smooth wombat's Journal: Prisoners get more room

It's one thing to hear and chuckle about the Peter Principle. It's quite another to be the victim of its main thrust.

It appears that my time with the government will soon be coming to an end. We have known for some time that our large room would be redesigned to accommodate more people (i.e. an influx of contractors). What we didn't know was the specifics.

We thought we would be forced to use the same desk configuration that the current crop of contractors use which is roughly a 6 foot desk set in a 4 foot space (essentially a 24 square foot space). That was bad because in our group we use our extra desk space to image/work on machines as well as other items.

I was just told that the new size of our cube will be 4x4.

I want everyone who reads this to trace out a 4x4 area, place your chair in it, then a PC, a pad of scratch paper, pens, pencils, a phone, extra notepads and miscellaneous papers. You see the issue, don't you?

My current space is somewhat luxurious in that it is approximately 48 square feet with plenty of desk space to put machines I am working on, lay out papers with notes I want to keep handy, my supplies and other miscellaneous items. In addition, because I sit next to a large support pillar, I have a small tabletop on which I can store other items if the need arises.

Now, if you take away all that workable space just to hire more people for friends of the governor*, where do you propose we do our work? That's right, in a separate room, away from our desks which means we can't answer our phones or email which means any calls we get won't be answered in a timely manner which means we'll hear about it from the higher ups when things don't run as smoothly (not that it is now, but I digress).

Many people have talked about working in a cubical farm and certainly Scott Adams has had years worth of material on the subject. However, this must be very near the top of outright stupidity when it comes to a work environment.

I've already told the supervisor who told me about the new plan that I'll be giving quitting if they go to this format, so it looks like I only have a few more months of employment. I could go to the Union** and file a complaint but since I'm not a formal member***, they'll probably ignore me unless I pony up more protection money.

Now, there is a possible out. I applied for a low-level managerial position so if that comes through, I can avoid this but, the office I will be placed is still half the size of where I am now. But at least I'll be getting experience so I can finally move out of here.

So, anyone looking for a low-level project manager or jack-of-all-trades?

*It is a well known fact that Deloitte Consulting, who gets the vast majority of state contracts, has people who worked with and for the governor. Their contracts run for years and cost the state tens of millions of dollars, all because the contracts do not specify that state workers should be taught what the contractors are doing, thus, the contractors stay around near indefinitely.

As point of fact, our current ERP software project is 102% over budget and there is at least another year to go before it approaches some semblance of closure.

**The Union makes a big stink about protecting the workers, but has over the last decade, when contract negotiations have come up, continued to give away more and more "benefits" while insuring the incompetent can't get fired. Next to the mafia, they're great at sucking money from people.

***There are two classes of non-managerial employees working for the state. Full Union members and fair-share members. I am of the latter. Essentially, we pay a fee to the Union for getting us our jobs, our benefits and salaries and all the other sundries. Fair-share member fees are determined by a formula but it is less than a full Union membership.

Officially, the Union must represent fair-share employees with the same diligence they do full Union employees. In practice, you're generally laughed at or told to join the Union first before they'll file a complaint.