I was just thanked by a co-worker for "fetching" reports

[noiretextatique]

I am the Accountant for a standalone project that my company manages. I am also the Senior Accountant for the main company. I took on the accounting for this project after our controller discovered a theft by one one of the employees...to the tune of $57,000.00. Our funder recently audited the project, and this is a part of a letter of thanks that was written by the Project Director, (who likes to remind everyone she is a Harvard grad) :eyes: and sent to the executive team, and all the people who participated in the audit.


Thanks again for all your help that resulted in this positive outcome – NOIR was great about fetching reports as the reviewer requested them (and keeping good records in the first place), Person 1 helped reorganize the charts, Person 2 demonstrated great patience with the reviewer and put a great deal of effort into the preparations (not to mention taught himself the software to ensure we get our subsidy every month), Program staff and Person 3 helped with chart review, and Person 4’s staff worked hard to ensure all the apartments were in great shape. What a team!

Let's review:

Noir "fetched"

Person 1 "reorganized"

Person 2 "demonstrated great patience" "put in a great deal of effort" "taught himself software" (btw, the CFO advised them to fire this jackass along with the thief because he signed her bogus checks...no invoices, no backup. He's the PD's boy, so she's always trying to pump his sorry ass up. Question: Do you think he's BLACK? Answer: NOT A CHANCE IN HELL)

Person 3 "helped"

Person 4's staff "worked hard"

and....

Noir "was great about fetching reports" :grr:

Here's my response to the Project Director:

Fetching? I truly wish you would have used another word.
I know you didn’t mean it as an insult, Person 5…I truly do know that. But, I was insulted by your use of that word to describe my role in the audit process in a letter that you sent to everyone. I appreciate that you added that I am the person who keeps the accounting in order, but I am deeply offended that my role in the process was reduced to “fetching.”

:eyes: thanks goodness i work for a culturally competent company in post-racial america :eyes:

I filed a complaint against the new CFO today. He's been forcing everyone to do his work for him, and no one has the courage to stand up to him. He's been trying to get me to do a long-term cash flow projection for him, and since that function is not in my job description, I filed a complaint with HR. I talked with the HR Director (a total kiss-ass) this morning, and he tried to say that he could see how the report could fit into my job description (as I suspected), but I was prepared for him (knowing precisely how big of a kiss-ass he is). I whipped out copies several Senior Accountant and CFO positions that were posted on craigslist. Only one of the six Senoir Accountant postings mentioned cash flow projections (short-term, at that), but ALL of the six CFO positions mentioned cash flow projections :rofl: What a day :argh:

[jmm]

1. Sounds like my company

When I was relatively new in my current department our supervisor left. After she was gone we realized there were a number of duties that weren't getting done or weren't acceptably. Most of the dept had been there since I was in junior high but I ended up taking on many of the old supervisor's responsibilities, setting up better systems of communications with many of our clients and business units, etc. About a month after she left we were pretty well caught up. There were some reports that were a few weeks behind but I cleared up many that were pending for as far back as eight months. After all this time we were offered "help." We were assigned a new function and somebody from the dept that use to handle it spent a few hours a day helping us with it for one month. I liked her when she wasn't underestimating my age or intelligence. When that time was up a letter went out to the entire business unit praising her for turning us around and gave her credit for numerous things I did before I even met her such as cleaning up the eight month backlog we had on some reports. I don't like having attention focused on me and I didn't want to be praised like she was but if you're going to give credit, give it where it is due.

[noiretextatique]

10. happens all the time

your efforts are overlooked, minimized, diminished, etc., but ms. sally gets all the credit...typical. the jerk who she praised the most in that memo should have been fired. he "taught himself" how to use the software because the thief did all the work...for ten years...and he did nothing but collect a check, and let her steal $57k. but that's the person who she claims is so wonderful...whatthefuckever. if it hadn't been for me, they might have lost their damn funding.

[Number23]

2. Girl, you just brought back some UGLY corporate memories for me

And I wish I'd had half as much common sense and calmness as you did when confronted with them.

I hope things work out with your complaint and that it's handled fairly but I have so little faith in corporate America. I know far too many sistas who've filed complaints for foolishness like this and THEY were the ones who were penalized.

I've been subjected to ugly little adjectives to describe the work I've done too and had my work minimized as your supervisor tried to do to you even at times when the work I did on a project was absolutely CRITICAL to its success. I wish I'd had half the good sense to whip out some comparative reports/job descriptions like you did and read folks the riot act.

I'll blame it on youth and not yet having come to understand that the combination of having melanin and ovaries for some inexplicable reason factors in so heavily when the time comes for promotions, performance reviews etc. Now that I'm much older and wiser, I don't have these problems quite as much but it still pisses me off that I never knew what to do to handle this stuff when it was really affecting me. This is the kind of thing they need to be teaching people in college.

[noiretextatique]

11. i haven't had these kind of problems in years

but i work for a non-profit, and non-profit typically attract pompous, insecure, self-important, mediocre jerks. i've done corporate, government, non-profit, and i think my next job will be in government.
i've had many years of practice, so i've learned how to play the game. i was NOT good at this game when i was younger :7 in this company, i am the designated "strong black woman," but the fact that i am more intelligent than most of the people here interferes with that stereotype. i am trying to get the hell out of here soon.

[Number23]

31. "i am trying to get the hell out of here soon."

That sounds like the best course of action you could take. And I'm sure that when you do leave, they'll have to hire THREE people to do the work that you did for them. Oh yes, that has happened to me. :)

Good luck to you, noire! Please let us know how everything turns out.

[cyndensco]

3. You had every reason to be insulted.

Not only did she say you fetched the reports, you had to be instructed which ones to fetch. Her description of your contribution to the team sounds clerical at best.

Your response to her was needed. Please let us know how she reacted.

Have a better day tomorrow. :hi:

[noiretextatique]

12. well...she came by my office later in the day

and apologized again. she asked me if i wanted her to send another letter, and i said no. i told her to forget it this time, but not to do it again. this is not the first time i've had this kind of problem with her. she is not my supervisor...we work on a team together...but she wants me to defer to her, and i see no reason to do that. she thanked me for calling her on her shit, and that was that. cultural competence is a big buzzword in the agency, so i and eager to see which of these culturally competent people will challenge her also.

[Fire1]

4. Ah, typical white corporate america. n/t

[noiretextatique]

13. indeed eom

[firedupdem]

5. What a day indeed! I'm so glad you responded to her and talked

with HR. That is ridiculous. Who even uses the word fetch? :grr:

My 90 day review stated that I am "articlute" in damn near every section. A lady that started with me, showed me her review, and of course the fact that she is "articulate" was never mentioned. The shit we deal with!

[Number23]

6. No they didn't!!!

Do you ever get the impression that some white folks think that Fred Sanford was real and that all black people really act like him?

[firedupdem]

8. oh my! I typed mumble jumble...LOL

It was late and I was typing fast!

Yes! Isn't that a trip? There were three sections on the little review, and every section started with "firedup is very articulate." I'm like, wow...some things never change!

[noiretextatique]

9. it is a very familiar and common lament

you're sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo articulate :eyes:
i am still stewing over "fetching" :grr: the shit we deal with indeed.

[Kind of Blue]

7. I think you've handled it brilliantly, Noiretextatique.

I'm anxious to know how it turns out. I'm hoping she doesn't take offense at your offense, which was many times the case for me, it becomes a matter of splitting hairs, or being too sensitive, or (my favorite) just "semantics" when the use of words and intent are plain as can be. And it was my fault for making the offender feel uncomfortable but normal to automatically link suppressed feelings about a whole group when expressing themselves. My God, I remember being so careful in demeanor and what I said so to be seen as a non-threatening, relaxed but competent and qualified person.

After 20 years in the corporate world, if I heard articulate one more time, I would have lost it. I'm just glad to be on my own and though it's hard, I urge this kind of freedom.

[noiretextatique]

14. jmm mentioned the articulate meme too

and of course i've heard that so many times i want to :puke:
the HR director, though a kiss-ass, is a black man. i told him about another incident with the previous CFO who admonished the staff to use "correct grammar" when responding to emails. i told him that moment has the honor of being the most insulting moment i'd experienced on any job...ever.

the old me would have replied to all when i responded to her...that would have created a big ruckus. if i had done that, everyone would have sympathized with her, and i'd be the angry, overly-sensitive, evil black woman picking on the poor, helpless, well-meaning white woman. i have been there many times before, and it rarely worked out in my favor. i addressed the issue directly with her to avoid all that. she came to my office and apologized for insulting me, but she defended her use of the word. obviously it means something different to her than it does to me...and the rest of the world. i made my point, and i didn't make a big stink about it, like i could have. i expect her to remember that in the future, because there's nothing i love more than a pattern, particularly a pattern in email form.

[Raineyb]

15. She must have a different dictionary than I have

because fetching is something you associate with dogs. It also implies that you have to be told which documents needed to be brought up which as an accountant you'd would have to know in the first place would you not? I definitely would have called her out on the fetching thing my damn self. Fetch indeed.

:puke:

[noiretextatique]

16. yes, dogs fetch

and the real truth is that she came to my office, i ran the reports the auditors requested, and she fetched them over to the site. since she's a harvard grad, she can't stand the fact that i know more than her. i don't see how you can used the word "fetch" when referring to a human being and not mean to be insulting. i love email :7 funny...none of the other culturally competent people who received the email called her out on the "fetch" thing...what a shocker :eyes:

[firedupdem]

17. I've never heard that word used unless someone was talking about

a damn dog. She sounds like an idiot with a degree from harvard!

[noiretextatique]

20. she seems to have an issue with me that many white people have

i don't defer to them as superiors, not intellectually, not in any way. even some seemingly enlightened people still expect deference from people they consider their inferiors. she really wants to TOP me for some reason :rofl:

[firedupdem]

23. noir!

What's happening is "you aren't staying in your rightful place"! You've been in there acting uppity!

:rofl:

[noiretextatique]

24. i am sooooo very uppity

i truly take pride in it :evilgrin:

[firedupdem]

26. Me too...

We truly have to laugh sometimes to keep from hurting somebody. We just keep keepin' on :)

:fistbump:

[Number23]

32. Girl, join the DAMN CLUB

We can call ourselves UNU - Uppity Negresses Unite!!!

Our motto can be -- Scaring the hell out of clueless whites who have no business being our supervisors since 1985.
:headbang:

[noiretextatique]

35. i can live with that date

but i have been doing it since 1976 :rofl:

[Number23]

36. I believe it too!!

:rofl:

Okay update: UNU - Scaring the Hell out of clueless whites who have no business being our supervisors for so long we don't even freaking remember when we started.

[noiretextatique]

39. perfection

:rofl: i started doing it in college. the first year or so i was a intimidated, but my second year i started to speak up. then i noticed a strange phenomenon. when i would say something, people would look at me like i had three heads, but when someone else (usually a white male) would repeat the exact thing i said...suddenly everyone magically understood the meaning :eyes: by the time i went to grad school, i was calling people out on that bs, and was met with many apologies and red faces. i mean really...you need a white man to mouth my brilliant ideas before you can understand them? FU.

[jmm]

44. You just reminded me of a class I took in college about

literature of the Harlem Renaissance. Everybody except for me in the class was white so that made for some "interesting" discussions. Once for example a classmate yelled at me that I didn't understand black women because she disagreed with my interpretation of a situation in a book. Our professor, as he usually did, sat back and let me debate her. I've been calling out people on stuff like this since I was four (Maybe later I'll find the pic where I refused to smile on picture day because everybody else got a comb except for me) so I was a pro by then ;-). The very next class he brought in literary reviews which stated exactly what I had said then suddenly the previous class was forgotten and people were tripping over themselves trying to agree with him and what he was reading.

[noiretextatique]

25. well there's this guy

[FrenchieCat]

18. That's like really fucked up!

I'm shocked! :wow:

[noiretextatique]

19. i'm in oakland

i can't give away too many details because i work for a large, well-known plantation, i mean non-profit.
if i was younger, things might not have gone as swimmingly for her.

[FrenchieCat]

21. Well, I'm in Oakland too! San Leandro to be exact,

but hubby's business is in Oakland......around the Lake on Grand! :)

[noiretextatique]

22. cool...i live on piedmont

i heard you lived in this area, but i've never seen you at any DU meetups. then again, i haven't been to any in a while. i can't wait until i leave this hellhole so i can name names :hi:
apologies for any previous shit...i have come to admire your optimism.

[FrenchieCat]

28. Very Familiar with your street. My kids were born at Kaiser Oakland,

and the Hubby was born in the West Oakland Projects near the BART Station in West Oakland.
I went to HS in Richmond though; JFK.
Guess that's why I don't crack under pressure....
cause surviving my HS experience was enough Pressure for a lifetime!
No need to apologize though....no offense ever taken. :pals:

[noiretextatique]

29. i've read about your experience coming here from france

to berkeley...i can't imagine what that was like. i am from LA, but i've been here for 20 years.
:pals: i have the dreaded meeting now :scared:

[FrenchieCat]

30. Good luck!

[noiretextatique]

27. update: the CEO has requested a meeting with our department today

which means that weasel in HR probably discussed my complaint with her and the CFO instead of investigating it the way he should have. are they going to force me to go outside the agency? i certainly will, if necessary. i suspect she is going to tell use to suck it up and deal with the CFO. but...we have a smoking gun. he came very close to sexually harassing a woman in the department and we all saw it. if she says something...his ass is history. but that's a big IF because she's the most timid person i've ever met. i will update after the meeting.

[Number23]

33. We're here and we are all rooting for you, noire!

Girl go kick some ass! And bring back the names for us to laugh at!! :)

[noiretextatique]

34. oh for fuck's sake

i thought the meeting was going to be about the jackass CFO, but it turns out it was about how horrible our audit findings were. our auditors are idiots...they keep repeating the same stupid findings every year, and unfortunately we (really the CFO) are too stupid to challenge them. so, they are going to hire a business process consultant to sit down with each of us in the finance department to record exactly what we do. according to them, based on the consultant's information, they will make the appropriate changes :eyes: what a crock of shit. i just talked to the HR director and i asked him if there will ever be a time that the executive team actually talks to the employees before making a decision (a stupid decision that wastes a lot of money). i only regret is that i can't be the consultant who will milk them out of about $50k to tell them what the employees already know.

my complaint is still under investigation because others in my department are filing complaints also.

[Number23]

37. Sounds like they're trying to do some CYA work with this outside consultant stuff

my complaint is still under investigation because others in my department are filing complaints also.

Good.

[noiretextatique]

41. riiiiiight...it's absolutely absurd

the problems are systemic, but they don't need a consultant to tell them that. we already know we need to change the accounting system structure and get rid of some incompetent and unproductive people. i believe they are trying to eliminate some jobs.

[Brewman_Jax]

38. Absolutely ridiculous

in addition to being unprofessional, condescending, dismissive, and, (add adjectives here). I'm shocked that anyone would say that out loud, much less say that with a straight face. :wow: It sucks that you had to file a complaint; I hope that it will be handled properly.

[noiretextatique]

40. but, she didn't mean to insult me

:rofl: of course that's a big lie. how could anyone think "fetching" is an appropriate term to describe anyone's work...except a dog? i didn't go to HR on this, but if she says anything else remotely inappropriate, i will.
the complaint seems to moving along nicely. HR interviewed everyone in the department today, so hopefully we will see some corrective action.

[FrenchieCat]

42. What comes to mind with the word "Fetch" as in "Stepin Fetchit ".....

Remember that guy?

That's another reason that it was certainly an insult!

[noiretextatique]

43. exactly

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=258&topic_id=7972&mesg_id=8024

[AspenRose]

45. If ever I needed a reason to aspire to have my own business, this is it.

I do not miss CWA at ALL.

You had your shit together, though. :thumbsup: