Sunday, September 19, 2010
So Thursday came and went. First thing in the morning, I get a text from Boss saying everyone has to come to an "emergency branch meeting" the next day at 7am. VP showed up right on time, and Boss left to meet her for lunch. I started working on an ulcer the whole time he was gone, worried about his state of mind when he came back. He breezed back in without a hint of upset on his face. This is disappointing, of course. But VP showed up shortly after, and the two of them sat at neighboring computers and went into a scramble of pulling a bunch of information together for his upcoming review for our emergency preparedness procedures. He expressed some stress over using Excel, VP pointed out that I've helped him with all of that in the past. "Well, mostly, yes." I said. "Mostly EVERY TIME, yes." he said. "See, you've got someone you can count on to help you out with this stuff." says VP. The only thing I could gleen from their conversation was a brief exchange about fleshing out the nuances of the attendence policy ("if he's not SICK, then it's not SICK TIME")
So the "emergency meeting" comes around. The subject is obviously instigated by that weird customer complaint. The result is both maddening and predictable. First of all, since the complaint was made anonymously, they aren't taking it seriously enough to write anyone up. They are taking it seriously enough to crack down on related policies to the very letter. And that just pisses me off. Once again I'm being punished because two little assholes had to take advantage of Boss's lax attitude. For example: to address the tardiness, now everyone has to clock in exactly on the minute they're scheduled to be there. One minute late, and you're tardy. Except it takes at least 3 minutes to boot up a computer and open the appropriate software, and he's also banned the 2nd person coming in on an opening shift from even entering the premises until the 1st is there and has everything unlocked. So now the two openers will be scheduled to start 5 minutes apart. AND, we're not allowed to clock in early. That's right, no clocking in EARLY is a way to address TARDINESS in his world. See, when you have a closing shift, you rarely have to stay there until exactly when the shift ends. In fact, usually, you're out about 15-20 min. early. So to make up for the lost time (he can't schedule us for over 40 hrs), we've been able to clock in early by a few minutes to make up for the minutes lost. So now, because D-ball is unable to get to work on time, *I* am losing at LEAST 45 minutes of time every week. Thanks, asshole.
He's also tracing tardies and following it to the minute, and according to the employee guide, 6 tardies = 1 absence. It also says that any time you work less than 5 hours of one shift, it's an absence. Who knows how that works for the shifts that are less than 8 hours. But 6 absences = verbal warning, 7: written, 8: termination. That's ANY absence. Not "excused" absence. So yes, I now have 80 hours of banked sick time that I couldn't possibly use without getting fired. Why bother giving me more sick time that I can use? Again, it's D-ball always leaving early. And shit, half the time Boss is sending people home early when it's slow to cut down on payroll. So am I going to get dinged for an absence if he decides to send me home early?? It's an absence if I go home sick after working 4.5 hours?? One thing's clear: I'm going to have to file FMLA papers for DD's diabetes. That way every time I have to leave or stay home because SHE'S sick, they can't count it as an absence. Before this stupid change, if you had the sick time banked, you could use it, otherwise you just didn't get paid. He didn't even COUNT absences. On the other hand, the tardies adding up to an absence is a good thing--I told B I don't think D-ball will make it to Halloween.
Next: no cell phones. At ALL. Not even in the back. Thank you, sort of. I never carry my cell phone with me at work, but I do check it once in a while, especially around the time my kids get home from school to see if they need anything. Now I can't do that without taking a break and taking my purse outside. That's aggrivating, HOWEVER, that's fine: 3 of my 4 co-workers smoke, and they're constantly disappearing for their fucking smoke breaks, so now I will, too. Sadly, I don't expect this rule to last more than 2 weeks before suddenly everyone's got a special reason why they need to be an exception to the rule THIS TIME, and downward on the slippery slope we'll slide until they're once again spending half their workday with their noses in their cell phones.
And finally: no internet. Nothing but work-related internet. In his eagerness to NOT blame his buddies, Boss pointed out that I, too, am guilty of "misusing" the internet because I "look at the news". Right. The intranet's front page has a link to Google News on it, and I read the headlines once in a while. I would think that if the company had a problem with me looking at news headlines, they wouldn't have put a link directly on the front page of the fucking intranet. And yet somehow, that's akin to spending more than an hour a day browsing Craigslist? Fuck you, whatever. That's fine, I won't read the offensive news headlines. The extra 45 seconds that gives me a day will be spent analyzing the Employee Guide for loopholes to exploit at your expense instead.
The whole thing is a load of horseshit, because once again, all the "obedient" employees are having to pay the price for all the "rebels". I do not appreciate being punished for their immature behavior, and it will do nothing to inspire any sort of teamwork. Regarding the customer complaint, we were told that all related disciplinary action had already been taken, so if you are going to be disciplined, you already know about it. ??? This seemed to imply that D-ball got a warning of some sort.
Then there's Friday's work day. Boss asked me to write up a statement about an incident about 2 weeks ago where D-ball left early and left $4600 sitting on the back counter for me to put away when he should have stayed with it until it could be locked in the vault under dual control. Clearly, he's getting written up for it. Funny, it wasn't a discipline-worthy action when I complained to Boss about it two weeks ago, but after my description of the event to VP last week, suddenly he's getting written up. Makes me wonder how many other things never got addressed because nobody was looking over his shoulder to make sure every event was addressed. Then Boss left early--this time because he had another meeting with VP and another manager over at the other branch in town. S was scheduled to do his 2nd interview with the VP over there that afternoon. I was PISSED. I mean, after all this bullshit, why would they even go through the motions of interviewing him unless they were seriously considering giving him that position?? And frankly, I can't respect anyone who could sit and listen to the list of complaints that we've lodged against him and still take him seriously as a candidate for management. I will be mad as all unholy hell if they promote him. Seriously mad.
I will say, though, S did NOT seem to be in a good mood when he returned. He was very rushed--although that was probably because I had to leave soon and he still hadn't had lunch. But when he first came into the branch, I was going to ask him how the interview went, and as he rounded the corner on the way to the back, he looked up at me with this weird look that just stopped me from saying anything. He seemed kind of red in the face... flushed from heat or crying? He quickly diverted his eyes, and went to the back without a word. That seemed to indicate to me that things did not go as well as he'd hoped. But I don't want to make assumptions. He came back out of the back room and rushed back out of the branch saying he was going to grab something to eat as quickly as possible so that we could close my drawer. I asked B, who had been in the back when he arrived if he seemed upset to her. "Yes, it was weird. He didn't say a word to me, and he's usually quite talkative. He seemed like he wanted to say something, but couldn't." We're perplexed.
Only more time will tell, right?
So the "emergency meeting" comes around. The subject is obviously instigated by that weird customer complaint. The result is both maddening and predictable. First of all, since the complaint was made anonymously, they aren't taking it seriously enough to write anyone up. They are taking it seriously enough to crack down on related policies to the very letter. And that just pisses me off. Once again I'm being punished because two little assholes had to take advantage of Boss's lax attitude. For example: to address the tardiness, now everyone has to clock in exactly on the minute they're scheduled to be there. One minute late, and you're tardy. Except it takes at least 3 minutes to boot up a computer and open the appropriate software, and he's also banned the 2nd person coming in on an opening shift from even entering the premises until the 1st is there and has everything unlocked. So now the two openers will be scheduled to start 5 minutes apart. AND, we're not allowed to clock in early. That's right, no clocking in EARLY is a way to address TARDINESS in his world. See, when you have a closing shift, you rarely have to stay there until exactly when the shift ends. In fact, usually, you're out about 15-20 min. early. So to make up for the lost time (he can't schedule us for over 40 hrs), we've been able to clock in early by a few minutes to make up for the minutes lost. So now, because D-ball is unable to get to work on time, *I* am losing at LEAST 45 minutes of time every week. Thanks, asshole.
He's also tracing tardies and following it to the minute, and according to the employee guide, 6 tardies = 1 absence. It also says that any time you work less than 5 hours of one shift, it's an absence. Who knows how that works for the shifts that are less than 8 hours. But 6 absences = verbal warning, 7: written, 8: termination. That's ANY absence. Not "excused" absence. So yes, I now have 80 hours of banked sick time that I couldn't possibly use without getting fired. Why bother giving me more sick time that I can use? Again, it's D-ball always leaving early. And shit, half the time Boss is sending people home early when it's slow to cut down on payroll. So am I going to get dinged for an absence if he decides to send me home early?? It's an absence if I go home sick after working 4.5 hours?? One thing's clear: I'm going to have to file FMLA papers for DD's diabetes. That way every time I have to leave or stay home because SHE'S sick, they can't count it as an absence. Before this stupid change, if you had the sick time banked, you could use it, otherwise you just didn't get paid. He didn't even COUNT absences. On the other hand, the tardies adding up to an absence is a good thing--I told B I don't think D-ball will make it to Halloween.
Next: no cell phones. At ALL. Not even in the back. Thank you, sort of. I never carry my cell phone with me at work, but I do check it once in a while, especially around the time my kids get home from school to see if they need anything. Now I can't do that without taking a break and taking my purse outside. That's aggrivating, HOWEVER, that's fine: 3 of my 4 co-workers smoke, and they're constantly disappearing for their fucking smoke breaks, so now I will, too. Sadly, I don't expect this rule to last more than 2 weeks before suddenly everyone's got a special reason why they need to be an exception to the rule THIS TIME, and downward on the slippery slope we'll slide until they're once again spending half their workday with their noses in their cell phones.
And finally: no internet. Nothing but work-related internet. In his eagerness to NOT blame his buddies, Boss pointed out that I, too, am guilty of "misusing" the internet because I "look at the news". Right. The intranet's front page has a link to Google News on it, and I read the headlines once in a while. I would think that if the company had a problem with me looking at news headlines, they wouldn't have put a link directly on the front page of the fucking intranet. And yet somehow, that's akin to spending more than an hour a day browsing Craigslist? Fuck you, whatever. That's fine, I won't read the offensive news headlines. The extra 45 seconds that gives me a day will be spent analyzing the Employee Guide for loopholes to exploit at your expense instead.
The whole thing is a load of horseshit, because once again, all the "obedient" employees are having to pay the price for all the "rebels". I do not appreciate being punished for their immature behavior, and it will do nothing to inspire any sort of teamwork. Regarding the customer complaint, we were told that all related disciplinary action had already been taken, so if you are going to be disciplined, you already know about it. ??? This seemed to imply that D-ball got a warning of some sort.
Then there's Friday's work day. Boss asked me to write up a statement about an incident about 2 weeks ago where D-ball left early and left $4600 sitting on the back counter for me to put away when he should have stayed with it until it could be locked in the vault under dual control. Clearly, he's getting written up for it. Funny, it wasn't a discipline-worthy action when I complained to Boss about it two weeks ago, but after my description of the event to VP last week, suddenly he's getting written up. Makes me wonder how many other things never got addressed because nobody was looking over his shoulder to make sure every event was addressed. Then Boss left early--this time because he had another meeting with VP and another manager over at the other branch in town. S was scheduled to do his 2nd interview with the VP over there that afternoon. I was PISSED. I mean, after all this bullshit, why would they even go through the motions of interviewing him unless they were seriously considering giving him that position?? And frankly, I can't respect anyone who could sit and listen to the list of complaints that we've lodged against him and still take him seriously as a candidate for management. I will be mad as all unholy hell if they promote him. Seriously mad.
I will say, though, S did NOT seem to be in a good mood when he returned. He was very rushed--although that was probably because I had to leave soon and he still hadn't had lunch. But when he first came into the branch, I was going to ask him how the interview went, and as he rounded the corner on the way to the back, he looked up at me with this weird look that just stopped me from saying anything. He seemed kind of red in the face... flushed from heat or crying? He quickly diverted his eyes, and went to the back without a word. That seemed to indicate to me that things did not go as well as he'd hoped. But I don't want to make assumptions. He came back out of the back room and rushed back out of the branch saying he was going to grab something to eat as quickly as possible so that we could close my drawer. I asked B, who had been in the back when he arrived if he seemed upset to her. "Yes, it was weird. He didn't say a word to me, and he's usually quite talkative. He seemed like he wanted to say something, but couldn't." We're perplexed.
Only more time will tell, right?
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