Office Discipline Another poem about work anxiety.
office discipline, I screwed up again, how'd I draw your discontent, how now am I a simpleton?
a sunny smile on your face, acidic emails on my case, a slighted message gives me chase, an anxious choking heart pace
blind-carbon-copies, passive aggression, their indoctrinated behaviors still experience regression
sometimes I slip up a little meeting all your demands, stern and condescending messages carry me your reprimands, as if I can't learn from mistakes without your guiding hands
I know I'm still the new guy, I'm giving it my best try, but I'm hard-pressed to go on when you treat me like a moron
your disjointed documentation is in eleven different places, but when I ask for help finding things there's disappointment on your faces
you get up in arms when I'm delayed for barely more than sixty seconds, but you still hire engineers who don't know present from past tense
you question my competence despite saying I'm skilled, destroying the confidence I was trying to build
you try to break me on purpose, as some crucible of strength, you try to test my grit and prove that I belong among your ranks
I don't even want to be here, have you even done the sums? I'm scraping by on what you give me or I'd be out on my cold bum.
your measurement of human value clearly needs to be adjusted, people like you are the reason managers are not to be trusted
you've no concern for anything but numbers bouncing on your screen, you turn your back to many things and never quite say what you mean
a random instant messsage "can you come to my office?" could be anything from boundless praise to a warning to be cautious
you've got no time for training tasks, but you find fault with all my work, you want success without support, perhaps you're just all jerks!
you love using words like "team" to rally workers' spirits, but when you turn your back on me I don't want to fucking hear it