I’ve been at my job a year and a half now, and lately, especially this week, it’s been brought to my attention all the things I’m doing wrong.

Now, criticism I can take.  I still get upset at myself for making the mistakes, but that’s all personal discipline that I’m working on.  But THIS seems absolutely absurd, and WAY to weird to me.  I’m not trying to start some conspiracy theory here, but it sure seems like the females in the office get away with FAR more than I do, and it seems like they’re looking for a reason to oust me.  I simply CANNOT afford to lose this job, and I think they know this.

Let me break down what I do (when it comes to this problem), and how I’m being called out for it:

I do the same steps every time.

– I receive a decision form for a student that either says they’re accepted or denied for the university I work for.
– I only work on the denial letters, the others are given to the secretary.
– I start it out by inputting the student’s reasons for their denial, and then merge the letter into Microsoft Word. VERY easy.
– I then print the letter out of the student and attach it to their provided folder.

BAM.  DONE.  Onto the next letter.

Since Monday, I’ve been brought more than a few letters that are “being sent to the wrong people.”  The letters I printed were attached to folders of someone of a completely different name!  Now, again, this may sound like a mere mistake on my behalf.  One thing has me suspicious, though.  One letter my boss brought to me was a student I worked on yesterday, and there was no way I could have input the wrong student’s information into the wrong letter.  There’s simply no way to do it, unless, as my boss put it, “I made a typo.”  (That kind of thing is EXTREMELY rare for me.)  She then said it’s just “complete carelessness” on my end, and that I should free myself from all distractions…which I don’t have when I’m working on these letters!  She also said “one can get TOO comfortable and make many mistakes as a result…”

Now, onto the whole reason I wrote this:  After fuming for a bit about it after her condescending remarks (as she was trying to make me feel like a crazy person), I had another letter brought to me to actually work on.  “Okay, this is easy.  I have this.”  I input the data, and saved the letter (as I do for every letter, saved specifically under a folder that says “DENIED”).  I double checked it for accuracy, and turned it into the secretary (I have to do that with every denial letter so she can submit them and get them signed off).  The secretary comes up to me a bit later and tells me that I did the letter wrong!  She then shows me the letter and where I got it wrong, and that she “corrected it.”  I go back to my desk and discover the letter that she showed me was COMPLETELY different from the one she showed me I “screwed up” on.  It also states “File Created: 22 minutes ago” by THE SECRETARY, not me!!

…Is it too much to assume they’re purposefully screwing me over to get me fired from my state job!?

1. Since you use word make sure that you use the lock feature so that they cannot change it without your password unless they create their own.
2. Retain a digital copy on your machine of everything and make sure it also has password protection.
3. if you have the leeway to actually able to take photographs of paperwork (Be sure to read the it/hr policies first) take a photograph of the name on the letter right next to the name on the folder.

Its a lot of extra work for you but if they are going to try and fire you at least make them work hard for it.

EDIT: Also remember that the reason for this is that you are doing your job too well and making others look bad. Social equality means everyone has the s~~~tiest production imaginable and that if you work harder/smarter/faster etc you are the one who is in the wrong.

EDIT2: Also you can turn on the track changes function in word but turn the markup off so when they show you the file you can just turn the show markup option on and show they changed it not you.

You’re right about maintaining the shoddiest production.  I found that out time and again at the various places I worked at.  I stupidly thought I should always do my best because the work and the objective were more important than my self-image.

Nope.  Uh-uh.  Non.  Nein.  I’m sure I lost at least one job for being too good at it.  At one place, I knew more than the boss’s darling and that chap was never wrong (nor, for that matter, was the boss).  Eventually, I learned my lesson:  do, at most, a bit more than what the job calls for and that’s it.  Working longer or harder won’t bring any more rewards and won’t offer protection against being laid off or fired.

I’m sure I lost at least one job for being too good at it.

I know people this has happened to. They were fired or forced to transfer because they made the in crowd look bad. I was warned once myself by a manager in a different area that I was making my coworkers look bad. If it’s the corporate culture, you can’t beat it by fighting it.

it’s sad that even a STATE GOVERNMENT AGENCY can’t remain professional.

I laughed pretty good at this one! State agencies are the worst, at least there are some people in the private sector that make an attempt at professionalism. Government agencies are the standard by which all corruption measured. If you think about it the entire system of government is designed to enable corruption. You have people who end up in positions where they wield power and influence whose only possible product is more government. These people are over drone workers who know there is nothing but s~~~ piling up around them and that the only way to ever get anywhere is to kiss as much ass as possible. Additionally at least from my interactions with government agencies the people who are working the low lever areas are the same people you see in the DHS line getting welfare they just happen to be on the other side of the glass.

As for the inability to lock the document you can at least use the track changes feature and lock it so they cannot turn it off. That will not lock the whole document and as long as you do not show any of the markup they will never know its on.

I had more positive feedback from customers than anyone else in the office’s history in a short span of time, even more than the favorite females.

I was first put on suspension without pay for 30 days, then told me to essentially “tone down the empathy” (I’m sorry I wanted to, you know, help people!). I had veterans that came strictly to see ME to help them because they felt the women there were sexist by nature and I was the most sympathetic to their situation! Amazing, eh?

Now I’m here, in a similar situation, where people are not fans of the other workers in the office, and are big fans of me and the help I provide despite my front desk job. I feel like I’m making a good difference to the office, but maybe that’s my problem.

Better that I live as a vagrant or on the dole than suffer their company.

You were successful in your position, and defied the feminist construct of what a male is.  By being empathetic, sought-after and by performing your job in a rational and responsible manner, you have been punished.

I am almost certain that if you had performed your job to a sub-standard degree, and brought yourself down to their infighting/bickering internal conflict level, they’d have kept you around.

Remember, most of the institutions that are being run by feminists are not seeking men to actually successfully fill a role, but wish to have a few mascots around that will quell their insecurities, rather than add to them.  By being a strong, intelligent, rational and successful person, you have immediately become a threat in usurping their authority as they are not able to perform in the same capacity.

I feel for ya; however, in the long term one is always better not being a part of such a s~~~-show of a company or organization.  It’s much better to not be around when a place like that implodes, which it most certainly will.  It might not be today, it might not be tomorrow, but it will come.  As they seek to continually hire and promote the lowest common denominator, they are loosening the very mortar which holds together the bricks.