too expensive. Tall!Steve said screw that, the main objective is to keep everyone working, which was fair enough...

...until the project managers started screaming at me for using expensive people and harming the budget. At this point I'm also jeopardising the programme because of the lateness of work.

I negotiated with London office and got Buldy to come back for a day to work on some things, because he made a load of site notes that nobody could decipher and he's been to site and knew what was there. That very same day, tall!Steve crashed into a meeting between me and my line manager, and gave me a royal bollocking because Buldy was there. Although I got the nod from London first and he was only around for the day. Tall!Steve insinuated that my action was going to make KB lose his job. Apparently it must be my fault that KB got promoted too high for what he actually does (badly) and therefore nobody wants to use him. Then tall!Steve got called away by another director and left the room, having never let me speak during that encounter.

I started using other techs, and tried telling the PMs and office managers and directors to sort themselves out because I'm not dealing with this shit. Then Darth appeared. He worked for the client company for the Streetscape scheme, but was made redundant and our company employed him on the time-contractor basis, if he could get us projects from that client he could keep working with us.

Darth is the most condescending bastard I've ever met. He is the "design coordinator" (whatever that is) for a list of small schemes which the Streetscape one is part of. I don't know if he's working for us or against us. The programmes are set incredibly tight, and it's practically a preliminary design budget but detailed design amount of work. It's fucking impossible. He gives me a day to do something that'd take a week to do, then comes over, breathes down my neck and asks me why I've let him down and how even a graduate from another company can do it, so he might as well give this load of schemes to the other company. As far as I'm concerned, he can shove his schemes up his arse, but the office is like "work = livelihood!" and so we let him walk all over us although we all want to take it in turns to defenestrate him. I can't describe how unbearable this man really is, but he's driven me to tears twice if that's any indication.

And now, what with the government reducing spending, there is literally fuck-all to do for some people, and redundancies are being announced. Major Projects is very much on the line right now. All of the Traffic Planning team are definitely going. From Highways, we're reducing from 23 to 13. But Structures is safe because Structures Team is doing fine with clients from the private sector. And for some reason they decided that all G6 are safe from the cull as well.

Tall!Steve is from Structures. KB is G6. So after all that stuff about me causing other people to lose their jobs, it's my neck that's on the chopping board.

This sort of crap has been going on for TWO YEARS. Now every morning I dread going to work. Last week I couldn't stop crying on the train on the way in. I feel depressed, and I don't use that word lightly. I also feel really angry. The management is pathetic, the work is pathetic and might stay the same for another few years. I've lost count of how many schemes I've done that got shelved because of cost or redtape. There is just nothing about this job that motivates me anymore, and the only thing that's stopping me from putting my hand up for voluntary redundancy is money.

It's sad to think that once upon a time, I liked my job and was proud of my company.

(btw, thanks for the replies on the previous entry. I'm just not sure what to reply with, really. I'll keep you guys updated on what's happening.)

Comments

[storme]

I don't want you to have to stay there. :(

[storme]

In fact, to be more precise: I'm at the stage where I'd actively like you to be laid off (with a decentish redundancy package).

That place is making you miserable, and I want you to not be there any more.

[solaas.livejournal.com]

Jesus H. Christ, what a mess. :( This is textbok Bad Management(tm), and I am so with Storme. I hope you get away from there, I hope you find something better. *hug*

[semishade (from livejournal.com)]

Definitely a no to part time working then, if you were still considering it. That just the kind of environment where you'd end up doing the same work for half the salary. And when more cuts are needed then you'd then be more vulnerable because only part time.

[schweinsty.livejournal.com]

*hugs you*

[scribblemoose]

I presume that there aren't many jobs around in your trade (as there aren't any anywhere to speak of) but actually... if you could afford it at all, it's worth seriously considering the redundancy package and a rethink. You've got a good track record and no job is worth making yourself ill over, it really really isn't. If there's anyway you could afford it, leave, even it means money's short for a while. Your health is more important. *hugs*

[chinawolf.livejournal.com]

It sounds like pure torture. I truly hope something better will come along, you definitely deserve a better workplace than that. ;_;

[crystalusagi.livejournal.com]

=(. *offers hugs*.