Working for the (Wo)Man

You know what the trouble is with working for a woman-owned, woman-operated company? The trouble is that you can only sleep your way to the bottom.

Well, figuratively speaking, of course. There are some rather juicy rumors about me and a consultant who was recently fired, with whom I worked quite closely, even though he telecommuted from another city and I've actually met him in person maybe 8 or 9 times. But if there's anything true about my employer, it's that they never let a little reality get in the way of a good story!

And that's really at the root of how they do business. We provide (or may provide) conceptual services: our president (who is a niece of the CEO - and not the only niece of the CEO in senior management, either) comes up with some really boffo ideas, goes out and pitches them to rapt clients, then breezes off to the next sale leaving a befuddled staff scrambling to figure out how to either (1) implement them, or (2) make it look more or less as if we had. Frankly, I'm amazed we've never been sued; but then again that's probably an advantage of having contracts that are drawn up by salespeople rather than lawyers.

And of course the account managers who are left trying to figure out how to make these boffo ideas happen (the president is much too busy to be bothered with details, and can get impressively furious if questioned) get the blame when the client gets pissed off.

So I'm currently in a bit of hot water at work. Well, I'm far from being the first and will not be the last. To say it's a very political place is a bit of a slam on politicians, really; to say it's a lot like junior high school casts innocent 7th-graders in rather a bad light. Then again, what the hell have 7th-graders ever done for me?

Our president has her staff working on a book for her, so she can go on Oprah. I'll be sure and post about it when that happens. With any luck I'll be working somewhere else, and making my way to the top - hopefully, through competence and hard work...!