Political Breakfast
Today I had a reminder of what it is I dislike about working in a corporate office: the bullshit politics. Last year, the company I work for introduced this “breakfast with the executives” initiative. Employee surveys showed that people felt that there was a disconnect about what the company’s goals and objectives were. These breakfasts were introduced in an attempt to bridge the gap between what the executive office is implementing and pursuing and what the the rest of us peons know.
The breakfasts are set up such that the groups are less than fifteen people and there’s at least one person from every department in the organization. During these get-togethers, it’s encouraged that those in attendance raise any questions or concerns they have about things happening within the organization and future plans.
I was invited to the breakfast happening this morning. I got up early and made sure that I got to the office for the 8:30 start time.
The food served was your typical catered breakfast, pre-packaged eggs that were steamed warm, turkey bacon, some fruit and toast. My stomach was still a bit uneasy from fighting off the bug so I didn’t put much on my plate.
One of the two executives had another meeting at 9:30 so we’d only be meeting for an hour and not the hour and a half we were booked for.
The executives got the morning started by talking about the financial details of the company’s pension plan and explaining the details for the new high-level committee that has recently been formed. It was all very, “look at us, we’re wonderful and we’re doing a wonderful job.”
The floor was opened up to questions and one girl asked about what the opportunities are like for us lower-level folks once our salaries are capped. There aren’t exactly new openings and promotions abound for people not in manager positions so the question was a good one.
Of course, it was shrugged off. The HR director was in the meeting and he immediately started going on about how they’re looking into it and are thinking about bringing on a training and development person. I looked out the window then to see if pigs were flying.
I asked about whether the company had ever considered changing how the benefits plan is set up. Instead of using the archaic methods we currently have in place we could switch to electronic system and save us a lot of paper, time and headaches. In the almost three years that I’ve been at the company, I’ve yet to have a smooth claims process.
Again, the HR director spun a tale about how expensive switching to an electronic system would be and then one of the executives got in on the smoke-blowing act. He went on and on about how unique our plan is and how there aren’t many places or people who know how to administer it.
I had other questions I wanted to ask but really, there was no point. It was all going to get spun into how great the company is and how much they do for their employees. I was feeling nauseous enough already, I didn’t need any more help with that.
The breakfast wrapped up shortly after that as the one executive had to leave and there weren’t any more questions on the floor.
As we were packing up, the HR director walked up to me and said, “If you ever have any troubles with your claims, you should let me or Mary [the HR manager] know. We know people.”
I almost fell out of my chair when he said that. Both her and the manager are ridiculously slow in getting back to people. Back in November, I e-mailed Mary to ask some questions about how to process eyeglasses through our benefits plan. I’m still waiting to hear back from her. I ended up calling the insurance company myself to get my questions answered.
To say that the breakfast was a waste of my time would be putting it lightly. My time would’ve been better spent walking the gal pal. The weather was pretty mild this morning, we could’ve lengthened our walk and enjoyed our time outside. Instead, I was at a work a half hour early which made the entire day lag along. And for what? Our feedback wasn’t welcomed; it was shot-down with pro-company bullshit. I didn’t need to be at work early on a Monday morning just to hear the executives of the company pat themselves on the back.
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3 Comments
I have organized those types of breakfasts and sometimes (if there is commitment on both sides) they can actually have some positive benefits.
It’s too bad really that yours was such a waste of time.
In my experience, that was exactly how management intended for the meeting to go. They get a gold star for appearing to care about employees while blowing smoke up everyone’s arsehole. Thanks for caring, now f*ck off!
I disagree, e. Liz’s management didn’t intend for it to go that way. They didn’t intend for the staff to feel pissed off and brushed off — that’s a failure. They wanted to at least present the *appearance* of listening. It failed yeah that’s for sure.
I’d love to be a fly on the wall for the management meeting post-mortem. I’d love to know how they thought it went. But I’m funny that way
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