Job from Hades, Part 2

On or before June 22, 2005, as I was working on a project in my borrowed cube, Ms. Bash came quietly behind me and was standing at the cubicle entrance looking over my shoulder. I had just received an email from a friend at another state agency regarding another friend at that agency who was getting a promotion. I opened it, smiled and closed the email. She stepped forward and said, "Was that an email from outside this building?" I told her, "Yes, as a matter of fact it was from another state agency." She replied, "Oh no, that is not acceptable. You are NOT to receive or send any emails outside this LAN, it will not happen." I said, "Okay, not a problem." Ms. Bash then continued, "There are faculty watching you, the IT dept. is watching you, the Department chair receives a detailed report every month of your internet usage. If you are receiving emails from the outside and spending too much time on the internet, you can be terminated.” "Okay, not a problem,” I replied. Ms Bash then went over immediately and told my co-worker(Dee Puddles) what she told me and that I was getting emails. I believe that she had violated my confidentiality to a co-worker in recounting how she had “corrected” me by pulling in a subordinate and discussing HR matters. I told Ms. Bash I would email my husband and my friend and tell them I could no longer receive emails at work. It appeared to me that I had clearly been singled out, as others, clearly, are emaling outside the facility, Ms Bash included, and nothing was said or done to modify their behavior.

On or before June 22, 2005 I was shown how to do calculate a census for two offices. I also was shown how to gather the information for faculty census. Ms. Bash went over the procedures with me and told me to go over July, 2004 to make sure there were no mistakes. I went over the entire census and found two to three errors (2-3), and corrected them on the spreadsheet. When she discovered what I had done, although I had done it at her request, Ms. Bash expressed her disapproval for my going over the entire month. She said she made it clear to me I was simply to spot check July, 2004. I told her I must have misunderstood her directive. I proceeded to start September, 2004 census, and before I started, she told me I was to time myself on how long it took me. That is all she told me. I have never been timed on a project in my career and have always in the past completed all projects thoroughly and in a timely manner. I went over and did the task in two hours. I did not look up, answer the phone, or use the restroom. For a full 2 hours I remained on task, fearful I would be reprimanded by Ms. Bash. When I finished the census, I noted on the stack of papers my start and end times. She appeared to be delighted and said that was great it did not take me long to get the task done. She said that it meant that I could do a whole month in half a day. I reminded her I had no interruptions and realistically speaking, it could take an entire day to complete this task, as there are interruptions throughout the day. I also reminded her that I did not waiver from the task at all. She replied, “I was not timing you for any particular reason, I have to justify your position.” This statement and management philosophy clearly singled out my knowledge and skill set as no other co-workers have been timed on projects or told their job needs justification.