SuitWorld

about six months ago, the little team i work on was changed -- radically.

we'd been our own little island of sanity amidst a sea of corporate craziness. we had our own rules, which worked well for what we were doing. the clients were happy. we were happy making the clients happy. it was a bit of organized chaos, but the jobs got done on time, under whatever budget they were given, and everyone was happy. we had a wide degree of latitude on how we got things done, and we had a happy, smiling manager overseeing us, pushing us on, prodding and challenging us to do better.

then, the Suits took over.

in SuitWorld, everyone plays by the same rules, regardless of whether those rules make sense. an example: everyone in SuitWorld who wanted a laptop as their main computer was given just that -- a laptop. no keyboard. no external monitor. no mouse. just a laptop.

why? who the fuck knows. in SuitWorld, that's just the way it is.

in SuitWorld, everyone writes lots of paperwork about what they're going to do. then, maybe, if the paperwork is written correctly, they're allowed to do it. but they have to fill out more paperwork about what they're doing. so, in the end, the workload is tripled, but the technology work stays constant (or even decreases a bit, because the paper shuffling is overwhelming at times).

why? who the fuck knows. in SuitWorld, that's just the way it is.

**

so the Suits took over and rapidly began incorporating us into SuitWorld. the job i signed up for has changed almost 180 degrees. now i spend most of my day in paperwork, doing "process" work, getting further and further from the technology that inspired me to take the job in the first place. the contact with clients is decreasing, and when i do interact with them, it's always with an asterisk hanging over the conversation -- gone is the freewheeling sense of "we're in this together," replaced with "uh-huh. yeah. listen ..."

anyway. i am done complaining. the original point of this post was to say that we were given two managers in a relatively short succession. first was The Hammer. she was brought in to break our spirits. she laid down a few very uncomfortable rules that broke longstanding practice for our team. i think it's safe to say The Hammer was ... well, The Hammer.

she was followed by GoodCop/BadCop, who seemed like mary freaking poppins in comparison. but i'm not sure who she is from day to day -- hence the name. at times she's smirking, funny and deprecating. at other times she's rigidly enforcing the rules in a no-nonsense manner.

(edit: and always always ALWAYS speaking in management bullshit-bingo jibberish.)

i don't know who i'm dealing with. in SuitWorld, i guess, that's SOP.