I am having severe problems at work. My biggest stressor is that the current litigation is really straining my relationships with the two people I need to give me recommendations -- THAT is what is really stressing me out. Trying to maintain a positive image in their eyes while dealing with this litigation is horribly stressful. I ran into this at my last job when I was trying to leave too -- my supervisor was quite mean and I spent so much time trying to look good in her eyes near the end of my time there. I guess it paid off?
Anyway, that is really what's causing me stress right now. Beyond the litigation, grievance, and public records requests that I have to deal with during the course of my job. It's crazy. When do I have time to do my REAL job? In between dealing with lawsuits, union grievances, and pulling thousands of files for public records requests. I've spent 10-15% of my year pulling records for public records requests. That law needs to be changed -- not because it's a bad law, but because it allows loopholes...serious loopholes. It allows disgruntled employees and citizens to harass employers.
You wouldn't believe the stuff people ask for. I'm talking like, I know we've spent over $100,000 pulling records in my department alone in the last year since I've been there, just pulling records for people's requests. And that's just ONE department for ONE year in ONE agency!! Think about if you combined all agencies! It's costing millions of dollars just to pull files for public requests. It's fine to ask for records and I'm totally for openness, but harassment and abuse of those laws is a totally different story. Here's an example of what one employee has asked for (details changed to protect him): "I would like a copy of ALL spreadsheets that Dr. J has created in the last year and will create for the next 3 months." That means I have to find all my spreadsheets, which is a TON. And then the secretary has to look through EVERY single part of every spreadsheet and black out any confidential information. Then he might ask, "I now want a copy of all emails that Dr. J sends or receives for the next 3 months." Same situation there. Let's assume in the next month he asks for 15 more public records requests in a similar fashion. Yep, I have to provide them all. Suddenly my job is no longer my job, I am a well-paid file puller. The taxpayers are paying me a lot of money just to pull files for this one guy. Sadly, this hypothetical situation is not fake...it's understating what's really going on here.
But of course the public records stuff is all on top of our lawsuit, which I've spent over 100 hours on. Again, another month's salary goes to the litigation alone, along with a month's salary of every person in my department. I tell you...I never want to be involved in this realm again. I want nothing to do with public records or lawsuits. It sucks. It's frustrating to see people taking advantage of the system and essentially I am paying for it! We're all paying for these really squeaky wheels as a society. Sometimes you can oil a squeaky wheel and it stops squeaking, but sometimes you need to recognize when the wheel is just useless and get a new wheel...in this case, shut these people down from harassment somehow. It's frustrating because no ONE citizen should have that much power. I should not personally have the power to send a barrage of records requests to all state agencies who now have to spend $ on pulling files for me...essentially I could submit as many requests as a I wanted and spend millions of dollars on Dr. J's records requests. Even if I don't do anything with that information and was just curious about reading it. Millions of dollars down the drain!!! It's infuriating. The law needs to be fixed to prevent abuse. I shouldn't have the power alone to cost the citizens here millions of dollars just because I feel like it. Hopefully someone someday will get this story to the media and they can report on how much money is spent as a result of this law. If only taxpayers knew how much money they're paying to oil the squeaky wheels...
/end rant. I will write more inspirational stuff later. Right now I was trying to get my head in the game and forget about work issues today. Update tonight...
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