welcome to management! here are your staffing issues...

You don't have to be in middle management long before realizing you're royally screwed when it comes to staffing. Your employees might sympathize that you're understaffed, but they certainly aren't going to volunteer to do the extra work. Your boss doesn't care that you're understaffed b/c their boss doesn't care that they're understaffed (ad infinitum...). And your peers don't have time to care b/c they're worrying about their own staffing issues.

So, who cares?

Well, the old P.A.M. cares. I can tell ya that. As usual, her experience and knowledge both @ Planned Parenthood and just in the "real world" (not to mention all this business mumbo jumbo lingo stuff she's picking up in her MBA program) lend valuable insight and suggestions for Next Steps.

Still, I feel like bitching. Or theoricizing. There should be a combo word for that. Theoritchizing?

Why is it this way? Why don't employees feel obligated to pick up the slack when their co-worker is out? Wouldn't they want someone to do the same thing for them if they were out? Do they really think "managers" have magical powers and can do more than 8 hours of work in only 8 hours? And why is it such a big deal that something isn't in your "job description"? Is this another form of patriarchy that women have unwittingly accepted? Put it on paper or we won't do it...?

I can bitch about these things only because I know them inside out. I have been the employee who told her boss, I won't do anything that's not in my job description because I don't get paid for it. It sounds like solid reasoning, except when you think about the fact that I'M A FUCKING BITCH so why would anyone want to model their being-a-good-employee standards after me???

As for my manager, well...she sucks. I mean, er, uh, she's a great person in dire need of managerial training.