Am I Incompetent?

I have worked in the Hive for somewhere around six years now.

That's a long time. It's like eighteen years in human years.

I've seen alot of crap and dealt with alot of crap and cleaned up alot of crap. I think I know my sh*t and I can certainly tell sh*t from Shinola.

I think I know what I'm doing.

Those of you who know me and have worked with me know that I'm not going to intentionally do something stupid just for excitement. I want to go home in one piece at the end of my shift like anyone else. I dislike getting banged up.

One of the things we used to do on our shift was room consolidation moves. If we have two single guys in two man cells and they would fit together, we would move one in with the other and have a whole empty cell to use just in case we got a real knucklehead in the house. Or if someone was taken off suicide watch and was behaving themselves, we would move them out and open up a camera cell. We always need those.

Today on day shift the Boss told Sgt Banty he wanted all of the treatment guys moved into A and B-wing. Just to keep them consolidated, I guess. And he wanted as many of the camera cells emptied out as possible.

So they set about making moves. No big deal. We got the job done.

But our shift isn't allowed to make any room moves. We are supposed to consult the shift commander before we move anybody. And if he doesn't like our reasoning, we can't make the move. We aren't allowed to do cell consolidation anymore.

Apparently, we aren't smart enough to run the house without his okay.

So instead of spending our time trying to be proactive and finding ways to make the house run more efficiently, we are supposed to sit on our hands and wait until the captain says we can move somebody.

Whenever we have to move somebody, I'm the person they look to the most to say "Where can we put this guy?" I'm the one who has been down there the longest and who knows most about the inmates. Most of the time, I'm right.

Not always, but most of the time.

If we were doing it wrong all of this time, don't you think someone would have said something?

But now I'm not smart enough to make that decision. And the Sarge doesn't have the authority to move anybody without clearing it with the captain.

Kind of cuts us off at the knees, doesn't it?

If I'm incompetent to do my job, then put me somewhere else.

Obviously I'm too stupid to pound sand.

At least, that's what he's been implying.