Office Politics

Some days (oh heck, most days) I wish I could design my own job like you choose a meal in a sushi restaurant. There are bits and pieces of every job I've had that I would enjoy rolling together into one perfect job. Sadly, despite how it might seem when you interview and in the first few days on a job, you never know how ugly the office politics at a place are going to be until you've taken the plunge, accepted the job, and find yourself mired knee deep in a muck pit of unknown origin.

My new job is turning out to be considerably less than advertised. I have plenty to do, which is a nice thing. Except that I spend my day working in one direction only to be sent off in an opposite direction at the end of the day and told to scrap the majority of one day's work. And then you have the whole 8 bosses syndrome that is in fine fettle at this company.

I have been toying with working part time after the baby comes. Mostly because it was presented as a possibility with the further incentive that I could, largely, work from home. I've never seriously thought about continuing to work after we had kids - in my mind if it was at all possible, I've always wanted to be at home. But, since the prospect was there, I was considering it. That thought ended today with the latest political move. In fact, I've only been as tempted to simply walk off a job and never come back one time before in my life. (And while I didn't walk off that time, I did turn in my notice and leave at the end of the week. That's a tempting thought today as well, but I'm trying to let cooler heads prevail. It certainly wouldn't be bad to keep working until the baby comes. Or until Christmas. Or as long as I can stomach it here.)

It's frustrating though, because I keep expecting that other people would someday have to behave and work the way I try to behave and work. And I keep thinking that surely the people doing all the backstabbing and political maneuvering will one day get their comeuppance. But honestly? I don't think they will. I don't know if I believe that the good guys even stand a chance of winning anymore or that the bad ones will ever do anything other than get ahead.