You are not your couch.

I fancy myself a hard worker. I enjoy a business/corporate enviornment. Where tasks/duties are assigned and layed out according to job description, current workload, and performance. Things can get a little crazy, sure. But all in all, every little detail is someone's specific responsibility. If someone's health insurance app didn't get processed, you can turn to the employee responsible and ask them what happened. If a paycheck was wrong, you can go to the payroll coordinator and speak to them.

This company, is a clusterfuck.

I currently assist 3 people. I was hired to assist the Contract Development manager, because of my obvious apparent magical prowess with words. I started out retrieving bid documents, reviewing them, and working our vendor registration list. Fast forward 3 months later, I'm now doing recruitment (both ends), HR processing, client AND employee relations, and actually WRITING entire bid responses. I got a dollar an hour raise for my troubles and a promotion to "Support Specialist" which means, pretty much, nothing. Though, it sounds so much better than Administrative Assistant.

Now, I can't really talk to my co-workers about this... mostly because I have very few coworkers. This is a small company that rakes in 2 mil a year. We have 6 people on the administrative payroll, INCLUDING my boss and the owner. I am the newest addition to the company, with my anniversary coming 'round the corner in July. The only other woman in my office on a regular basis is the billing assistant. She's an older woman with not much other than a high school education (if that). She's the only person in the office who isn't busy reguarly. She just told me "I hope they pay you well for all the stuff they throw on you."

Not quite. But once again, I'm getting off subject.

I would love to have a meeting with the entire staff. Ask why 4 different people are responsible for processing new hire paperwork. Why I am writing proposals (not just throwing together, but WRITING) that could win this company hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, but I'm still expected to be the girl who "scans and saves" documents for everyone. Why don't we have an HR coordinator who can handle all employee relations. Why doesn't the owner have an assistant that can help her with the job boards and recruitment. Why am I expected to be everyone's right fucking arm?

It all comes down to money. Though, I hardly think hiring at least one part time employee will break the bank. My boss already has her Lexus and condo on the beach. What else does she need? We've already hired my bosses husband who was out of work. He was working part time for $20 an hour doing "HR", and when he left after 4 months for another company (praise Allah), I got to clean up the mess he called Human Resources.

This bastard gets paid almost twice as much as I do, and I get to clean up his shoddy half-assed work. Yay, nepotism.

So, I guess my question is, has anyone ever worked in a semi-normal office? Am I just stuck being the intelligent girl who needs to shut up and play dumb so no one will notice I can do just about anything? Are my hippie roots showing by choosing to work for small locally owned businesses for the last 5 years? Because all they've ever done was ask me to bend over and grab my ankles...