Fuddy-duddy corporations


sorabji.com: The Stalking Post: Fuddy-duddy corporations
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By NZAngel on Monday, November 8, 1999 - 10:36 pm:

    Does anyone else out there in Sorabjiland work at a real, old-fashioned, fuddy-duddy corporation?

    I like my job (I would love it if they paid me more), the people in my team are really neat, but the company I work for is so old-fashioned it is starting to worry me.

    For example, today was my first "performance review" since I started working there last December. (I got a glowing review if anyone is interested) I was talking with my immediate boss about the things I like and dislike about where we work. He agreed with me that it seems to be very rigid in terms of who can talk to who, and how things are structured. He told me that he had been pushing for our team to be allowed glide time, as the hours we have to work, don't always fit into a normal working day. The official response has been a very definite no, and the reason given, was that the other people in the main office would be upset if we did that. He has given his approval for us to make up for extra hours worked, so long as it is not too blatant.

    Another example I have heard of recently, is their attitude to maternity leave. While this doesn't concern me yet, it may do one day. Basically, women who have children are strongly encouraged to resign. I believe that NZ law allows up to 12 months leave without pay, and the same position must be held open. I heard that one woman who had a baby recently was told that if she really wanted to take maternity leave, they couldn't guarantee her job would still be available when she was ready to return to work.

    But in a few weeks they are putting on a family picnic for all staff and their families. It's like they think that makes them a family friendly firm, but they don't realise it's some 1950s model of family that just doesn't fit with life today.

    They don't even have an onsite creche, despite having a workforce of over 400 at this branch.

    Anyway thats my rant for today. Any hints on changing this dinosaur would be appreciated.

    Wish me luck for a pay increase!


By ______ on Tuesday, November 9, 1999 - 12:17 am:

    i work for a big old fuddy-duddy corporation but we/they have become rather progressive over the last few years. there may be hope for yours. then again, it may be hopeless.


By Cyst on Tuesday, November 9, 1999 - 02:20 am:

    I love that word, "creche." americans don't use it. not only does it mean childcare center, it also means nativity scene.


By DAlembert on Tuesday, November 9, 1999 - 03:25 am:

    you mean i finally got on a topic with an actual pulse?


By DAlembert on Tuesday, November 9, 1999 - 03:39 am:

    I only recall one job in which i worked for one of these fuddy-duddy corps. It was an uncomfortable situation in which most of the employees lives seem to revolve around the store and company itself. This was where the uncomfortable, or more like unfamiliar part came into play. While I was thinking about the girl that got away last night, my fellow employees were actually concerned with the workings of the store and the like. What puzzled me about the whole thing was that the employees, while in the same breath as complaining about the lack of raises and benefits to each other, would kiss ass of middle managment as if on a prom date with their anus. I was fired before i really learned anything about the workings of the corp. but was there long enough to see that no matter how much the efforts of the employees made the company more profits, it was not passed on to said employees....


By MoonIt on Wednesday, November 10, 1999 - 02:23 am:

    NZA who do you work for????


By NZAngel on Thursday, November 11, 1999 - 12:18 am:

    mmm that would be telling. They are good in many ways, providing health insurance (not common in NZ), superannuation subsidies and yearly bonuses. It's just the entrenched attitudes. Even the female senior management types are anti-kids (not having had any themselves).

    I work for Foodstuffs.


By Nelly on Saturday, November 13, 1999 - 11:08 pm:

    working temp jobs just out of college, i got enough view of fuddy duddy corporations that i could never stand to fill out an application for a job at one. well i did a few times but they never hired me. who knows where i'd be if control data had bit on me...

    the oddest one was actually an acting job. i was given a scenario and told to look it over for 15 mintues, and then I had to pretend to sell photocopiers to a stream of management trainees; the half hour sessions were recorded. This was one of the hardest acting jobs i ever had. it is not easy to keep talking for half an hour about photocopiers, especially to someone who is uncomfortable and is pretending to be a hard sell. The company was very vague about the objective of this exercise. Supposedly this was a test for their trainees, but we had the feeling we were the ones being tested. To some of us, they hinted that a role in a film might be forthcoming... after about the 5th one, it started to take on a very surreal air for me. i began to really get into my photocopier company. i invented all kinds of excuses to explain the inadequacies of the service department. i wheeled and dealed. i really, really wanted to make a sale, but the cards were stacked against me by an invisible dealer. i became very suspicious about the mysterious Human Resources department and what it was really up to with this game. now i look back on it, it had to just be somebody's dumb idea that they managed to waste a good bit of money on (however, actors were cheap). At the end of each day, i was happy to get my money and go home, take off my heels and the rest of my corporate costume, rejoice that it was only a temp job, and pity the poor actors who wanted to do that stuff on a more permanent basis...


By _____ on Saturday, November 13, 1999 - 11:47 pm:

    that "acting" job sounds a lot like what i do every day. now you know why i'm such a bitch.


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