tark

Been reading The Rebel by Albert Camus.

I have often enjoyed Camus fiction but the main reason for me picking up and reading this book of non-fiction is because I am searching for some inspiration for my own ordeal in kicking against the pricks.

I'm currently in a battle of wits with the powers that be at the company I work at. I've been in this new dept for about 8 months and everybody is expected to work like battery hens. When its busy employee's are expected to work more than 80 hours a week under high pressure that can go on for months at a time without being paid overtime.
Nobody complains despite the conditions because they get to work on creating visual effects for big name films such as "Stealth", "World Trade Centre", "Happy Feet" etc.

My complaints aren't so much about these conditions but the fact that when I had to take some time off because my daughter had a very serious condition that was initially thought to be life threatening.
But even though the production supervisor knew the reasons for my time off, when it came time for my performance assessment I was told that my work output wasn't good enough. I found out latter that they were comparing me to the output of the others who had been working more than twice the amount of hours I was able to work.
I was also warned that I may be demoted or worse if I didn't improve. What a fucking careless Leviathan this company is becoming.

Its a typical case of the top manager being out of touch with the real world of whats happening in the day to day situation because he never leaves his ivory tower office to know whats happening. And the supervisor who reports to him is an asshole who hates my guts and only reports half the story.
I have decided to put my grievance with the company in writing and gave it to them on Friday, pointing out how flawed their assessment of me must be and detailing the lack of communication that is causing so many problems. We'll see how it goes down. I may update this blog at a latter date if I still have a job

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HR (human resources) have been fantastic and have sorted out all the issues.
But most importantly, my daughter is fine and well again. Yay