minoanmiss (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
minoanmiss) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
agonyaunt2022-09-14 11:10 am
minoanmiss) wrote in agonyaunt2022-09-14 11:10 am
Entry tags:
Ask a Manager: I can’t escape Halloween Town
(n.b. this doesn't have comments as of the last time I looked at it. I look forward to watching both conversations unfold together)
A reader writes:
I live in a small city which doesn’t have many employment opportunities. The city has a high unemployment rate, and it’s rare to find work that isn’t in shops, farming, etc. Six years ago, the city council launched a project to fund start-up business ideas for marginalized individuals, including those with disabilities.
One of these ideas has become extremely successful. It’s essentially four neurodivergent eccentrics who live every day like it’s Halloween. They are commissioned by various organizations around the state to create bespoke services and goods. They’ve attracted something of a following with projects coming in all year in preparation for October. Jobs include making props for a small amusement park, making decor for a children’s hospital, local authorities hiring them to run haunted houses, etc. Because it has council funding, the start-up needs a couple of additional employees for administration. I accepted one of these admin roles as there are so few office-based jobs in the area.
I have worked there for two years and I feel like I’m in some sort of alternative reality. The office is filled with robotics, costumes, and prop projects. I’ve kept my complaints to what I thought was minimal, but the number of official logged complaints about the four people is in double digits. As an example, one was about a ruined handbag that had been seized as a prop and filled with jelly and rubber eyeballs. The other admin worker isn’t helpful — he has multiple Halloween-themed tattoos and named his kids in obvious tribute (think names like Casper, Salem etc.).
The entire city sees the team as underdog heros and they really are involved in worthwhile projects. I appreciate that they probably have been excluded through their lives and have finally found an opportunity to form a community and work in a field they love. But my nerves are in shreds with the constant screams and cackles emitted from every corner of a small office. The latest is a wildlife charity wanting to put nesting boxes for actual BATS! in the office. They’re paying for it as a promotional/marketing service, with the resident ghouls blogging about and videoing the bats. Am I nuts, or is this completely bizarre?
After I submitted a complaint about the plans to move bats in, the local newspaper ran a massive double spread about the Halloween grinch trying to destroy this deeply loved community enterprise. They took the stance that I am some stuffy busybody ruining disabled people’s opportunities to shine and create joy and community spirit. I wasn’t named in the article but it was obvious to locals who the villain was.
Quitting means I’d be signing up for many years in a manual or service job in a city where everyone hates me. My son is counting down the days until he can legally change his name so he won’t be recognized. I had minor surgery last year and the week off felt like the first time in two years I could breathe.
As I’m writing this to you, my coworkers are bellowing out lines from films at each other repetitively, then identifying them. Here’s a sample:
A : What an excellent day for an exorcism!
J: The Exorcist, 1973!
T: Listen to them, children of the night!
J : Dracula, 1931!
Help!
Whoa, okay.
The problem is not the people running this organization. The problem is not the culture of this organization, or the bats or the rubber eyeballs.
The problem is that you’re working for an organization that you hate and hoping that it will change in fundamental ways, when those fundamental ways are core to the work they do.
You don’t need to like Halloween or creepy things or scary movie references or bats … but you are working for an organization whose whole mission is about those things.
Fighting against that is like taking a job at a race track and complaining that you smell motor oil all the time, or taking a job at a nightclub and trying to get them to play less music.
This is the work they do.
It’s not surprising that there are people in the office who are really, really into the work they do! That makes sense. It’s a niche business, started by people with a niche interest, attracting people who share that niche interest.
Lots of people would think this is awesome. You don’t — and that’s your prerogative, but you’ve got to be realistic about what you signed on for.
I’m sympathetic that you don’t have a ton of other job options in your area, but it’s not reasonable to take a job working for a company that does X and then be upset that they’re doing X.
I think you’ve got to decide whether you can stay where you are reasonably happily or whether it’s too much for you and you need to leave. There’s no middle ground option of “stay but hate it and try to make them be different.”
What would you be doing for work if this organization didn’t exist? Whatever that answer is, it might be what you need to do now.
A reader writes:
I live in a small city which doesn’t have many employment opportunities. The city has a high unemployment rate, and it’s rare to find work that isn’t in shops, farming, etc. Six years ago, the city council launched a project to fund start-up business ideas for marginalized individuals, including those with disabilities.
One of these ideas has become extremely successful. It’s essentially four neurodivergent eccentrics who live every day like it’s Halloween. They are commissioned by various organizations around the state to create bespoke services and goods. They’ve attracted something of a following with projects coming in all year in preparation for October. Jobs include making props for a small amusement park, making decor for a children’s hospital, local authorities hiring them to run haunted houses, etc. Because it has council funding, the start-up needs a couple of additional employees for administration. I accepted one of these admin roles as there are so few office-based jobs in the area.
I have worked there for two years and I feel like I’m in some sort of alternative reality. The office is filled with robotics, costumes, and prop projects. I’ve kept my complaints to what I thought was minimal, but the number of official logged complaints about the four people is in double digits. As an example, one was about a ruined handbag that had been seized as a prop and filled with jelly and rubber eyeballs. The other admin worker isn’t helpful — he has multiple Halloween-themed tattoos and named his kids in obvious tribute (think names like Casper, Salem etc.).
The entire city sees the team as underdog heros and they really are involved in worthwhile projects. I appreciate that they probably have been excluded through their lives and have finally found an opportunity to form a community and work in a field they love. But my nerves are in shreds with the constant screams and cackles emitted from every corner of a small office. The latest is a wildlife charity wanting to put nesting boxes for actual BATS! in the office. They’re paying for it as a promotional/marketing service, with the resident ghouls blogging about and videoing the bats. Am I nuts, or is this completely bizarre?
After I submitted a complaint about the plans to move bats in, the local newspaper ran a massive double spread about the Halloween grinch trying to destroy this deeply loved community enterprise. They took the stance that I am some stuffy busybody ruining disabled people’s opportunities to shine and create joy and community spirit. I wasn’t named in the article but it was obvious to locals who the villain was.
Quitting means I’d be signing up for many years in a manual or service job in a city where everyone hates me. My son is counting down the days until he can legally change his name so he won’t be recognized. I had minor surgery last year and the week off felt like the first time in two years I could breathe.
As I’m writing this to you, my coworkers are bellowing out lines from films at each other repetitively, then identifying them. Here’s a sample:
A : What an excellent day for an exorcism!
J: The Exorcist, 1973!
T: Listen to them, children of the night!
J : Dracula, 1931!
Help!
Whoa, okay.
The problem is not the people running this organization. The problem is not the culture of this organization, or the bats or the rubber eyeballs.
The problem is that you’re working for an organization that you hate and hoping that it will change in fundamental ways, when those fundamental ways are core to the work they do.
You don’t need to like Halloween or creepy things or scary movie references or bats … but you are working for an organization whose whole mission is about those things.
Fighting against that is like taking a job at a race track and complaining that you smell motor oil all the time, or taking a job at a nightclub and trying to get them to play less music.
This is the work they do.
It’s not surprising that there are people in the office who are really, really into the work they do! That makes sense. It’s a niche business, started by people with a niche interest, attracting people who share that niche interest.
Lots of people would think this is awesome. You don’t — and that’s your prerogative, but you’ve got to be realistic about what you signed on for.
I’m sympathetic that you don’t have a ton of other job options in your area, but it’s not reasonable to take a job working for a company that does X and then be upset that they’re doing X.
I think you’ve got to decide whether you can stay where you are reasonably happily or whether it’s too much for you and you need to leave. There’s no middle ground option of “stay but hate it and try to make them be different.”
What would you be doing for work if this organization didn’t exist? Whatever that answer is, it might be what you need to do now.
A tangential observation
Hmm.
Re: A tangential observation
Re: A tangential observation
Re: A tangential observation
and also converted something to "around the state"? That would be weird.
...if Alison thought it was British spelling, but they said "state", I wonder if they're Australian.
Re: A tangential observation
I wonder if they're Australian.
That amount of focus on 'Halloween' is not common in Oz, and in a small town even less likely. But, stranger things have happened.
no subject
no subject
I personally would only take a job at a christmas tree shoppe if I were desperate! And I wouldn't submit official complaints about the constant caroling! (I might get noise cancelling headphones and ask people to stop including me in christmas planning, and obviously you have a right to a sensible workplace, but seriously.)
no subject
It's not standard professional, no. I'd even call it odd.
That's not the issue, though.
The issue is you're depressed, being targeted, probably mildly paranoid about the targeting (as you should be), and unhappy in your job. That's no fun, no. But you've been in this job long enough so it's not weird to look for different ones, this is an instance where you need out.
no subject
no subject
no subject
Someone also pointed out that the wildlife folks could be putting empty bat houses in the office as part of a display about bats. (And thinking about it, if the business does animatronics, I could see them doing a bat house with animatronic bats on it for a display inside the office.)
no subject
That would be adorable!
(I don't trust LW as far as I can throw her.)
no subject
But if LW is there in some other hands-on admin role (eg reception, supervisory or communications), well. This job clearly seems to be a bad fit for LW, and their resentment is adversely affecting everything, including their own future job opportunities in the city. LW, your reputation is not going to recover from that unflattering newspaper article soon if at all. And my guess is that your co-workers probably resent you too by now. It's probably past time to move on.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
(The constant loud noises would bug me, too, but that’s what headphones are for.)
LW needs to get out of this environment — they are obviously miserable, and I’m sure their coworkers aren’t enjoying all the complaining, either.
no subject
I want one of her coworkers or even her SON to write us about their POV.
no subject
no subject
The consensus on that when I last checked was that the LW may have disguised some aspects of the story by replacing the holiday, though there's also several folks commenting about a TV show whose premise sounds like this company -- IOW, could be a fake letter.
no subject
Even taken at face value, though, the letter writer oozes disdain for anyone enthused about Halloween in a freaking Halloween-centric company, and just overall disdain for, well, everyone not them.
no subject
no subject