Standard issue for yours truly

This is something I’ve been pondering for quite some time. I need to know: Where do you draw the line?

“It’s been some time since men routinely carried swords and the use of ‘falling on one’s sword’ is now restricted to the figurative usage when someone takes personal responsibility for a group action.” — The Phrase Finder web site.

I think that sentence pretty much sums up my situation. 🙂

In short, I’ve been taking the heat for shit at work rather than throwing down with my supervisor, co-workers and/or boss.

Yes, that’s the same boss who told me he felt I wouldn’t be a “team player” if I didn’t show up for his “optional” non-work events. Grrr. I feel I’m the ultimate team player. I eat it in the shorts to pick up my co-worker’s slack because I care about doing a good job. (Only the Lord knows why.) And when they throw me under the bus* I keep my mouth shut rather than rat them out, even if it means the boss thinks I’m the one who fucked up. And I take loads of mistreatment from the boss.

I took some of my concerns to my supervisor but got blown off. I’m not satisfied with the response I got – not one little bit. So do I over his head and up the food chain to the boss? Doubtful. I think that would just make things worse by pissing off my supervisor and would be compounded by the fact that my boss won’t see things my way and do jack shit about it, so why bother? He likes me down on the ground with his boot on my neck so why change?

I’m not sure what to do, but I do know I’m getting tired of it. I have layers and layers of bitterness and nasty feelings by now. Basically I feel like I’m falling on the sword all the frickin’ time and I’m sick of it. Any ideas?

* I often make grammatical errors when I pound out my posts. I usually find and fix them on future reads. This one, though, I thought was particularly amusing and Freudian. The sentence originally read “… when they throw me under the boss I keep my mouth shut rather than rat them out …” 🙂