Trouble With Authority

I couldn't have planned what happened at work today to coincide with what we discussed in class even if I wanted to, but it did. OK, so my co-wroker Barbara calls in and says she isn't going to be int oday but there is an inter-office envelope, marked "confidential", for the attorney we work for. I couldn't get my hands on teh envelope fast enough. I just knew it had to contain something related to what we should or should not be doing. Suddenly W&L cares about how their employees conduct themselves down to the most minute detail. It is like having a child and letting them do whatever they want as long as their grades are good and suddenly saying well Jane, Dad and I have a whole new set of rules for you to follow. No matter how good your grades are we will be scrutinizing your every move. That child does not know how to behave as he/she should and it is going to take more than supernanny to fix it. In this case it is worse because the attorney I work for basically doesn't care about the rules and does not hide it. Yeah the partners give hima hard time but he brings in over 80% of referrals and he is a childhood friend of the W part of the equation. I think he should be exempt from the rules. Of course I also think that exemption should trickle down to me since I do all the leg work and make sure what needs to be done gets done with the end result of $$$ for all. So a few months back they started changing things around here. For as long as I have been here - (10 years) and well before me, thsi place was known as a "country club" and was run as such. Leisure lunches, breaks a plenty, as long as work was done and $$$ was rolling in there was no problem. Now everything is a problem. First I could no longer put in for hours that I spent reading materials from home for trial projects. Then I could no longer put in for parking reimbursement. Last summer I worked 3 months at my bosses family owned day camp while receiving full pay from W&L. This year I couldn't go. Then I couldn't keep my sneakers on. Then lunch had to be an hour long only. Now today this "confidential" envelope says I can't work any hours that deviate from 9am to 5pm. This is BS is say. So by 12 my boss doesn't say anything so I tell him a little birdie told me about a delinquent status attached to my name. He points me to the trash can where I see the envelope and its contents in many pieces. At least we are on the same page. Of course I want to call HR and say nanny nanny boo boo Micheal threw out the memo. And by the way, I don't have a set schedule, but as my fellow co-worker Joel said, and I quote, "I would just let sleeping dogs lie - until they bark". That is just what I will do. I will continue to do as I see fit/proper and hopefully the envelopes will keep ending up in the trash can. I just hope I don't end up in the trash can!