Over the summer I started to notice something pretty scary; my life at work is like a "Dilbert" comic. It all started when I was reading the Boston Sunday Globe; I used to read "Garfield" but it's not in the Globe anymore so I started reading "Dilbert". Funny thing is that when I was done reading it, I was like "Oh my Lord, that is what happened at work yesterday, or last week, or whenever".
So, the premise of this particular comic that I read is that Dilbert's boss tells Dilbert that their C.E.O.'s son is joining the department as an intern.
Dilbert's boss, of course, assigns Dilbert to be the "new intern's" mentor.
Dilbert's boss think the reason that the C.E.O.'s son is joining the department so that he can be a spy, so he tells Dilbert not to let the C.E.O.'s son learn anything about them because then he will report it to his dad.
Dilbert's boss gives Dilbert a list of compliments to give to the C.E.O.'s son and forces Dilbert to assign him a simplistic project.
Dilbert's boss finishes the conversation by saying, "If he asks more than three questions, kill him".
The C.E.O.'s son arrives and walks up to Dilbert and asks, "Where's my desk?", and Dilbert is standing there and thinking to himself........ "That's one" (meaning that's question number one).
I can tell you that I have definitely been in this position at work more than once. It's either a regional manager's child helping out for the holidays while he/ she is on break from college, or sometimes it's the daughter/ son or daughters/ sons of more than one senior manager helping out for inventory or go to work with your parents day. The funny thing about all of it is that usually the child exhibits the same work ethic as mom or dad, which is sometimes impressive
and at other times abysmally pathetic.
On the positive side, for example, we had one child of a regional manager who was almost anti-company and yet very intelligent. He/ she was hardworking, and basically worked for the holidays because it was what the parent wanted. This boss's child kept to his/herself, and there was nothing arrogant or unbecoming about the individual.
On the flip side, we had two children of managers helping out recently and they definitely did more harm than good; they were given no direction and I basically had to go behind them and correct error after error so they wouldn't get in trouble. I shouldn't have cared, but something told me that if I did not do it, I would have had to anyway eventually.
The two little monsters were messing up everything as they went along, and being very sloppy and lax about the whole job. I mean it seemed like they did not take any of it seriously at all; it was as if they knew they were protected by mom or dad so why should they care? ( as a side note: The children know they can get away with bad behavior, and you have to believe that mom and/ or dad must allow them to act that way at home. So they bring them to their workplace and that is like their outlet or place to act out, most likely because they don't receive enough attention at home). You know that if anyone would have said anything they would have either been reprimanded or faced consequences later (possibly in the form of sabotage; I put nothing past the management that I ashamedly and admittedly work for).
It is also true that sometimes I feel like there are plants or spys in every department, somebody who is set there to watch everyone else and listen to what they say. I think sometimes management puts their children in departments where they want to know what is going on, their ears and eyes on the inside, so to speak. Truly I feel that management thinks that they are scaring people into doing what they want by doing things like that. Some people are scared into it, but I made my way past feeling that way a long time ago. I feel it is more important to stay true to who I am and not compromise my beliefs because I am scared into doing so.
The funny thing is, going back to the Dilbert comic, that the management's children where I work ask way more than three questions.
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