Yeah, it sounds like strangling is in order. Your company just sounds SO screwed up. Your boss is a horrible boss and it's hard for me to imagine that he does anything well given how random, flighty, and scattered he sounds. How is it that those people are always managers? Peter Principle?

You shouldn't have to remind him about a meeting. That's his job or his PA's job. He's a grown man, he needs to figure it out. And did *he* go to the stupid town hall? Or does he just want everyone else to go because he knows he won't be there? It reminds me of trying to get out of going to a pep rally in high school.

Did you ever get a response from him on any of it? The week old forward from his boss demanding information today - who cares what other people say. Your boss doesn't care what these people respond with, so why should you? If he cared, he wouldn't have waited until the last minute to ask.
If his boss cares about the results of this survey (doubtable), maybe he will notice the answers suck and start to look into things.

But, really, does anyone look at that stuff? It seems like companies are always requesting it, but I don't think anyone does anything with the info. I mean, it doesn't really roll up. The managers have a goal of engaging employees by asking them about their goals, and once they ask and get a response, they just tick off that 'engage employees' box and tell *their* boss that they did the task.

How many years of not enough to do? More than four? I mean, I was sort of assuming it was just the past couple i.e. two years, but is it really five or six? Even at just two years, it is too many. This is a really sad situation. It's too easy to get beaten down by stuff like this to the point where it's hard to figure out how to get out of the situation, or even realize just how bad it is. It's not threatening enough to provoke a do or die response, but it just starts sapping you of your energy.

I hope it gets better for you. All this interaction with your boss and this non work sounds extremely aggravating.

Yeah, I don't have an end date. It does feel like a job in a lot of ways and I find myself phrasing stuff as if I were an employee. I have a company that was hired by their company to provide a service. I'm a salaried employee of my company.

I had to go into my friend's office yesterday and ask her if it was me or the company in terms of the hold ups on all of the projects I work on... and now I just checked my email again and see that the parent company wants to get involved. OMG. This is just nuts. The particular problem I am trying to solve at the moment is so straightforward.

I hope you enjoy your mini-vacation - do you have anything fun planned? We're hopefully going to go camping, although it looks kind of cold where we're headed!