Lots of us are inspired to start freelancing because of challenges in the traditional workplace. Here’s one from our community. (Side note: Maintenance work is as valid as any other job, so no shade, but in this case, the distinction matters.)
Several years ago, I worked as a consultant in a word processing pool for a reputable company in the process of restructuring. There were four word processing stations; two of which were soon to be vacant. One would be a vacancy for a permanent position because of a lateral move; and the second would be a long-term temporary position for which I was hired in anticipation of another woman going on medical leave.
Six months into the assignment, I attended weekly meetings with the rest of the staff. I submitted my resume to Human Resources to make a bid for the permanent position since I was currently working as a consultant.
After waiting a few months with no response, at the next staff meeting, I asked the division manager facilitating the meeting, who do I need to speak with about one of the positions in his department. He said, You have to fill out an application in personnel. I said, “I did that already. Thank you.”
I did not let him know I knew someone was being hired who had no word processing skills. That was not the only buzz in our department. A different manager within the department was delegated the responsibility to serve as interim manager until someone was hired to be manager of the word processing pool. This same manager confided in me she did not understand why she was chosen as interim manager of the word processing pool, when her primary job was time challenging enough. She, and colleagues in her department, also could not understand why the young lady with seniority was not promoted to supervisor over the word processing pool, rather than be moved laterally to be a secretary to the division manager.
Early in my work life, the elders in a previous job shared stories; one where a Black employee was delegated the task of training a newly hired White employee to be manager or supervisor over the worker doing the training. Even as a working teenager, I knew that was not right. The reason given was that the white person had college education. My question, wouldn’t it be smarter to promote someone who knew the job already rather than slow production to train a manager? One elder said, “Oh Sweetie, you ain’t seen nothing yet! Keep living!”
Anyway, years later it seemed as though a similar “train-the-new-hire” was about to happen to me as a consultant even though the new hire was not filling the vacant supervisor position. The woman who was up for a lateral transfer moved to her new position. The manager initially tapped to be interim manager was relieved of the responsibility. Finally, the maintenance man was given the nod to be supervisor over the word processing pool.
When the ladies in the word processing pool found out, the reaction was shock. I was not surprised; and I did not offer my opinion of what was in play because I was a consultant. Answering the phones, was another part of our jobs. I received the call confirming the workshop for the maintenance man to receive training in word processing. I kept quiet about what I knew and just put the message in the box.
Soon after the maintenance man settled in as supervisor of the word processing pool, a new girl was hired to the permanent position. By that time, I was content to remain a consultant because I loved my work. I considered the “small p office politics” as none of my business. The new supervisor said he wanted me to train the new girl. I said, I think it will be better for one of the permanent employees to train her since I am just a consultant. He asked, “How long have you been here?” I said, “I’ve been here about a year or so.” He said, “Okay, I need your help consolidating the information on the diskettes. Look at one of them and give me an estimate about how long it will take you complete it.” I said, “Okay, I’ll get started now while I’m waiting on revisions.” He said, “Good deal. Thank you.” I said, “No problem.”
There were approximately 20 diskettes in the file box. My plan was to search each diskette to find the one with the most data on it and multiply the time to search by the number of diskettes because it did not make sense to me to just randomly pick a diskette that would not provide the best answer. So I asked the product manager in our department, “Is there a better way to arrive at an approximate time it will take to finish this project?” I described to him what I planned to do. He said, “That’s it right there because the diskette with less information will not include time to process the diskettes with more information.”
I thanked him for his help and went back to my station to finish the project to have it out of the way before revisions were submitted to the word processing pool. My estimate was approximately three weeks. While working on the revisions, the new supervisor came to my desk to find out what I came up with as an answer. I told him three weeks. To that he responded, “I’m going to check with the product manager to see if there’s another way.” As he turned away, I said, “I spoke with him and explained how I was doing it. He said that it is the best way.
Thinking that was the end of it, I resumed working on the charts for the manual. Our department was made aware that morning we were expecting a visit from the company president and his guests. By this time, the new supervisor was livid. Someone said, “They’re coming this way!” I looked up in time to make eye contact with one of the visitors and returned his smile with a nod and a smile as I listened the maintenance man rant, “If I told you to work standing on your head, even though you know you work better standing on your feet, you’re to work standing on your head.” I responded, “If I explained to you that working standing on my head will not reach the objective you want, I’m going to work standing on my feet.”
He said, “If you were on company payroll, you would be considered insubordinate and would either be suspended or terminated.” I said, “Training the new girl defeats my purpose of getting hired permanently because training does not guarantee me a permanent job. If you want her to learn how to work this computer, there are manuals on the shelf above her desk with instructions on how to use the word processor. I’m in school to get a certificate for something I already know how to do. If you have a personal problem with me, it’s best that you leave it in lobby.” My guess is he thought I was the perfect scapegoat to make his mark going from the man you called to replace a light bulb to supervisor of the word processing pool.
Shortly after that encounter, I completed the project within the 3-week objective and just in time to accept another assignment with a different department.
Want to tell your story? Shoot it over to connect@Blackfreelance.com for publication (you can do it anonymously.)
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