Insult Added to Injury to ... in Everyday Ramblings

This is one of the street trees between where I live and where I work. I noticed it starting to split about a week ago. As of yesterday it had not come down. I did call and give a detailed description of it to the emergency tree issue phone number for the city in our partnership with an organization called Urban Forestry. They are the folks that plant new street trees. It has been hot for over a week so I am assuming it is heat stress but today it is cooler.

I just hope it doesn’t hurt anyone! They did say they would come out and look at it. I talked to an actual person.

In spite of my best efforts, work is still being problematic. Just skip this part if you aren’t interested.

There is a guy, he is a bit of a character, very messy desk, beautiful wife and I think 4 kids, very very smart who has his cube near where I work so I usually see him when I am in the office. He does high-level finance stuff. This year he has been on the management side of the bargaining team negotiating a contract with the union I belong to.

Contract negotiations are stalled and difficult right now.

It turns out this guy has been trolling the union’s Internet sites and leaving false information about the negotiations under an assumed name.

What the ??? This guy must get paid maybe three times as much as me.

Management said this morning he admitted doing it (though they didn’t name him but the union did) and he had been pulled from the bargaining team. That is it? Pulled from the team?

Yesterday in the office I got this weird vibe, anxious, paranoid and defensive and it triggered what I call my “trauma response”. I had to go take a time out in a dark conference room just to stay through a few more hours.

How bad does this have to get? Last week I got a direct message from the younger woman that had been expressing concern and misgivings about the management and I was honest with her without telling her anything that isn’t public knowledge. Her tone had changed slightly and she asked me what I thought about us having a regular team meeting. We don’t. We barely talk.

I was uncomfortable after the exchange and felt that maybe my manager was fishing for info through her.

Then on Monday morning there was a meeting request for the whole team for next Monday midday at a very expensive Brazilian steak house downtown.

This is so Mr. On the Spectrum. He says I pay $35 for a gigantic steak and you will be grateful and then I won’t have to pay you anything extra or make you work less hard or make your life better in any substantive way.

That’s management coaching for you.

I am exhausted. I may need to take a few days off.

The good news is that all this yoga I have been learning and teaching made my sciatic discomfort go away! Yeah.

I really want to quit. I really really really want to quit. I don’t even care anymore if they are doing this on purpose, pushing me out.

This place is a toxic sinkhole.

How can a guy try to mess with the union negotiations and not get fired?

It is still a man’s world.

That said, forgive my self-absorbed whine. I feel so terrible for all the families of those shot this last weekend and for those injured. How can we live with ourselves if we don’t do something. We need to do something.

Last updated August 08, 2019