18 08 2003
*NOTE*… I was still very pissed off when I wrote this. While I don’t regret making it available for anyone to read, I do want to stress that this is the only time I’ve vented in my journal and spoken negatively about my job. </NOTE>
On Thursday the lights went out for 30 million people on the Eastern Seaboard. Along with that comes 30 million stories of what each person did through the blackout. I care about maybe a dozen of those stories, and I work with none of them.
So, I sit at my desk during my lunchhour, writing in my blog, eating my lunch and blasting Linkin Park through my headphones so I don’t have to talk to anyone while I tell my story. It would seem that everyone would rather talk about their experiences rather than listen to mine, so I’ll put it here for your perusal at your own free-will.
I was at work, when the video-editing system went down. We’d had a few momentary blackouts around the same time a few weeks prior, so I wasn’t too concerned. However, I was surprised when I looked out the window and saw that the intersection of Steeles and Woodbine had no working lights. That’s a dangerous intersection when it’s working properly, and suddenly it’s not working at all.
My thoughts shot back to every blackout that I’ve ever experienced since moving to the GTA and how there’s maybe a dozen people in a district of five million that actually know that a downed intersection is to be treated like a four-way stop. Despite this, everything was running pretty smoothly - I was truly shocked.
John and I were supposed to go see “Freddy vs. Jason” Thursday night, so those plans were cancelled. We wound up just hanging around at my place and only venturing out to the Mega-Wraps when a hungry Paul dropped by.
The next morning, the power was back on. John and I enjoyed hot coffee and took the morning easy. Both the Municipal and Provincial levels of government were asking people to stay in their houses unless they are considered “Essential Services”. Around quarter after ten, the phone rang. My boss, Briare, apparently believes the Sales Conference is considered an “Essential Service”, and I was called in to work. I got confirmation from Livewire’s other partner, Mark, and I was on my way in.
It would seem that “unless we come in today, we’re going to have to ask people to come in on the weekend”. Sounds like blackmail to me, since they KNOW that it’s the middle of fucking August, and people have plans. I’m supposed to go camping, so I’m effectively given the choice of ignoring representatives in two levels of government that, frankly, supercede Briare and Mark’s authority, or giving up my camping weekend up North.
Don’t get me wrong… I didn’t feel that my job was at stake or anything, but it was communicated that I had only one wise choice professionally. I know that none of my co-workers have any fucking backbone, so I can bet serious money that they’ll be in there already.
So, I packed for the weekend. I couldn’t do it last night for obvious reasons, so it had to be done now. I showered and went in to work.
…btw… if any of my co-workers or boss’s are reading this, I don’t apologize for anything. Not until you admit that there is something critically wrong with Livewire right now.
When I went in, I refused any idle chit-chat. A client who was in at eight thirty (*slaps forehead*) wants to see general harmony amongst the gears that run this place, so I was friendly, smiling and chatty. After he left, I went back to shutting down any sense of pleasent disposition. Every time a co-worker tried to strike up conversation - no matter what rank - I simply replied, “Does this have to do with work?”
“No”,
“then I don’t want to talk about it.”
And that would be the end of it.
I did my work for four hours and left. I still feel ashamed. Every citizen of Ontario was asked to leave the roads clear for Essential Service workforce only, and I caved under my cheque-signers in order to come in to work. I have no right to critisize anyone who did stupid things during this weekend since I did one of the stupidest… but that’s not why I’m REALLY pissed!
It’s not that I was asked to come in under these circumstances, it’s that I work for a company that would ask me to come in under these circumstances. I have never talked about Livewire negatively in this journal. For the most part, I haven’t had much critical to write about. But there’s a part of me that worries about the same thing happening to me that happened to Hwan.
As it turns out, most people who had to work on the Sales Conference were in over the weekend anyway. Bullshit. On top of it all, Ontario’s still in a State of Emergency, and asking every company to reduce power requirements including leaving non-essencial employees at home. So far today, I’ve had two meetings and the rest of the day is Research & Development. Doesn’t exactly sound like “Essential Services”, does it?
Sure, it’s nice to think of myself being held in such high regard, but I hardly believe it. It’s more like Mark and Briare are so far removed from how the real world works that they honestly believed that a quadrant of a contenent in a State of Emergency doesn’t mean that it’s not “Business As Usual”. My issue is not that they brought us in under such circumstances. It’s not even how they did it. My problem is with the fact that I work for a company that would do this.
Even now, I still can’t believe that I work somewhere that they would treat their employees with such disregard. The sick part is, they don’t even know that they’ve done anything wrong. I just wish I made the decision to NOT come in last Friday. That would have forced them to deal with it.
Fucking 20/20 hindsight.
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