I'm trying not to lose my shit.
“I became the calm, little center of the world,”
“I was the Zen master,”
So for the second time my employer has decided to put off doing a salary review. Now, this actually happened a while ago, but the problem is they always trick me into thinking that it was a good idea and then it strikes me later exactly what they've done.
This time it was the promise of a 'promotion'. I was to head up a new department at work that would be doing research and development of new technologies. Since this is my dream situation I gladly obliged. Then, the truth started to come out. It wasn't the pure 'R&D' situation that I was promised. It was a half-assed attempt at keeping me subservient while nudging me in the direction of doing highly profitable innovation for the company under the guise of it being "good for the community."
Now, this after rampant nepotism led to 2 employees sticking around most of the winter getting salary for doing largely nothing (as if that wasn't enough to leave a bad taste in my mouth). So when I was told that I was to screen candidates for a lackey position, I shut up for a bit. It's not often that one gets the chance to give someone 'the same chance they had', that being, a 'learn while you earn' situation on the job. What I do does not require a degree. Far from it, it requires a lot of the
skills that are honed in school but very little of the actual subject matter ever applies.
I viewed this as the perfect chance to give one of the many people I knew a chance at an entry level position. Now,
Joel Spolsky will be the first to tell you that it's a bad idea to hire people you know. then again, this also assumes it's for a highly technical position, this isn't. It's entry level. I need someone docile. I need someone unfettered by a degree. I need someone who I can verbally abuse and will understand that it's all in a days work. Arrogant? Of course I am. Nobody should have to put up with my shit, but c'est la vie.
Then I'm asked to write a job description, and I do. Pretty good one if i do say so myself. I pass it along and it's thoroughly butchered. All of the meaning of it is excised out to the point where it looks like I'm asking for a secretary.
Then, my work decides that there are not enough women and minorities in I.T. What do they do. They initially post the job description in one place (and one place only). The job boards at Howard. Now, considering that they made it clear that their goal was for a technical candidate more than an entry candidate, I must say that i'm a bit confused. Howard is not the mecca of development and administration that say UMD or GW are (just to name local campuses).
I manage to find a perfect candidate. I'm told to bring him in. Then i learn that it's only to maintain the illusion of fairness. They made their decision before he even walked through the door and couldn't be bothered with taking the time to even meet him.
Then to boot, I learn that one of the folks on my team is partially behind it...
