One negative of my new job is my manager’s compulsion to rewrite copy that is presented to him for approval. On the current project, I based Draft 1 on the project scope document, and Draft 2 on his detailed outline. He wrote Draft 3 himself, keeping about 25% of my work and straying far afield from his own outline. He sent it back to me with vague instructions to “compare the messages” between the two drafts. Unsure of my next step but under a looming deadline for delivery, I simply corrected his typos and added a few commas before sending it back for his “final review.” I received the following message in response: “Good work. Nicely done.” I don’t know whether I should be annoyed, or offended.
Everyone’s a friggin’ writer…
dragonet2
June 7, 2006 at 5:01amI’d be offended
but then right now I’m offended at my workplace in general.
Maybe at some point we just need to have a bitter employees meeting somewhere that serves drinks. Or maybe at one house or another so we can nap and then go home….
Yesterday (Monday) afternoon I was having a hell of a one-spot-sinus headache, probably because of a blocked passage and the air pressure changing. Susan came to ask something about doing some calling for a client and mentioned that it sounded like I was really congested.
I said, ‘it’s probably the pressure”, she made a gesture like, ‘it’s all in your head, you’re psycho’.
I do not like her. And she has no idea about what I do despite all her analysis. She will find out eventually….
nkcmike
June 7, 2006 at 1:25pmEwww. Doesn’t sound good. Condolences.
ehs347
June 7, 2006 at 1:25pmWelcome to the club
I vote for annoyed and offended. I had a very similar situation recently when my manager completely re-wrote a newsletter article that I had written on one of my projects. When she gave it back to me without one original sentence intact, I asked if she had any feedback for me on the original article and she gave me a guilty look, said “No” and walked away. So yes, annoyed and offended works for me.
kalimeg
June 7, 2006 at 8:44pmOK, so I’m perverted. I’d be amused. I had a boss like that once. Eventually I learned to mimic his style, including the wierd non-sequitur pieces of nonsense he always wanted in a message. When I finally had blather down pat, he stopped making changes.
It makes for an interesting game — but perverted, as I said.