If It Makes Sense Let's Do the Opposite

Before I even started working for the county, I was told not to do to much. I wasn't sure what that meant. Within a week I knew what that meant. It meant that if I volunteered to do anything I got negative looks from my co-workers that meant shut-up.

I took one week to rest, by the second week I was bored. I went to my supervisor and suggested that I would like something to do. As I worked in a program that helped people get jobs I was given about fifty files and took to do follow-ups. These people had gotten jobs, and I was to call their employers and find out if they were still working.

We were required to do three-month, six-month, and twelve-month follow-ups. While looking at the first couple of files I noticed that no follow-ups had been completed. It was now between sixteen months and two years past when these people had gotten jobs.

This didn't make much sense to me and I went to my supervisor and asked him about it. He said, "Well, if they are still working there than we know they were working there all the other required dates." I asked, "What if they are not." His reply, "Well, just ask when they stopped working and just guess." I asked, "Aren't these suppose to be accurate." His reply, "They will be accurate." That is when I discovered "Magical Thinking."

I had come from a job where there was never enough time to one where the time was so slow. Here people all came in at 7:00 am, but didn't start work until 8:00 or 8:30, they went to breakfast each day. My biggest challenge each week was to decide whether to do all my work that first day or spread it over the whole week. If I did the work for the week the first day I would be through by 2:00 pm that day, if I spread it out over the week, I would be working about an hour or two a day.

The most amazing thing was that my co-workers were always complaining about having too much to do. I felt like I was having an out of body experience, within my own body. Whatever made sense the opposite was always done. If it made sense the powers that be would do the opposite.

Case in point was the man in the department who was known to sexually abuse his female co-workers, being named the Equal Opportunity Officer. Case in point was the man in the department who couldn't read or write, being named a site director, whose major responsibilities was writing required reports.

My supervisor was the nicest man, just totally incompetent. He was way past when he could have retired, but worked almost ten years past when he should have retired. He worked because his marriage wasn't the best and job was his social outlet. He was a Second World War veteran and loved to share his war stories. He spent his days telling anyone that would listen his stories.

I felt like I was in a zoo, with all the animals in control. This was just the beginning of my experience in the county where what makes sense the opposite happens.

Jana Ruth
Author of Laugh and Live Happier: P.L.A.Y.S. for Life
www.janaruth.biz
www.laughandlivehappier.com
www.laughingworld.blogspot.com