tldr: I've been job-searching behind my boss's back since September, mostly for government jobs, and the most recent interview offer made me understand why some people despise government officials… and I needed to rant about it a bit.
This is going to sound stupid, but I was raised to believe in the “dignity of work,” and how it's important to find your “passion” in said work… but then again, my family is mostly comprised of techies, investors, and “independent business owners” (who either inherited said businesses or inter-generational funding to start their own businesses – good for them, I guess). Unlike the rest of my relatives, though, I don't especially consider myself ambitious (at least not career-wise). In every job I've ever had, I've tried to find places where I can stay, with work I can feel competent doing, and with minimal impositions on my free time and energy.
My first corporate job (technically a “paid” ($7/hr) “internship”) was a nightmare, and my male boss was a domineering jerk-wad who actually invited me to go to Las Vegas with him on a “business trip” (I declined, and he came back with a hangover). When he found out I would rather go back to college than work for him full-time, he went out for a “business meeting,” and called me at my desk to literally fire me on the spot. My takeaway? Don't ever work in a male-owned business.
Granted, that takeaway ruled out a LOT of potential places to work after I graduated, but luckily, I had the good fortune to work at a woman-owned architectural firm in my hometown. Since I was the only person who didn't have a design degree, I got saddled with a lot of what you might call “intellectual labor” – filing, reception duties, AR/AP stuff, and even HR/Benefits management. It was hard work, and sometimes I felt lonely in my “department of one,” but it was gratifying to work alongside strong, independent women who were designing plans for buildings that would make everyone working in them feel good. I worked for them for 10 years… then, the owner sold her company in the hope of arranging a retirement plan, and – surprise, surprise – the new owners were all male AND a bunch of domineering jerk-wads who literally couldn't wait to start pushing us “ladies” around. The lesson I learned? Don't work in the corporate world, because it's inherently unstable and easily usurped by domineering jerk-wads.
So I spent the next couple of years alternating between minimum-wage (i.e. low pressure) jobs that made me feel competent and treated me with respect, and nonprofits that I either had friends who worked at, or whose missions I passionately believed in… at least until they either imploded due to lack of funding, or else fired the lot of us and replaced us with unpaid interns. The moral there? Nonprofits' “missions” are meaningless excuses to rake in tax-exempt money, without even having the decency to offer you real benefits in case you get sick or injured.
Then I landed what I THOUGHT was going to be a sweet gig at a local college, with lots of benefits… until the staff voted to unionize for higher pay, and the administration started making noises about “cash flow problems” and seeking “enhanced partnerships”… only to start merging with another school, which is – you guessed it – run by domineering jerk-wads (men AND women, this time) who are pushing my coworkers around, making them work over weekends and holidays, and practically chomping at the bit to dismantle our nascent staff union. So I guess I'm finally learning how unstable even higher education can be, and frankly it's f**king demoralizing. Our department in particular has been in utter chaos with all of the turnover and uncertainty regarding our positions – I even overheard that 50-75% of our jobs are slated to be outsourced in the next few months. Seems like NOTHING is impervious to corporate consolidation, right?
So I've been job-searching behind my current boss's back since September, and THIS time, I've been applying for GOVERNMENT JOBS. Those are merge-proof, right? They give themselves excellent benefits, don't they? Yes… but they are SOOOOOOO F**KING INCONSISTENT about getting back to you about your applications. One of them STILL hasn't gotten back to me, even after I applied EIGHT MONTHS AGO… One of them got back to me TWO WEEKS after I applied, gave me a 3-week window to prepare for my oral board exam, and one extra week to prepare for my ACTUAL interview – which I ACED… but they ultimately gave the job to someone else. So I took those two PTO days for NOTHING.
But the most recent government job I applied for? The local tax-collection agency? Oh boy…
So four of those guys sent me an email at 5:30pm on Tuesday: “Good evening Minerva, we're reaching out to set up an interview for the accounting clerk position. Please respond to this email promptly. We can start at 8am tomorrow, and do one hour slots until the last one at 4pm. If you cannot make time for tomorrow's interview, please let us know if you would like to interview next Monday.”
My response 15 minutes later (because I like to believe I'm prompt): “Good evening [names redacted], thank you so much for your email. Unfortunately, I cannot make the interviews tomorrow, as I'm currently employed full-time and we are short-staffed, so I need at least 24-48 hours notice before taking paid time off. Fortunately, Monday should be perfect – I can do an 8am interview then, but if that slot is taken, please let me know what other slots are available so I can let my coworkers know in advance if I need to take some personal time later in the day on Monday.”
Then at 11:30am on Wednesday, one of those guys emails me without copying his coworkers: “Hi Minerva, I am reaching out to you if you are still interested to interview for the accounting clerk position in our office. The interview will be done remotely. We have some open slots available for interview this Friday. Let us know if you are still interested. Have a nice day.” (…I was like, didn't he read my email from yesterday???)
My response at 11:45am: “Hi [name redacted], thank you for your email. Yes, I am still interested in this position. However, as I said in my previous email, I need 24-48 hours notice before taking time off from my current job. If there's an 8am slot available Friday morning, I could do that before I go to work, but otherwise I would prefer to interview some time on Monday, if possible. Please let me know what slots are available on Monday so that I can request time off. Thank you!”
And just to MAKE DAMN SURE somebody else was aware of my situation, I wrote another email to the four of them at 2pm: “Hello [names redacted], Per your coworker's email to me this morning, it appears that some interview slots opened up on Friday. If there is an 8am slot available on Friday, I can be available for that before I go to work. If not, I just wanted to reiterate that I'm currently employed full-time, and generally cannot request time off without 24-48 hours notice. Therefore, if someone can get back to me to confirm whether 8am on Friday works, or else what is available on Monday, I would very much appreciate it.”
On Thursday? RADIO F**KING SILENCE. Not even a f**king calendar invite. And I spent the whole damn day checking my email on the sly, wondering, “Is going to be Friday morning? Is it going to be sometime on Monday? WHICH IS IT?!”
So I err on the side of caution, get up at 5am Friday morning, have coffee to wake myself up, eat breakfast to tide myself over, put on my nice office clothes, make myself up a bit, set up my computer, test my microphone and camera… and I told myself, “They have until 8:15, then I'm wiping off my makeup, breaking this whole set up down again, and going to work.”
Then at 8:10am, the maverick who emailed me individually CALLS MY CELL, apologizes for missing my email due to Thursday being a holiday (wow, that sounds nice…), and then tells me that ALL of the Monday slots are full, and asks if I can interview at 10am this morning? That's when I put my foot down – I reiterated (a FOURTH F**KING TIME, mind!) that I needed to give my coworkers advanced notice, which I did not receive; that skipping out on my responsibilities without notice was unprofessional; that nobody informed me the Monday slots were full until NOW; and that unless they could interview me by 8:30am, I was going back to my office. So he apologizes and says he's going to check with the group and see what they could do… only to email me, along with the group, at 8:25am, “Hi Minerva, sorry to inform you. I just talked to someone in the interview panel, and they'll only be available to do the interview for you today since the rest of the time slots have been taken. Let me know if you can make time for interview today in your busy schedule.”
I was all like, “Oh no, no, no, I don't have to take this passive-aggressive BS…” So I wrote back at 9am, “Good morning [names redacted], Thank you for your email. As I said in my email from Tuesday when you first contacted me, this coming Monday would have been best to schedule an interview. I understand that the slots all appear to be taken, but as I said on the phone and by email, I am currently employed full-time, and we are short-staffed, so I need 24-48 hours notice to request time off, and unfortunately, I missed the window to request time off for today. If any other availability opens up next week, please let me know as soon as possible.”
So while I'm working and trying to deal with inter-office crap, one of the other guys decides to try to play “good cop,” calls my cell at 10:15am, and leaves a message, saying he understands I'm very busy, but that unfortunately Monday is simply no longer an option, but they could maybe squeeze me in for 2pm this afternoon?
Because I'm big believer in getting things in writing as often as possible, I emailed the group again one minute after receiving the voicemail: “Good morning [names redacted], I just wanted to thank [Good Cop] for calling me to offer an interview slot at 2pm today, and I sincerely appreciate your willingness to try to squeeze me in. Unfortunately, my current position requires me to have regular office hours, and I cannot make personal calls during those hours, unless – as I've stated multiple times – I can give my coworkers 24-48 hours notice. So I'm very sorry, but as much as I was hoping to help your agency, I need more advance notice to plan for interviews. Good luck!”
…
So the way I figure it, either these guys are SO completely disorganized they can't even read emails – in which case, they absolutely need competent people like me… or else they were stringing me along to see if I would drop everything just for the chance to let them interview me. Testing my loyalty, as it were? I mean, on the one hand, it's entirely possible that their agency is so historically overworked, underfunded and understaffed that they simply can't function like a real, professional government agency… But, on the other hand, come on, you really expect me to believe that ALL 8 interview slots on Monday got taken in 2 days (disregarding the holiday)? If so, great, maybe they'll find even less competent people to pass their crappy jobs onto. If not, though, it feels like a BS power move by domineering jerk-wads, and nobody should have to take it. I mean, I want to believe that governing bodies can be useful and helpful, but damn, just because I applied for an entry-level position, it doesn't give them the right to metaphorically snap their fingers at me. It's unprofessional and disrespectful.
It's even funnier in retrospect, because while their job posting said that it was possible employees might be required to engage with “rude taxpayers”… apparently a lot of the Indeed reviews of that agency accuse upper management of “nepotism” and “toxic work culture.” So, hopefully I dodged a bullet on that one.