Today was another "Target moment"

So, a few months ago I had what I'm now calling my "Target moment" (thank you Rene Syler for this) at The Job. The leadership (ha!) at my organization proved to be less than stellar and showed their true colors and well....things went from bad to worse.

It was at that moment that I realized "I'd rather work at Target/Starbucks/anywhere else than here." It was at that moment that I decided to start looking for a new job.

In March I was called a "wussy" by a manager at the corporate office. And I was told by a director and the COO that maybe I shouldn't work there. Oh and in April I was told that I was "negative"...which means I wasn't willing to toe the party line and be a "good girl" (it comes down to this: I have a personality and think for myself, which is forbidden at my organization).

The last few months have been stressful and frustrating and things haven't improved any (people are still being bullied, etc.) but I go to work every day with a smile on my face and I DO MY JOB.

Or so I thought.

[Now as I'm going to tell this story, remember that I was on vacation for NINE DAYS].

Today I was subjected to a 45 minute character assassination by the chief operating officer and our regional director.

I was told in no particular order that:
- I am negative
- No one wants to work with me because I'm so negative
- I am a poor leader
- I am not a role model for anyone
- I lack initiative
- I view my job as a "task" that needs to be completed, not as a job
- I don't do anything other than wait for people to give me things to edit
- I am "disengaged" from the other office I am responsible for
- I have a bad attitude
- I take the AP Stylebook too seriously and need to be more flexible about the "rules" that I "made up"
- I take things too personally
- Anywhere I work will have an atmosphere where people are disrespected
- Everyone takes vacation and NO ONE gets "catch up" time
- I need to change my attitude or they will fire me.

Yeah, the "bullying session" ended with this: "You need to go home and think about your attitude and decide if you're going to change it. Because if you can't then we will have to make a decision about your future with this organization."

Not surprisingly I spent the next two hours in my office with the door closed, crying. I talked to a few friends at the office - they were floored by these accusations. I had one person tell me "you are the funniest person here...we love you."

Apparently funny/sarcastic is equivalent to negative. And that is not allowed.

So now that I've been told that I suck as a human being, I now have to go in to the office with a positive attitude.

Yeah, I'll let you know how that works out.