Anything to take us down a notch
It's not that I hate my job. I do enjoy doing what I do. I like working as a designer, making things work, coming up with catchy gimmicks--it fulfills a subconscious need.
I was just thinking yesterday on my drive home how I might just be misunderstanding management. Maybe they mean something completely different by their message. But they're lawyers, right? And lawyers, if anything, are super-anal about words. So they, of all people, must mean what they say and say what they mean. Right?
So, to my title, in the past years working at ICE I've come to notice that we get no credit. Any praise is filtered through Step-on-me, which I'm sure she works hard to manipulate in our favor. The word 'pretty' is an insult. A slap in the face. All compliments are laced with arsenic, set to eat away at our souls.
Amazingly I'm still here--we're ALL still here. With employee turnover pushing 45% in the past two years, management refusing to acknowledge anything that would make them have to admit they're wrong, and doing everything to shine the lime-light on their own greying heads--I'm really amazed I'm still here.
ICE recently submitted some of their work (books, classes, marketing efforts, web efforts) to the annual contest/convention for their industry. Marketing/Sales came away with 1st place--highest award possible for the convention--for the Fall book sale. A lot of effort went into it, including a lot of bucking managerial opinions. We're all thinking, finally PRAISE! Somebody recognizes our efforts, be it in or outside our office! We DO know what we're doing and we do it well enough to win awards.
Whilst everyone else is passing around announcements about their own awards, Marketing/Sales decide it's best to keep our award to ourselves. We know what we did, they'll just credit it to themselves if they hear about it.
I'll be damned if I don't see an email pop-up in my inbox right before lunch--from CEO-lady announcing the awards.
From: CEO-lady
To: All Staff
Subject: ICE is winner all round!
...Marketing won the top award --Award for Professional Excellence--for the Fall book sale where our campaign created a sense of urgency to get buyers to act, made it convenient for people to shop multiple ways--in person, phone, fax or on the web; created excitement at the live course/sale event; and tied it to a Fall theme and a particular time of year. This effort involved the entire staff and really paid off in great sales results! Of course Step-on-me and the marketing and sales staff, with expert guidance from Carol, took the lead with the strategy, execution and wonderful graphics and on-site displays for the Fall Book Sale.
Needless to say, we're fairly pissed, forlorn, and really quite shocked. The entire staff did NOT work on the marketing campaign. How the HELL does the ENTIRE STAFF win a MARKETING award?!? The only people I'm remotely considering sharing this award with would be the CSR people that helped sell the books on the day of the sale. THAT'S IT!!
And don't even get me started on CAROL. FOR CHRISSAKES!! She insisted that there be books all over the cover of the postcard because people wouldn't understand that the postcard was for books even when it said FALL BOOK SALE in 72pt all over the freaking website, postcard, and flipping emails! Oh, and, guess what? We DID NOT put books all over the postcard because we figured lawyers should be SMART ENOUGH to understand that BOOK SALE means there are books on sale. So NO. Carol didn't contribute crap. She slowed down the damn process. ARRGGHHH!!!
Expert guidance, my ass!
If I wasn't chained to my desk right now, I'd be across the hall wailing on CEO-lady. Why can't she give marketing a compliment without saying it was a group effort? Honestly?? This isn't like this is the first time she's done this, either. Multiple times marketing & sales efforts have pulled in big numbers and won awards, but she always tacks on "Carol and really it's was all of ICE that helped make this happen." Any way to take us down a notch.
You know, if you don't believe marketing and sales DO anything to bring in customers and make your business successful, then you shouldn't have them in your business.
Edit: Ah, yes. I didn't read the rest of the email thoroughly enough. I just love these subtle digs. As CEO-lady announced the rest of the awards, each individual who worked in that area (even the obscure student assistant 'Douglass') were identified by name. She also did NOT credit the entire staff for their efforts on the rest of the awards.
To clarify: Marketing & Sales are of one entity, lead by Step-on-me who needs expert guidance from Carol to function properly--and really, all of ICE has to help the Marketing & Sales department in their venture, regardless of their actual input, because they cannot function independently without everyone giving their 2 cents.
I was just thinking yesterday on my drive home how I might just be misunderstanding management. Maybe they mean something completely different by their message. But they're lawyers, right? And lawyers, if anything, are super-anal about words. So they, of all people, must mean what they say and say what they mean. Right?
So, to my title, in the past years working at ICE I've come to notice that we get no credit. Any praise is filtered through Step-on-me, which I'm sure she works hard to manipulate in our favor. The word 'pretty' is an insult. A slap in the face. All compliments are laced with arsenic, set to eat away at our souls.
Amazingly I'm still here--we're ALL still here. With employee turnover pushing 45% in the past two years, management refusing to acknowledge anything that would make them have to admit they're wrong, and doing everything to shine the lime-light on their own greying heads--I'm really amazed I'm still here.
ICE recently submitted some of their work (books, classes, marketing efforts, web efforts) to the annual contest/convention for their industry. Marketing/Sales came away with 1st place--highest award possible for the convention--for the Fall book sale. A lot of effort went into it, including a lot of bucking managerial opinions. We're all thinking, finally PRAISE! Somebody recognizes our efforts, be it in or outside our office! We DO know what we're doing and we do it well enough to win awards.
Whilst everyone else is passing around announcements about their own awards, Marketing/Sales decide it's best to keep our award to ourselves. We know what we did, they'll just credit it to themselves if they hear about it.
I'll be damned if I don't see an email pop-up in my inbox right before lunch--from CEO-lady announcing the awards.
From: CEO-lady
To: All Staff
Subject: ICE is winner all round!
...Marketing won the top award --Award for Professional Excellence--for the Fall book sale where our campaign created a sense of urgency to get buyers to act, made it convenient for people to shop multiple ways--in person, phone, fax or on the web; created excitement at the live course/sale event; and tied it to a Fall theme and a particular time of year. This effort involved the entire staff and really paid off in great sales results! Of course Step-on-me and the marketing and sales staff, with expert guidance from Carol, took the lead with the strategy, execution and wonderful graphics and on-site displays for the Fall Book Sale.
Needless to say, we're fairly pissed, forlorn, and really quite shocked. The entire staff did NOT work on the marketing campaign. How the HELL does the ENTIRE STAFF win a MARKETING award?!? The only people I'm remotely considering sharing this award with would be the CSR people that helped sell the books on the day of the sale. THAT'S IT!!
And don't even get me started on CAROL. FOR CHRISSAKES!! She insisted that there be books all over the cover of the postcard because people wouldn't understand that the postcard was for books even when it said FALL BOOK SALE in 72pt all over the freaking website, postcard, and flipping emails! Oh, and, guess what? We DID NOT put books all over the postcard because we figured lawyers should be SMART ENOUGH to understand that BOOK SALE means there are books on sale. So NO. Carol didn't contribute crap. She slowed down the damn process. ARRGGHHH!!!
Expert guidance, my ass!
If I wasn't chained to my desk right now, I'd be across the hall wailing on CEO-lady. Why can't she give marketing a compliment without saying it was a group effort? Honestly?? This isn't like this is the first time she's done this, either. Multiple times marketing & sales efforts have pulled in big numbers and won awards, but she always tacks on "Carol and really it's was all of ICE that helped make this happen." Any way to take us down a notch.
You know, if you don't believe marketing and sales DO anything to bring in customers and make your business successful, then you shouldn't have them in your business.
Edit: Ah, yes. I didn't read the rest of the email thoroughly enough. I just love these subtle digs. As CEO-lady announced the rest of the awards, each individual who worked in that area (even the obscure student assistant 'Douglass') were identified by name. She also did NOT credit the entire staff for their efforts on the rest of the awards.
To clarify: Marketing & Sales are of one entity, lead by Step-on-me who needs expert guidance from Carol to function properly--and really, all of ICE has to help the Marketing & Sales department in their venture, regardless of their actual input, because they cannot function independently without everyone giving their 2 cents.
posted by Laura Mitter at
11:43 AM
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