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Rant



Many of you have read my accounts of the bizarre problems I had with our
former managing director. Now that he's stepped down, a whole new problem
has reared itself. I know that you don't care to hear about office politics,
but I need to blow off steam. Plus, the punch line might be worth the tedium
for those familiar with my saga.

Ever since I've been here, I've generally been asked, expected or told to do
two things above and beyond the realm of the Archives. One was doing much of
the managing director's work for him, especially including taking an active
role in the general business of the Association. Now that he's stepped down,
this has continued to a lesser extent under direction of the President, who
has assumed much of his responsibility. The other was to help our bookkeeper
with various problems that she can't handle herself, especially at this time
of the year when she's inundated with orders for our calendars. I've also
had the freedom to offer suggestions if I felt they might be beneficial to
our Association.

A problem came up over the weekend about cash received in the mail. She got
upset with me about it, saying that by opening mail that was addressed to me
I had violated policy that says she open all mail (although I had never
heard of such a policy). When I tried to offer some constructive (to me,
anyway) ideas about how we could avoid the problem in the future she blew
her stack and said that I was the one making a big problem out of mail
handling. I came back from lunch to find an incendiary memo from her on my
desk, saying that she is the Office Manager, that she's getting fed up with
me overstepping my bounds in offering suggestions to her, that I'm only the
archivist and not the managing director, and that I'm essentially to shut up
and keep my nose out of anything not concerning the Archives.

Frankly, I haven't encountered such immaturity in anyone older than 10. I've
worked for and with some pretty odd people, but I've never been told off for
doing something that I was under the understanding I was expected to do.

Punch line - she's the former MD's sister. At least she doesn't think she's
an archivist.

Back to putting my nose where it belongs. . .

Best wishes,

Thomas Berry, Archivist
Historical Construction Equipment Association
16623 Liberty Hi Road
Bowling Green, Ohio 43402
Phone 419-352-5616
Fax 419-352-6086
tberry@hcea.net
http://www.hcea.net

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