Professional fandom
Apologies for the lack of backstory links, I'm typing this from a phone. I think that's the only comment I've made in what I'm linking other than maybe something about php and ruby.

Otw (organization for transformative works) elections are happening right now, and boy is it wanky.

It was going to be unfunny, as you might imagine when three of the six candidates mention volunteer burn out ( http://facetofcathy.dreamwidth.org/229943.html ) in their candidate statements and one candidate Naomi Novik, founding member says she hasn't noticed.

Well if she hasn't noticed it can't be true right?

http://renay.dreamwidth.org/236955.html

Oh. Oh dear.

Add in that Sanders the candidate of colour has kept her main fandom journal for elections, and has a similar platform to the others, is told that she is too angry and has her friends getting anon comments telling them to tell her to watch her tone.

Then shit blows up when they fuck up the skins for "accessibility" when the new default is grey on grey and lots of red.

http://branchandroot.dreamwidth.org/1255716.html#comments

Apparently this was rushed to get the archive ready for Yuletide. Only Yuletide isn't a otw project.

http://fail-fandomanon.livejournal.com/22095.html?thread=99563087#t99563087

But what really has me gobsmacked is this,
from: copracat
Let me make sure I have this correctly:

The chair of the board has been told by someone/s to stop working on a strategic plan for the organisation because she doesn't have the authority to do so.

I'm going to make a cup of tea now.

-----
general-jinjur (the chair in question)

more accurately, i was told that i was dishonest, conspiratorial, and secretive because:

- i asked for volunteers to help gather info and work on preliminaries in an org-wide meeting (org-wide meetings are attended by a large group of volunteers and staff, including at least one representative from every committee)
- discussed how a strategic plan was on the horizon in at least two other org-wide meetings
- hired a staffer (one who, like all our staff, was unanimously board-approved) specifically to work on stakeholder surveys (beginning of 2011 term) as part of preliminary work (staffer wound up with international outreach, as they were best to start that piece).

by doing the above, i secretly formed a cabal without ever giving anyone a chance to participate. also, i failed to do all the work (research and write-up of a proposal for the plan for the process) myself rather than involving anyone or doing any delegation.

just to clarify. (perspectives vary, of course. this is my perspective on events. i officially don't care to argue its accuracy anymore; i have just enough energy and time left to tie up loose ends and write up documentation of the stuff i did manage to accomplish (in 2010. i'm a little behind on docs).)

http://copracat.dreamwidth.org/596794.html?thread=2267962#cmt2267962

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	duraniedrama 2011-11-14 03:15 pm UTC (link)
	Sounds like a sick system to me. (Reply to this)(Thread)

lady_ganesh
2011-11-14 03:40 pm UTC (link)

It was in my experience, yeah. Though I don't believe you need someone particularly nasty-minded or manipulative to set up one, which is some of what issendai talks about there. I did a little managing and was pretty terrible at it, and some of it was just not having the perspective (or support) to step back and say, 'hey, wait, this isn't working well.' Which was totally on me, but I certainly didn't intend to set things up the way they eventually played out.

Good managers and good systems people are hard to find, especially in a non-profit that's not paying salaries. And with the amount of scrutiny the OTW and AO3 get in fandom, I can understand how people might be afraid to take a step back and take a long hard look at what is and isn't working. I just hope they can do it, because the organization has a lot of assets, still, and I still like having fics on AO3.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	notjo 2011-11-14 05:07 pm UTC (link)
	Yes, I've been that terrible manager and it took me a while to realise it, and then I got out in a terrible way that left a lot of people hurting. it's one of my big regrets in my life. I think people don't get that managing is a skill that you have to learn. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

lady_ganesh
2011-11-14 06:21 pm UTC (link)

Exactly.

And I think it's important to say that too because people get emotionally involved in it. You don't have to be a bad person to be a bad manager, especially if there are systemic problems that reinforce your poor choices. I honestly think (and it took me a while to get there) that the manager who stabbed me, hard, in the back thought she was doing me a favor, because clearly someone else would be able to get two full-time employee's jobs done and also do the strategic planning for what my area was. She got caught in the system.

The fact is, for example, that a bunch of skins got rolled out, and they didn't work on mobile devices, and they actually made the experience of some people with vision problems worse, when they were supposed to be 'friendlier' to people with vision problems. And the worst part is that they didn't get rolled out with no testing and little work: they were tested, the designer put hours of commitment into them, and these substantial problems stayed, which just led to heartbreak for everybody.

I mean, I know I'm a Pollyanna about these things, but I'd like to think everyone could agree that having that happen is a serious problem, and probably not one that has a single, easy-to-solve cause.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	franzen 2011-11-14 05:23 pm UTC (link)
	Oh my God. I just realized that's pretty much exactly what my job is, complete with the brainwashing/indoctrination into the company, the long-term rewards (that never come), etc. BOOKMARKING. Thank you. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	duraniedrama 2011-11-14 10:01 pm UTC (link)
	It's one of the best summations of that kind of crazy I've found on the Internet. Hope you find the way out of your situation soon. (Reply to this)(Parent)

platedlizard
2011-11-15 04:12 am UTC (link)

That's exactly what my dad's job at Intel had deteriorated into about two years before he retired. Watching him grimly hanging on until he could retire while trying to fight the system at work just to do his job was agonizing. I made him watch Office Space six months before he retired and he hated it because it "gave him too many ideas". Then he retired and now he's incredibly happy.

Hopefully your situation will work out as well!

(Reply to this)(Parent)

papervolcano
2011-11-14 07:45 pm UTC (link)

That is...pretty much exactly the job I'm currently in. It doesn't help that the industry is pretty crisis-prone anyway, but the company is also set up in such a way as to provoke random regular flare-ups, a manager that says I am both completely incapable (despite being fucking headhunted) and also indispensable, who hands out rewards and punishments by no discernible trigger....

It should have been my ideal job. I adore my industry, and this portfolio is in a subject I've wanted since I joined the industry. But within 6 months of joining, I was having suicidal idealisation and had to take a week off sick with stress. I can see how if she'd gone for a slow burn with introducing me to the sick system I would have been trapped.

Next Wednesday is my last day in this job. Fuck you and goodbye was the only was to survive.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	mochibuni 2011-11-29 12:01 pm UTC (link)
	Weeks late, but this is exactly why I quit my job a few weeks ago without another job to fall back on. It was the hardest decision I've ever made, but I'm feeling so much better. I hope you're feeling better as well! (Reply to this)(Parent)

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