Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Second, the fact that you didn't even try to make other arrangements for your dogs. You don't have any local family, friends, neighbors that could pitch in? Just this once? As a parent, we have to have back-up day care arrangements, just for emergencies. It should be the same for pets.
Well my family and friends all work in the daytime too. Surely, you're not suggesting they insult their corporate overlords by skipping out early to do something personal (a favour for a friend at that!)
There are not many companies I trust with my house keys. The dog walkers I use are very reputable and thus expensive / book up well in advance. I have dog walkers 3 days a week, just not on Tuesdays or Fridays. However, had I known this was compulsory, and not just a casual invite, I would have of course pulled out all the stops for an emergency. "Would you like to join?" doesn't sound like an emergency to me. It suggests I have a choice in the matter.
When you are new to a company you don't just blow off a casual invitation.
You accommodate even if this means hiring a dog sitter.
This is not about work hours or watching someone get drunk.
This is about basic social skills - rejecting an invitation to get to know you is very bad form.
You basically told them you'd rather walk the dogs than get to know your new colleagues.
That's why you got a severe warning: "Attitude"
This is really not about becoming a corporate drone slave and not about work hours. It's about establishing a work relationship.
From your combative replies I don't expect you to take my comment well.
Yea like if people have the money to be hiring a dog sitter all the time and stress as well to find one.
Plus hes not paid overtime so hes losing money if he has to hire a dog sitter for such a situation in case you didn't notice
You basically told them you'd rather walk the dogs than get to know your new colleagues.
I will be sitting with the guy who sent the email for the next two weeks. I figured I'd get to know him and the rest of the team very well in that time, whether I stayed for drinks in this one instance or not.
Call me combative or socially awkward all you want. I personally think coded language and backbiting is far more destructive than honest, open, communication.
octo is correct. This is an important time to get to know people. Expect you'll have some extra curricular activities to work into your life. That being said, coworkers are often hyper sensitive towards new experienced hires and look for any chance to show the new hire isn't better than them.
Sorry to hear this. On the bright side, at least knowing straight away will help you arm yourself. Make up other excuses, evidently they aren't dog lovers.
Protect yourself. Perhaps beat them to the punch and CC anything you get through your manager.
Sorry to hear this. On the bright side, at least knowing straight away will help you arm yourself. Make up other excuses, evidently they aren't dog lovers.
Protect yourself. Perhaps beat them to the punch and CC anything you get through your manager.
Have you actually worked in a real job with a well known and prestigious company? Or is this just your assessment from sitting on the sidelines by what you've observed from watching TV shows and movies about companies? Because I have a few top brands on my resume, and this is not their behavior or expectation. The OP has been subjected to some co-worker Eunuch who ran to the queen Boss to make a big thing out of nothing to her, and she in return behaved like a bad manager. The OP did nothing wrong.
I worked in marketing communications for a Fortune 100 company for 18 years. Among my many responsibilities was writing speeches for the top executives to deliver to customer and investor audiences, so I interacted at the highest levels. I attended and/or organized many company events that involved after-hours socializing. I recognize those events as possibly more important to one's career trajectory than regular office hours.
In some work cultures the OP would have done nothing wrong. But not in others. The OP's description of this outfit leads me to believe it is one that expects professional employees to be available at all hours on short notice. They don't like to admit that's how they use and abuse employees, but they do. The OP's inability to recognize this and acquiesce to the prevailing norm indicates a serious misfit.
I'm not saying this corporate attitude is healthy or even typical, but it is common in some fields and most especially in the more high-profile corporations. The OP wanted this job to jazz up his or her CV but states an unwillingness to play ball by the rules as they exist in that environment. The company is not going to change its culture to accommodate dogs or their employees who love them.
If this was not your personal experience, Eastcoast, consider yourself lucky. Get a job on Wall Street, be a not-yet-partner at a well-known law firm, or work for a tech or energy company with serious competition and you'll see a different work world.
They don't like to admit that's how they use and abuse employees, but they do. The OP's inability to recognize this and acquiesce to the prevailing norm indicates a serious misfit.
You're commenting as though I don't recognise this now. Believe me I do. I'm complaining about it here because I need to vent. I'm complaining about it here precisely so I can get some clarity and have a better understanding of what I'm dealing with, and then get on with my job. I'm allowed to respond negatively to the realisation they want to 'use and abuse' me, as you put it, with impunity. I'm allowed to respond to their unfair escalation, because to categorise someone this way and escalate at 3 days in, off the back of a casual email is extreme. You're forming all these judgements based on reams of text I've written in frustration and confusion. They're forming them based on, maybe, seven words in total.
I am also allowed to react to the fact that I was sold an entirely different work culture at interview. I'm not just talking about the future prospect of flexibility, but they actively promote their relaxed non-corporate or hierarchal way of working, even through small things like asking for personal life details on the website. I have crashed back to earth and will keep a lid on personal issues in future. I am allowed to react to the fact that I've been given a rude awakening from the image I was sold before taking the job.
All that being said, I am a profressional, and I'm not complaining or even mentioning a peep about this or anything similar at work ever again. At the event next week I will dazzle and schmooze like you won't believe.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jukesgrrl
The OP wanted this job to jazz up his or her CV but states an unwillingness to play ball by the rules as they exist in that environment.
I wanted the job because it's interesting and I'm damn good at it and I thought the work culture was similar to my way of thinking. I didn't seek a higher salary because they're a reputable company.
I've said several times that I'm going to play ball (now that I've finally, and crudely, been made aware of the rules) but I am not happy about the way they went about things. They reacted in extreme ways to one sentence out of an email. I can react to their escalation. It doesn't mean I don't understand their way of thinking. It doesn't mean I haven't adjusted accordingly. I just didn't agree with their methods and this whole thing came as a shock.
If this was not your personal experience, Eastcoast, consider yourself lucky. Get a job on Wall Street, be a not-yet-partner at a well-known law firm, or work for a tech or energy company with serious competition and you'll see a different work world.
+1. except for bolded. i've worked for fortune-100/500 engineering firms and everything is not drop everything and go-go-go.
When you are new to a company you don't just blow off a casual invitation.
You accommodate even if this means hiring a dog sitter.
This is not about work hours or watching someone get drunk.
This is about basic social skills - rejecting an invitation to get to know you is very bad form.
You basically told them you'd rather walk the dogs than get to know your new colleagues.
That's why you got a severe warning: "Attitude"
This is really not about becoming a corporate drone slave and not about work hours. It's about establishing a work relationship.
From your combative replies I don't expect you to take my comment well.
Nor should the OP. Working with people 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, week after week, that's how you get to know them. Going to lunch with them, that's how you get to know them. You don't need to see people socially to do that. But if the boss actually directed the OP to be there, that would be different, but this came from a co-worker that didn't sound serious or a requirement. You are expecting the OP to approach the company like a scared little rabbit and please everyone no matter the request, hardship or inconvenience. Pure nonsense, this place has bad management and for you not to even make room for that, just shows you don't know what good management actually is.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
