Butting heads

I am a scrappy little thing. Well, sometimes I am. For whatever reason, I can't seem to help myself when I'm around Sabira. I get extra aggressive and mean. Actually, I think I might know the reason. Sabira is workshift manager now and she has a very particular way of doing things and her very particular way is very different from my own. During summer, she decided that she was not going to pro rate weeks. In other words, even if someone was only here for one day during the week, they would still owe hours as if they were there for the whole week, so they would owe all three hours. It's pretty unlikely that they'd even be able to do three hours in one day like that. It means people going out of town would be guaranteed to go down hours. Sabira claimed that she wasn't willing to pro rate weeks because it was too much work, but I know that it's not that hard. In fact, it's really easy. You go to a specific page and turn the 3 into a 0, 1, or 2. It's as simple as that and takes about a minute from the time you read the email to the time the change is made. I thought her policy was absolute bull shit and had no idea why she was being such a ridiculous hardass, but I didn't want to be mean and bring a motion to overturn her or tread on her toes. But I still thought it was a ridiculous policy and wanted her to change it. I thought the best policy would be to just talk to her in person and see if I could reason her out of it, especially since her reasons for doing it didn't make sense. I was sitting with her and said I wanted to talk to her about workshift. I said, "So about pro rating..." and she immediately cut me off with a no before I had even finished the sentence. Ok. I think you're a bitch, but I'm going to plow on. "I know it's your policy not to pro rate, but I don't think it makes a lot of sense. I mean, if someone's here for just one day, they're not going to be able to do three hours. It's like going out of town for less than a week means that you're guaranteed to go down hours." She said no one else had approached her and said it was a problem, so she didn't think it was. I said that I knew of at least one other person (since he said at the first meeting, "wait why are you doing that?" when she first mentioned her policy), and there were probably others as well. She said she'd think about it. A short while later, she came up to my room and suggested a policy of owing one hour for every day a person was there. So if someone was here for three days, it would be the same as if they were there for 7. I said I thought that was fair and that it was pretty much exactly the same policy I had when I was workshift manager, so I certainly wasn't going to have any problems with it. I could tell as soon as I said it that that was a bad thing to say because she immediately told me that mine was a lot different because people owed one hour a day up to five hours with my plan, so being here 5 days was the same as being around all 7. She really wanted to do something different and saying she was similar to me was a mistake for her ego. Whatever. I agreed limply (thinking to myself that she was being ridiculous) because I just wanted her to go through with it. Then it could have been her idea and I wouldn't have been usurping her power by suggesting it at a meeting. She said she'd think about it and she left.

I was really hoping for more than an "I'll think about it." Honestly, this was going to happen whether she wanted it or not and I wanted to know if I should bring a motion. I don't think my mind was set on bringing the motion before I spoke with her though. I mean, her proposal that I said was fine would have meant that I never would have gotten my hours reduced (I'll probably be in Stebbins four days a week for most of the summer), but that was actually the proposal I was going to suggest to her. I was thrilled when she proposed it because I knew she'd be much more likely to accept it if she came up with it herself. I didn't really care about getting my hours reduced. I just thought she was being too much of a hardass. Then after speaking with her (and becoming subsequently annoyed), I wanted it to happen more. I could see that she realized it was at least a little reasonable and thought she could be convinced, so I wanted to run with it.

Then I saw Sabira post the new policy on the workshift board with a note saying it would be discussed at the next meeting. This made me pretty hopeful. It would be discussed and the house would be overwhelmingly in favor of it (since the current plan was ridiculous) and I wouldn't feel bad about overthrowing her power, and Sabira wouldn't lose any face if it passed because she'd be the one bringing up the discussion and she'd look better by starting out strict and then easing up a little. Because honestly, owing hours for the whole week when you're here only 3 days is pretty strict, but the house would have accepted it (giving it legitimacy and ensuring it was never challenged again) if she had presented it as a more lenient and flexible policy. Their reference points were in this very strict place and they wouldn't have questioned a less strict place even if it was still unfair, especially the new people.

So as long as Sabira started a discussion at the house meeting and proposed her new idea, everyone would have been happy. Unfortunately, she did not. She brought it up and said that someone had mentioned it to her and if anyone else felt the same, they should email her. And that was it. That was her discussion. She started moving on, and I had to interrupt her. I asked why we couldn't just discuss it now with everyone here. Sigh. The usurping had begun. I didn't want to, but that was sketchy. She knew people wouldn't remember to email her. Maybe one or two people would. And she would have told them they'd discuss it at the next meeting probably, unless the response was huge, which it would not have been. No one's going to remember a glossed over point that was rushed through followed by 45 minutes of talking about other stuff. It was pretty clear she didn't want other people's opinions. I don't really blame her. It's the workshift manager's job to try to get more hours for the house and I think she knew the house wouldn't go along with her original plan if they thought they had a choice. Her best bet was to make it harder for people to give input and then claim that it must not have been important to the house so she shouldn't act. That is certainly frustrating and I couldn't let it go. I felt a little like a jerk for having to be the one to propose the discussion. That meant it was going to be a battle between Sabira and the house instead of a discussion (and a battle that she would lose at that), but I think Jesse would have spoken up if I hadn't. I think that since as soon as Sabira said "Sure" uncertainly to my proposal of a discussion, Jesse agreed and proposed everyone owing a half hour for every day they were here. Ouch. It sure hurt her cause that she wasn't able to propose her stricter policy first. Sabira tried to recover by saying she wasn't willing to do that (she gets points for being being extra adamant) and then proposed "her" idea of an hour a day, but I think people's reference points had changed. Though I think Jesse was going to propose his idea whether she went first or not, and people would have gone along with that over her proposal. She was probably doomed from the start. If she had gone with the flow instead of fighting against it, she might have been able to change its course a little, but that's not the position she wanted to take.

So Sabira was strongly against Jesse's idea of a half hour a day and gave some pretty pathetic reasons for why that was the case. She said that there were very few half hour or hour and a half shifts over the summer so people would be left with an extra half hour. I couldn't let a ridiculous argument like that slide. It made no sense. I said so what if someone ends the semester up a half hour? If they're down a half hour, they can just do an hour and be up a little. It's not a big deal. She said, but we're not talking about the end of the semester - this would be every week! Ummm... I'll admit that I don't respect Sabira all that much, but now I have to add stupid to the list of adjectives. Ok maybe that's a little harsh, but her argument didn't make any sense. In fact, her whole understanding of the workshift system seemed kind of flawed. Though admittedly, she hasn't been using it for that long so it makes sense she's not that familiar with it. I didn't really get a chance to retort (probably for the best since I'm not sure I could have been nice about it) because Jesse said that they could just do a half hour a day rounded up to the nearest hour. The house became very confused by this statement and we spent the next few minutes clearing it up (omg I hate people). So one hour for one or two days; 2 hours for 3 or 4 days; and 3 hours for 5 or more days. Sabira stated again that she was not willing to do that and she absolutely would not. I got a little frustrated by this dictatorial attitude. It's not really her choice. It's the house's decision. It's like her saying she's not willing to do her job or listen to her constituents. I said it was the house's decision and she said we'd need a 3/4 vote to overturn any of the workshift manager's decisions. Sigh. This was one of the things I was afraid of with Sabira in a manager position. She's kind of a power hog who wants to push her weight around and sound tough. She wants things to be her decision because she knows best. She's one of those "I know best" personalities that are frustrating to deal with in your peers, but horrific to deal with in a superior or person in any position of power. As a workshift manager, I never threatened people with that 3/4 rule. I think anyone who does doesn't really deserve to be a manager. You should listen to what the house wants. They elected you. You're not there to boss them around or be mean to them. You're there to make sure the house runs smoothly. You stop people from making decisions that would benefit them at the expense of the whole house. You keep people's information up to date and try to get things running smoothly. You are the servant of the house, not it's boss. That's what it means to be a manager. Sabira didn't get that. She wanted to be the house's boss and tell us what she was willing to let us decide. At this point I was feeling less bad about usurping her and didn't feel at all guilty about bursting her bubble. She clearly had not read the bylaws because the workshift manager can be overturned by a simple majority vote in almost all situations. Here's a passage from our bylaws:

A workshift manager's allocation of hours to a particular workshift may only be overturned by a 3/4 vote by the house. This provision only applies to a workshift manager's determination of how many hours a workshift shall be worth. In the case of a dispute with a member over how long a workshift actually took to complete, or other such issues, the house shall retain its power to overturn the workshift manager's actions by majority vote.

So if Sabira says a shift is worth 1 hour and someone else says it should be worth 4, it would take 3/4 of the house to overturn her. In this situation, that was not the case. It's one thing to throw your weight around. It's quite another thing to throw your weight around when you don't have the authority to back it up. I will never understand why people will quote the bylaws without actually having read them. They're not that long really. And the parts that pertain to your specific job are definitely not that long. It's easy to gloss over room bids and things like that. And when people misquote the bylaws, they look extra stupid. I think it's that quoting the bylaws is an extremely persuasive argument (you can't really argue with that and it gives you a lot of authority), but the idea of reading 14 pages of "the managers shall do this" and "it is the responsibility of the workshift manager to do that" can be daunting to people. So they don't bother to actually read it, but when they start to feel cornered, they start to quote it and hope their bull shit can slide. And maybe Sabira didn't even realize that it was bull shit. She had heard that 3/4 rule before. It is easily the most misquoted rule in all the bylaws. A lot of people think it applies to every decision the workshift manager makes instead of the extremely limited situations it actually applies to. And this is another reason that it's bad to mention the 3/4 rule - you are way too likely to get overturn and look like an ass.

So to make a long story less long, when we voted on Jesse's revised proposal, Sabira was the only one to vote against it (though there were a handful of abstentions). In fact, I think 3/4 of the house might have actually overturned her, not that it matter. Then a lengthy discussion of whether or not to apply it retroactively came up and was narrowly voted down. I spearheaded that discussion. I wanted my old hours back since this was the policy now. I'm tired of being down hours when I shouldn't be. I probably made a lifelong enemy of Sabira by fighting for that. Whatever. As long as I mind my p's and q's, there's nothing she can do about it. And that's not really the way her mind works anyway. Anyway, I had already tread on her toes by fighting for the new policy and contradicting her when she said the extra amount of work it would create for her would be unreasonable. And then contradicting her again by clarifying the 3/4 rule. So I might as well go for broke and push even harder.

With Jesse's policy, I'm only going to owe 2 hours a week for most of the summer (summer school is only 4 days a week for me and this policy convinces me that it's not worth it to come back Sunday night). This is better than I expected, so I'm pretty happy about the situation. And honestly, there's nothing Sabira can do about it. There have been some cases in the past when someone was frequently not in the house and wanted to know if they could owe less than 5 hours a week. I think I would have been ok with it, but that's against the USCA bylaws, so I had to say no. If I only owe 2 hours all summer long and she argues with me about it, I have the leverage to overturn her. Because in summer, the minimum number of hours someone can owe weekly is not 3; it's 2. Stebbins is actually more strict with its hour requirements over summer. And if the house knew that, they might overturn that as well. And Sabira does not want that. Not that I think she's really going to give me trouble. I'm just prepared if she does.

I was wondering a little why I'm so mean to Sabira, but after writing this, I think I've changed my mind. She's a power hungry idiot. She strikes me as one of those people who was really awkward as a kid and didn't really have any friends. She could have been one of those kids that everyone picked on. When I look at her, I see someone who doesn't really get it. She could have easily changed the course of that conversation. She could have set the tone. It didn't even need to be a discussion. If she had just proposed a vote over her policy, it's possible that no one would have spoken up (I wouldn't have) with another policy before the vote was over. And then if someone spoke up, she could just say, well we just voted, so I think the house is ok with this. Then she could have said "let's talk after the meeting" or something else to defer discussion and it would have all gone away. I know Jesse wouldn't have followed through and talked with her after the meeting. He even said partway through the discussion "I don't know why I'm even fighting for this. I'm here all the time. It doesn't apply to me." He just thought her original policy was unfair. If she had addressed his concerns herself by offering a counter proposal (even the slightly unfair one of one hour per day), it probably wouldn't have been worth his effort to suggest the half hour a day rate. And if she had been less adamant against it and had not fought kicking and screaming, she might have been able to convince people by sounding rational and offering legitimate reasons why she thought the one hour a day rule made sense. She wants power (she's run for manager positions so many times - she says she needs the money, but it's so much easier to just get a part time job), but she doesn't know how to use it effectively. And now that she's been overturned once, it makes it that much easier for her to be overturned again. And chances are, she won't be able to reverse the pattern since she doesn't really know what she's doing. She could have gotten her way if she just knew how to handle people and meet them half way. Jesse's compromise of rounding up to the nearest hour is not what she wanted at all. Of course everyone else in the room felt like the people on opposite sides had met halfway just because neither one's original proposal was accepted. The made the rounding up policy all the more attractive because it looked like a moderate position. The truth is, it doesn't make much of a difference. Jesse's policy wasn't changed very much. It was still totally unacceptable to Sabira. Well tough shit. I'd feel bad about arguing with her and overturning her, but she was a fool to take such a hard-and-fast position on something she was guaranteed to lose. She tried to avoid the confrontation (asking people to email her) and tried to force the house into submission (bringing up the misquotation of the 3/4 rule), but that's not how you get your way. And if that's the way you think, you probably shouldn't get your way. I think she knew the house didn't like her policy, but she wanted to have it anyway. Oh well. You can't force your views on someone else just because you manage their workshifts. Maybe she'll realize that and maybe she won't. At least she's only workshift manager for the summer.