Tuesday, September 28, 2010
What a week this has been!
First of all, that ABSOLUTELY NO CELL PHONES policy that we're supposed to have? The next day I worked, S(hole) had his cell phone lying out on the counter in the back room. [IRK!] The next day, when he came in for his shift, the first thing he did was pull his NEW cell phone out of his pocket and start showing me all the features (it's some hot new DROID phone, you'd think it gives him blowjobs hourly). All I could muster was a slow head shake and a flat "really?" He didn't seem to get my point. Then, last Friday was the last fucking straw--when I came in, S(hole) was in the back fucking around on his phone again. Whatever. I fire up the computer to clock in, and Boss comes to the back, has a 5 minute conversation with him, all while he continues to fuck around on his phone, and NEVER SAYS A WORD to him about the phone. SERIOUSLY???? Then less than an hour later, he was ONCE AGAIN sitting in the back on his GODDAMNED cell phone, when D-ball came back needing to get cash out of the vault. This is a dual-controlled task that requires two employees to execute. I was busy with another task, so I gave him my keys and asked S(hole) to help him while I finished up. D-ball wrote out all the paperwork and waited. And waited. Finally, he nudged S(hole) and asked him to put his cell phone down and pay attention so he could open the vault. Something snapped in my head, I swear. I wrote myself a note marking the exact time this happened, then went back to my computer and emailed both VP and HR: "If you think tightening up the cell phone usage policy was addressing our problem, please look at security footage in the vault room at xx:xx, showing Boss ignoring this policy violation, and xx:xx, showing S(hole) being asked to put his phone down by another employee to adhere to dual control policy; S(hole) was quite clear that he was busy with fantasy football." I had also emailed HR to complain about the phone prank, since B seemed determined to inherit the earth with her superior Meeklihood. Turns out our company policy only requires that I be offended by, not necessarily the victim of offensive behavior in order for it to be officially addressed. I spoke with an HR rep for about 40 minutes, who then told me it would be up to VP to decide what action to take, and since we'd already contacted her, they'd follow up with her to find out what, if any action she'd taken on it--they couldn't keep me in the loop about details, but they would at least inform me that action was or was not taken. All weekend I heard NOTHING from anyone on the matter. I was off Monday, then this morning, I had an email from VP asking me to call her. I took a quick lunch break (turned out to not be so quick, oops) out in my car to call her.
First, she informed me that she had never received the email from B that had described in detail what the phone prank (that I detailed here on Sept. 1) had been all about. So I explained it to her. She was HORRIFIED. HORRIFIED. I think she may have used the words "cruel" and "senseless". We had a long talk about the crux of the matter being that all this bad behavior is going unchecked because Boss is not reigning it in and punishing people in any way when they cross a line, which is why it's been ramping up and up and up. Essentially, I told her that S(hole) is toxic, that Boss was perfectly fine until S(hole) started crossing the line with the rule breaking and discovering he could get away with it, that the two of them are drinking buddies outside of work, and now Boss seems more interested in preserving their friendship than managing the branch. And the overall attitude in the branch has suffered because nobody respects S(hole) as a professional of any sort, and it's difficult to work for someone who has proven themselves to be dishonest and unprofessional. She, like HR, asked me what *I* thought she should do. GAWD, you don't even know how badly I wanted to say, "FIRE THE SOB!!!" But I didn't. I said I didn't know what the company normally did when people screwed up that badly (specifically about the phone prank), or what she thought would be the most effective answer. "I don't want to tell you to move people or fire people if that's not normally done. All I know is, the atmosphere has become poisoned, and it can't continue like this." She said she's coming to visit us again on 10/6, when she'd take some time to talk with each of us individually, and she's got some serious corrective direction for Boss. She made it sound like at least two people will be very unhappy about the fallout from all of this, and encouraged me to tough it out rather than transferring, because if I transfer, I can't take a promotion for 6 months after. She also said, "Sounds like the wrong person got the job." Am I reading too much into that? I'm going to try not to be too disappointed when it turns out that all she does is write him up and things stay relatively the same. But at least in the meantime I can keep applying to other promotions. She said she didn't have any NEW branches opening up until next year, but she could get a resignation from someone at any time; she also said that when she last talked with Boss, she asked him for a little evaluation of each of us, and asked him, "Who's your 'Rock of Gibraltar', who's the one you count on the most?" Me, of course. And she said she believes HE respects ME a great deal, even if it's not mutual at the moment. There seemed to be an underlying message in all of that, or maybe I'm hopelessly naive. After all the BS I've been through with this, chances are greater that it's the naive thing.
First of all, that ABSOLUTELY NO CELL PHONES policy that we're supposed to have? The next day I worked, S(hole) had his cell phone lying out on the counter in the back room. [IRK!] The next day, when he came in for his shift, the first thing he did was pull his NEW cell phone out of his pocket and start showing me all the features (it's some hot new DROID phone, you'd think it gives him blowjobs hourly). All I could muster was a slow head shake and a flat "really?" He didn't seem to get my point. Then, last Friday was the last fucking straw--when I came in, S(hole) was in the back fucking around on his phone again. Whatever. I fire up the computer to clock in, and Boss comes to the back, has a 5 minute conversation with him, all while he continues to fuck around on his phone, and NEVER SAYS A WORD to him about the phone. SERIOUSLY???? Then less than an hour later, he was ONCE AGAIN sitting in the back on his GODDAMNED cell phone, when D-ball came back needing to get cash out of the vault. This is a dual-controlled task that requires two employees to execute. I was busy with another task, so I gave him my keys and asked S(hole) to help him while I finished up. D-ball wrote out all the paperwork and waited. And waited. Finally, he nudged S(hole) and asked him to put his cell phone down and pay attention so he could open the vault. Something snapped in my head, I swear. I wrote myself a note marking the exact time this happened, then went back to my computer and emailed both VP and HR: "If you think tightening up the cell phone usage policy was addressing our problem, please look at security footage in the vault room at xx:xx, showing Boss ignoring this policy violation, and xx:xx, showing S(hole) being asked to put his phone down by another employee to adhere to dual control policy; S(hole) was quite clear that he was busy with fantasy football." I had also emailed HR to complain about the phone prank, since B seemed determined to inherit the earth with her superior Meeklihood. Turns out our company policy only requires that I be offended by, not necessarily the victim of offensive behavior in order for it to be officially addressed. I spoke with an HR rep for about 40 minutes, who then told me it would be up to VP to decide what action to take, and since we'd already contacted her, they'd follow up with her to find out what, if any action she'd taken on it--they couldn't keep me in the loop about details, but they would at least inform me that action was or was not taken. All weekend I heard NOTHING from anyone on the matter. I was off Monday, then this morning, I had an email from VP asking me to call her. I took a quick lunch break (turned out to not be so quick, oops) out in my car to call her.
First, she informed me that she had never received the email from B that had described in detail what the phone prank (that I detailed here on Sept. 1) had been all about. So I explained it to her. She was HORRIFIED. HORRIFIED. I think she may have used the words "cruel" and "senseless". We had a long talk about the crux of the matter being that all this bad behavior is going unchecked because Boss is not reigning it in and punishing people in any way when they cross a line, which is why it's been ramping up and up and up. Essentially, I told her that S(hole) is toxic, that Boss was perfectly fine until S(hole) started crossing the line with the rule breaking and discovering he could get away with it, that the two of them are drinking buddies outside of work, and now Boss seems more interested in preserving their friendship than managing the branch. And the overall attitude in the branch has suffered because nobody respects S(hole) as a professional of any sort, and it's difficult to work for someone who has proven themselves to be dishonest and unprofessional. She, like HR, asked me what *I* thought she should do. GAWD, you don't even know how badly I wanted to say, "FIRE THE SOB!!!" But I didn't. I said I didn't know what the company normally did when people screwed up that badly (specifically about the phone prank), or what she thought would be the most effective answer. "I don't want to tell you to move people or fire people if that's not normally done. All I know is, the atmosphere has become poisoned, and it can't continue like this." She said she's coming to visit us again on 10/6, when she'd take some time to talk with each of us individually, and she's got some serious corrective direction for Boss. She made it sound like at least two people will be very unhappy about the fallout from all of this, and encouraged me to tough it out rather than transferring, because if I transfer, I can't take a promotion for 6 months after. She also said, "Sounds like the wrong person got the job." Am I reading too much into that? I'm going to try not to be too disappointed when it turns out that all she does is write him up and things stay relatively the same. But at least in the meantime I can keep applying to other promotions. She said she didn't have any NEW branches opening up until next year, but she could get a resignation from someone at any time; she also said that when she last talked with Boss, she asked him for a little evaluation of each of us, and asked him, "Who's your 'Rock of Gibraltar', who's the one you count on the most?" Me, of course. And she said she believes HE respects ME a great deal, even if it's not mutual at the moment. There seemed to be an underlying message in all of that, or maybe I'm hopelessly naive. After all the BS I've been through with this, chances are greater that it's the naive thing.
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