tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83773546427540584462024-02-19T00:28:55.070-08:00Fear an IarthairA Blog about, and in defense of, Western Civilization and the bedrock thereof, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.Man of the Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691063580228409415noreply@blogger.comBlogger508125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377354642754058446.post-27506153269782239572015-04-11T17:57:00.001-07:002015-05-16T17:11:06.594-07:00Winding Down the Old Job StuffWell, it's been a while now since I last posted something about my old job. I <i>have</i> moved on, you know. I'm not making as much money right this minute, but we are able to live and keep the bills paid, and that's more than some can say. And I'm working on making more money. I think I'll get there.<br />
<br />
With this post, I just kind of want to wrap up the story of the situation for the handful of people interested <span style="color: blue;">(there probably aren't more than three)</span>. In doing so, I'll be mentally conflating a lot of discussions with the lady to whom I generally refer as "my other driver," even though we haven't worked together since November of last year. You see, I do keep in touch with her, by text and by the occasional phone conversation. A couple of times, we've even run into each other in person. So I do still have a pretty good idea of what's going on at the old workplace.<br />
<br />
They did eventually replace me. I cannot run the new guy down. I've never met him, and my other driver says he's actually a pretty nice guy. I don't know how much experience he's got, but I can guess from the fact that they aren't paying him what I was getting that it's not as much as I had. Of course, there were precious few people in the state--actually, probably <i>no one</i> in the state--that had the same combination of experience and certifications that I had. So, probably, occasionally, things are going to come up that he just won't be able to do, or won't be able to do with the same level of expertise that I brought to the table. Realistically, since many of the people with whom we did business, the folks responsible for making decisions for their clients<span style="background-color: white;"> <span style="color: blue;">(I won't go into more detail than that!)</span></span> were just butt-ugly ignorant and wouldn't know the difference between "okay" and "expert" anyway, it probably won't make much difference day to day.<br />
<br />
I do know that the new guy has taken less than three months to completely lose respect for my old boss, going so far as to mock him and say, "<i>**** you</i>," when he's out of earshot. So, old boss is three for three: he's had three drivers in ten years, and all three of them think he's an idiot/scumbag. <br />
<br />
As I've mentioned before, the main reason my other driver sticks around is that old boss has been told, basically, to leave her the MESS alone and stay <i>out</i> of her bid'ness. And, as I've mentioned before, that pretty much tells you that HIS boss knew exactly where the trouble really lay. More about that in a minute.<br />
<br />
About all I've heard about the other employees is that they are still there, but that nobody has any respect for the boss. More about that in a minute, too. The very experienced and intelligent lady who has served as old boss's brain for the last several years is still there. I don't see that lasting much longer. She came <b><i>THISCLOSE</i></b> to retiring shortly before I was forced out, and I'm sure she's more than ready. There is a lady there who's been learning the ropes, but...well, two things: first, I recall that THAT lady was prepping for another job, which tells you that she doesn't see THIS one as a permanent stop, and second, even though she seemed reasonably intelligent, there is just no way on God's green earth that she can possibly duplicate high intelligence and over thirty years of experience. So I'm standing by my original prediction that when old boss's brain retires, which can't be long from now, he is going to be in a major world of hurt. He will make <span style="color: blue;">(more)</span> major mistakes so rapidly I'm not sure he'll be able to cover them up for long.<br />
<br />
Old Boss's boss...well, after a conversation more than a month ago with my other driver, wherein I learned that she--let's call her OBB for short, Old Boss's Boss--had been quite upset after escorting me off the premises, and let my other driver know that she felt like the odd man out in the leadership circle, like she didn't have any influence, and, critically, that she felt <i>THE WRONG THING HAD JUST HAPPENED</i>...well, I called her up! Not to hassle her, but to let her know that I had only spent four days out of work and that she shouldn't feel bad about what she'd had to do. After all, she'd told ME in a private conversation, before I got shoved out, that she felt like the outsider in leadership circles, too.<br />
<br />
About those leadership circles: I know I've mentioned it before, but basically, it is good-ol'-boyism on steroids. Many or most of them are from the same part of the state and have known and worked with each other for DECADES. They've actually been called the "******** Mafia." I can COMPLETELY understand OBB feeling like a powerless outsider.<br />
<br />
Not long after that phone conversation, I remembered something: not <i>only</i> did OBB tell my other driver that she thought the wrong thing had happened, not <i>only</i> did OBB tell my old boss to leave my other driver alone, but when OBB came down to talk to the employees about my old boss the FIRST time, when OBB talked to my other driver alone, part of the conversation <span style="color: blue;">(second-hand, obviously, and from months-old memory)</span> went more or less like this:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>OBB: </b>It just seems odd to me, if all this stuff's been going on, that no one's said anything...<br />
<b>OTHER DRIVER:</b> Well, it's just that with Old Boss still here, everyone pretty much feels like if they speak up...<br />
<b>OBB:</b> There'd be <i>hell to pay</i>?<br />
<b>OTHER DRIVER: </b>Yeah!</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
So, when OBB was escorting me off the premises and asked, at one point, why no one had spoken up if all these things were going on, that was somewhat disingenuous. She knew <i>perfectly well</i> why no one had spoken up. She said it<i> herself</i>, though not in these words: we feared retaliation. Justifiably, as it turned out. I will never forget that she asked me that idiotic question as I was being shown the door.<br />
<br />
<i>Really, OBB? You forced me to resign and then asked why no one speaks up if there's a problem?</i><br />
<br />
So, now you can understand why I found it hilarious when, just a couple of days ago, my other driver told me that every so often, OBB will come down for a visit <span style="color: blue;">(wherein she often pitches ideas that reveal she knows nothing at all, to this minute, about the business)</span>, and let it be known that she will be over there in the ********, if anyone wants to talk to her in private. No one ever goes to talk to her.<br />
<br />
<i>OF COURSE THEY DON'T GO TALK TO HER</i>. Why would anyone talk to HER about problems with my old boss? She's pretty much admitted to being more-or-less powerless, and, for pity's sake, <i>they all saw what happened to ME.</i> <br />
<br />
I have not the <i>slightest</i> doubt, though, that her superiors interpret absence of complaints as absence of problems, and congratulate themselves on having gotten rid of the troublemaker. Foolish of them, really, and I predict they will eventually pay a high price for their willful blindness. <br />
<br />
So, to sum up, the place is still functioning, no one respects leadership, and it could all come crumbling down with one retirement. <br />
<br />
And me? Well, I like my new job, but not enough to swear I'm going to stay there. I do think they lack a certain amount of organization, and it is apparent to me that I CAN learn a great deal there, but that I WON'T unless I am EXTREMELY aggressive about learning. They have no training program, unless you call "sink or swim" a training program. There is also a heck of a lot of infighting and turf warfare <span style="color: blue;">(which hasn't yet affected me)</span>. I don't want to knock them. They've been pretty nice to me and I mostly enjoy the job. But I keep up with the listings from more than one jobs board, and it is pretty apparent to me that, especially if I maximize my learning over the next few months, higher-paying opportunities will arise.<br />
<br />
Employee loyalty died a long time ago, hot on the heels of the death of employer loyalty to the employee. I don't know why any company expects loyalty--they certainly don't <i>show</i> it--but they do. So I'm not saying a word to them about the fact that I basically see this job as either preparation for the next job, or as something with potential. <br />
<br />
In the meantime, I'm going to try to get some other income streams going. One of those is going to be a few e-books, and that's one reason you won't see me blogging as much anymore. Things that would have previously been blogposts will be expanded, refined, and become part of e-books. If you see something published here, it means that I felt like I had to get it off my chest and didn't think I could sell it.<br />
<br />
I may, if I get interesting news, still say something about my old workplace from time to time, but for the most part, I think this is pretty much it. I'm movin' on.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue;">********************************************************</span></div>
<br />
<span style="color: red;">I had an opportunity to talk to my other driver a few days ago. As I mentioned, we <i>do</i> keep in touch, and a good deal of our working lives takes place behind the wheel, so occasionally, we have the chance to talk. <br /><br />Seems like every time I talk to her, new details--new to <i>me</i>, anyway--of the day I left come out. For instance, it turns out that when she was getting talked to by OBB on the day I got forced out, OBB told her, "We've taken into account what you and MOTW said, but this is the only part of the company showing good profits and we have to think that Old Boss is doing <i>some</i>thing right."</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red;">Now, <i>that's</i> reasoning. Of course, none of them, including OBB, know anything of consequence about that business, so, really, it's no surprise that something that stupid came out of her mouth. Why couldn't the fact that we were making money be due to, oh, I don't know, maybe being in the right place at the right time to take advantage of a huge demographic shift? Wouldn't it be logically possible for the place to be doing well in<i> spite</i> of Old Boss rather than <i>because</i> of Old Boss? Notice that--at least as it was relayed to me--OBB didn't say what Old Boss was doing right. I'm dead certain she couldn't, not if you put a gun to her head. </span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red;">Bottom line: they kept a guy who had been credibly accused--<i>people, they've altered their paperwork and procedures on some things to prevent the very kinds of things we told them he was doing, which tells you<b> plainly</b> that they <b>knew</b> or <b>suspected</b> that he was guilty as ****</i>--of lying, stealing, falsifying records, and abuse of power because the business was making money and they didn't want to rock the boat anymore than they had to. That horsesqueeze about "he must be doing something right," is exactly that: horsesqueeze. <br /><br />So,<i> that</i>, as far as I am concerned, is what the leadership of the *** is worth. And more than likely, the people to whom they report aren't worth any more. At least not much.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red;">A couple of other things: apparently, the guy they've got directing the "marketing"</span><span style="color: blue;"> (so far, I haven't seen him direct them to anything but disaster, which isn't surprising, as he IS a communist--I kid thee not, maybe he wouldn't use that word, but that's what he is)</span> <span style="color: red;">is making some of the decisions for them--like what varieties of widget to carry, in some cases. Does he know a darn thing about widgets? No, he doesn't. But he<i> does </i>know "shiny." </span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red;">The billing situation is worse than I wrote above. Old Boss's Brain has no backup. She is very much part-time and they are months and months behind on the billing. The employee of whom I wrote that she was learning to back her up, but that she was prepping for another job--well, she got it! She's working for one of the local hospitals now, and only comes in on Saturdays--to make an extra buck, I guess, with little effort. <br /><br />At any rate, they are months and months behind on their billing, their biller is part-time only, said biller has to correct Old Boss on points of law and procedure darn near every time he opens his pie-hole, and she's all but certain to retire shortly.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red;">To top it off, my other driver took grievous offense to something Old Boss relayed from his leadership and came within a hair of walking out on him </span><span style="color: blue;">(I'm told the panicked look on his face was awesome to behold).</span> <span style="color: red;">She's telling me now that she's going to take some of her upcoming vacation time and look for other work. I'll be e-mailing her the links to various jobs boards shortly. Whether she finds something or not is questionable</span> <span style="color: blue;">(she has already told me she really doesn't want to take a pay cut, and it is the Obamaconomy, after all)</span>, <span style="color: red;">but she does want to leave--and specifically because of leadership, especially Old Boss.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red;">So, let me ask you: what do you think will happen when Old Boss' Brain retires and can't rescue him from his idiocies any more? With them already months and months behind on billing, and not positioned to catch up? With no one in line to take over? With the second of the two drivers on whom they built their reputation</span> <span style="color: blue;">(the first, of course, was <i>moi</i>)</span> <span style="color: red;">gone? </span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red;">I'm buying popcorn. It's gonna be good. And there is one more person willing to be my point of contact there, so I'll be able to keep up, even after my other driver splits...</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red;">The Bible says not to gloat when your enemy stumbles, but these people are making it <i>awfully</i> hard.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red;">--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">Another small update. I've been meaning to note these events for...oh, almost four weeks now, I guess. <br /><br />I got a text from my other driver a few weeks ago. They fired the new guy, the guy that took my place. After three whole months. Apparently, he'd missed something like seven days of work in that period. I'm told some of them were excused absences, but still...</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">Also, "the girls" were allegedly hearing a couple of complaints from clients about him. I take that with a grain of salt. As I've mentioned before in these little rants, in that business, you deal with a <i>LOT</i> of people on government assistance, the over-medicated, etc., and you are going to get complaints whenever you can't do what Mr.-or-Miss Welfare Leech thinks you ought to do. They will make stuff up and call your office. I've had it happen to me.<br /><br />"The girls" seem to think that every complaint they field is <i>fur reelz</i>. <br /><br />At any rate, he's gone. Now, I have to note the obvious: I <i>SAID</i> they'd have the dickens of a time getting someone with some knowledge, some skills, and reliability for the price they were willing to pay, and saying I have been proven right is a serious understatement. As of tomorrow, I've been gone for six months, and I <i>still</i> don't think they can be legitimately said to have replaced me.<br /><br />Now, for the funny part, and the main reason I'm including this little update: the boss replaced the new guy with the warehouse guy.<br /><br />You may remember--I <i>think</i> I've discussed the warehouse guy before--that although I kind of liked the guy, and due to his mild OCD, he really <i>does</i> make a good warehouse guy, he has been unreliable as...well, he's unreliable. Been missing two or three workdays a month during the entire time he's been there. I told him once that the boss was letting him get away with behavior that no other business would let him get away with. Probably because he worked cheap (having a jail record might do that for you) l also told him it made it impossible for the boss to discipline anyone else for excessive absences.<br /><br />Turns out I was wrong. It made it impossible for the boss to <i>fairly</i> discipline anyone else for excessive absences. But <i>un</i>fairly? No problem!</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">Now, a lot of Warehouse Guy's absences have been tied to alcohol abuse--he is a binge drinker--or to popping pills. See, he's got a back condition that he's been waiting forever for the Indian hospital to do something surgical about, and he gets a certain number of pills every month, and he's always out <i>way</i> early. He told me himself that he takes pills recreationally. Didn't seem to bother him. Matter of fact, he seemed <i>proud</i>. <i><b>At least he wasn't taking meth anymore.</b></i><br /><br /><i><b>That's right, ladies and germs, they fired my replacement, and put an ex-meth-head who is a current pill-popping binge drinker behind the freakin' wheel! </b></i> And he's got a bad back, and is now in a job that frequently requires some serious lifting. And for the icing on the cake, <i>he's chronically engaged in the very behavior for which they fired my replacement.</i></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>I</b></span><br />
<span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>AM</b></span><br />
<span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>NOT</b></span><br />
<span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>MAKING</b></span><br />
<span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>THIS </b></span><br />
<span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b>UP.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">Of course, the poor guy has none of my skills, either...</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">At any rate, I regard this as a <i>de facto</i> admission that Old Boss has <i>completely</i> given up on finding a decent replacement for me. I am SO SORRY.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">My other driver has been on vacation for one week and has a week to go. Has she actually gone job hunting? I don't know. Won't ask. But if she ever does find something else, my old employers are completely hosed.<br /><br />They're hosed <i>now</i>, but as long as they've got my other driver, they're not <i>completely</i> hosed. <br /><br />We'll see how long this holds up. </span>Man of the Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691063580228409415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377354642754058446.post-26424375904408763842015-01-14T20:34:00.000-08:002015-01-14T20:34:56.468-08:00God Help Them!<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Look, I know the rants about my old job are getting old and I should just forget it and move on, and I will...eventually. I spent more than ten years of my life with those miserable so-and-sos, you know. And I still have a point of contact there, that is, my best friend still works there, so I have SOME clue what's going on.<br /><br />As I mentioned about a month ago, they hadn't successfully hired anyone to take my place.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At any rate, they haven't yet hired a replacement. Oh, they've TRIED. But apparently the only guy they actually hired spent all morning trying to find a place and time they'd let him dip snuff, looking for breaks, and then just left the premises.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">A day or two ago, I texted her, admitting that even I was surprised that they hadn't hired SOMEONE at this point. After all, it's been almost two months, and it IS the Obamaconomy, after all. You'd think they could find SOMEONE. <br /></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">Turns out all the applicants were losers, she said, except one--whom they couldn't actually contact. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">The plus side to this situation, and I kid thee not, I am NOT making this up, is that my former boss is never around the place anymore. In order to cover my job, he is coming in before anyone else gets there and getting back after they all leave. And without his insane micromanaging, the place is doing just FINE and everyone is THRILLED that they don't have to put up with him. And he's actually working a lot of hours for the first time in years, as opposed to pretending to work a lot of hours and getting his superiors to pity his poor, worthless tuchus.<br /><br />Then she texted me today and said that they had a lot of interviews scheduled today and tomorrow. Apparently a whole bunch of new applications came in.<br /><br />So, out of curiousity, I googled the ad. It didn't take more than one attempt. I know how the so-and-so thinks. I thought it was hilarious, knowing what I know. So here, slightly edited, it is, with my comments. You may not think it's so funny, but having spent ten years there, to ME, it's a RIOT.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><br /></span></span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">...</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">looking for a full time delivery personnel/technician...</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This doorknob couldn't write to save his skin. "A" full-time "personnel" is a contradiction, that is, PERSONNEL is PLURAL. Of course, he couldn't just write "person." He had to try to make himself look better than that, and ended up looking the twit.</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">...</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">will train candidate that has a positive attitude...</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh, a positive attitude is a wonderful thing, I grant you, but that's not what shinola-for-brains means. What he means is that if you notice that he is an unethical so-and-so and that his superiors haven't a clue, you're supposed to ACT AS IF THEY'RE ALL WONDERFUL ANYWAY. If you catch him in a blatant lie, you're supposed to act as if he was George Washington himself. If you--God forbid!--catch him in a massive mistake that left you unevaluated for four solid years, you're supposed to act as though that is perfectly normal. If your company makes serious errors on your paycheck, oh, say, at least ten times in ten years, including one spectacular instance where your pittance of a raise was left off your check for FOUR SOLID MONTHS, you're not supposed to point out that getting payroll correct is not exactly a hot priority for your company.<br /><br />THAT'S what he means by "positive attitude." </span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Note also that they have completely given up on getting someone experienced. No wonder they suddenly got a lot of new applications. They might as well have run an ad for a warm body.<br /></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="color: #222222;">...</span><span style="background-color: white;">good communication skills...</span></span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Maybe someone who knows that "personnel" is plural, perhaps?<br /></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="color: #222222;">...</span><span style="background-color: white;">mechanically inclined...</span></span></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">You have to be kidding me. I had to be able to figure out how to install and repair all kinds of shinola, including, on one occasion, a freaking BIDET that wasn't even ours, wasn't medical equipment, and for the installation of which WE WERE NOT GETTING PAID. I had to be able to test circuits for continuity, figure out where in the concentrator the tubing had come loose, replace cords, rebuild--at one point--oxygen concentrator compressors, diagnose power wheelchairs, program power wheelchairs...you get the point. "Mechanically inclined" is kind of mild.<br /></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="color: #222222;">...</span><span style="background-color: white;">team player...</span></span></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Gives up personal life at the boss's whim. On one occasion, this so-and-so seriously suggested I put a fifteen-year-old in DAYCARE so that I would be available to work late without notice.<br /></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white;">Must have a clean driving record and must be able to pass extensive <span style="white-space: nowrap;">background check</span></span><span style="background-color: white;"> (no felonies).</span></span></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They came within a hair's breadth of hiring someone just outta the pen last Spring. So take that for what it's worth.</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Deliver and set up <span style="white-space: nowrap;">medical equipment and supplies...</span></span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: nowrap;"><br />That sounds kind of mild. You must understand that some of this stuff is darned heavy. You haven't lived until you've</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="white-space: nowrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">until you've single-handedly delivered and set up a bariatric home hospital bed--that is, a bed intended for the severely obese. Or a power wheelchair. Or picked up a "dead" power chair, one wherein the batteries aren't working, </span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and you must get that heavy sonuvagun into the back of your van single-handedly.</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And what about counseling the power chair recipient? <br /><br />What about deciding what the best location for the grab bar is, given the building's structure and the patient's pathology? Because I guarantee you the PATIENT doesn't know!<br /><br />What about tiptoeing between endless piles of dog crap (I am NOT making this up) to install a hand-held shower?<br /><br />What about plunging your hand through a pile of dead roaches and roach droppings in order to replace the handset on an electric lift chair?</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I could go on...</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">...</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">all over the state of ****...</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Mostly in the two largest metro areas, though. What's the deal here? He had to use "personnel" but couldn't spell out ********?<br /></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">...using company vehicles, also repairs and home assessments.</span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As previously noted, this chucklehead can't write. NO ONE IS USING COMPANY VEHICLES, REPAIRS, AND HOME ASSESSMENTS TO DO THIS JOB. Instead, repairs and home assessments are PART of the job to be done WITH company vehicles. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And let me note, "home assessments" are something that you do not have just any yokel do. You have to know something about equipment, something about pathology, something about physiology, something about kinesiology, something about FREAKING HOUSE FRAMING, ADA regulations, and so forth. Granted, some of it is fairly elementary, but some of it is not. It is ridiculous to talk about a trainee doing more than very elementary assessments for at least a year, and more complex stuff would require, in my opinion, a few years of experience plus some specialized training.<br /><br />For some home assessments--notably those involved with getting a wheelchair funded--you had better know your stuff darned well or you could conceivably...well, there's consequences, let's just say that.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now: repairs. Really. As previously noted, I have rebuilt compressors, diagnosed and fixed oxygen concentrators, power wheelchairs, home hospital beds, wheelchairs, lift chairs, and onlyGodknowswhatelse. I wonder where they are going to get this paragon. He's got to be able to drill holes, lift stuff, check electrical continuity, do some plumbing...oh, I know there are people out there who can do it. No question about THAT. The QUESTION is where are they going to get one who can do it FOR WHAT THEY ARE WILLING TO PAY. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Physically demanding at times and must be able to lift up to 50lbs safely...</span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">REALLY. No shinola, Sherlock, and I never got a lick of appreciation for it. First, let me note: lifting fifty pounds is not all that physically demanding. Any normal man ought to be able to do it repeatedly. <br /><br />But delivering and assembling a bariatric home hospital bed in a room with one-quarter of an inch of spare room at each end of the bed, without air conditioning, in August...THAT'S physically demanding. And it's a heckuva lot more than fifty pounds, and if you get some poor schmuck that thinks because he can lift fifty pounds, he can do the job, both he and you are in for a surprise.<br /></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Vacation, sick pay and<span style="white-space: nowrap;"> health insurance</span> available...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One week after one year, two weeks after two years, three weeks after ten years...and no paid holidays. <br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Didn't mention that part, did we? Because the bald-faced reality is that that means you are perpetually behind, that is, after one year, everyone else has one week of vacation and seven or eight paid holidays, after two years, two weeks and paid holidays, and so forth. YOU, on the other hand, instead of having twelve or thirteen paid days off after a year, have FIVE. And so on, with the years.<br /><br />Used to really tick me off around the holidays. After ten solid years, I think my Christmas bonus before taxes was 175 bucks. Yes, I am serious. And they made me take off holidays without pay. And yes, that means I lost more--far more!--in pay than I got in Christmas bonuses! <br /><br />Sick pay? Don't make me laugh. I accumulated something like forty-five days of sick pay (and didn't get paid a nickel for it when I was forced to resign, by the way) and never used a day of it. It was effectively impossible unless you were down with cancer or something. It didn't kick in 'til the third day you were out sick, and unless you had a doctor's release to return to work, you never knew, these turnips just might fire you! I think I only saw it used twice in ten years.<br /><br />Health insurance? Even before the Obamacare days, this was a joke. You could get a pittance of a policy with benefits so low that you were better off just rat-holing the premium money. Now that Obamacare's here, they offer a policy that is not too bad--IF you're just insuring yourself and IF you're willing to settle for a "bronze" plan. If you're insuring yourself AND YOUR FAMILY, forget it, at least on what they pay. I would have had to fork over more than 700 bucks a month.<br /><br />So that's pretty much a non-starter. Might as well not even bring it up.<br /></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">...some overtime will be required.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Not much--God knows I wanted more--and frequently without any notice whatsoever. <br /><br />For YEARS, the only way they could make their deliveries "work" in the City area was to operate on the assumption that MOTW could and would work two ten-hour days down there every week. They never asked me. Never checked to see if it was okay. They just assumed I would do it. And I did, because I wanted the money, but not everyone is going to be that way. If I didn't do it, their whole system fell apart--unless they wanted to UPS huge amounts of stuff out.<br /><br />Heh. Years ago, they had me doing two TWELVE-hour days down there every week, and the boss, shinola-for-brains, actually had the nerve to tell me he was considering sending me home early on Fridays to take away the overtime. Seriously. He wanted me to work 24 hours in two days and not get a nickel extra. <br /><br />He didn't try it. Darned good thing.<br /><br />Well, I know I'll get replaced eventually. I know. They may even get someone good for the money they're willing to pay. Obamaconomy, you know. <br /></span></span>Man of the Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691063580228409415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377354642754058446.post-2994114848697055412014-12-18T20:28:00.000-08:002014-12-18T20:28:28.639-08:00Just LIVIDI know, I know...you thought, since I was pressured out of my old job--fired, really--that you'd seen the last of my rants about it.<br /><br />Well, I ran into my other driver today...the other driver from my old job. We had a chance to talk for a few minutes.<br /><br />Some of what she told me warmed my heart in a sad way. My old boss, in my absence, is apparently having to work his tail end off for the first time in years. Understand: he CLAIMED to be working his rear off for eighty hours a week for a long time, but we knew he falsified time sheets (seen it at least twice with my own eyes, folks, I am NOT making this up!) and God knows we never saw him break a sweat. So, on the one hand, I was kind of glad to hear that he was having to actually DO SOMETHING.<br /><br />When I heard that he was having the audacity to rhymes-with-witch about the difficulties involved in doing my old job, that kind of teed me off. <br /><br /><i>Don't like having to hand carry several cases of nutritional supplement up rickety stairs and around a corner? Poor baby. I had to do it every month, and I don't recall you having any sympathy for ME.</i><br /><br />I guess it's been more than a month since I was forced to resign. I mean, I complete my fourth week at my new job (which is going pretty well, thank you) tomorrow, and I was off almost a week before that, so I guess it's been more than a month...<br />
<br />
At any rate, they haven't yet hired a replacement. Oh, they've TRIED. But apparently the only guy they actually hired spent all morning trying to find a place and time they'd let him dip snuff, looking for breaks, and then just left the premises.<br /><br />I TOLD them they didn't offer enough starting pay to attract anyone good. My other driver would never--I mean that, literally, would NEVER--have taken the job had they told her up front what she'd be making.<br /><br /><i>No paid holidays. No benefits to speak of. Crappy starting pay. Oh, you may eventually REPLACE me, but if you think for an instant that you're going to get someone who can operate for hours, or even days, largely without supervision, relate to clients, handle paperwork, regulations, tools, installations, maintenance, repairs, navigation, and consulting for the pay YOU'RE offering to start...well, good luck with that.</i><br />
<br />
So there's a twisted sense of satisfaction in that.<br /><br />But I was also told that he'd talked to the 69-year-old now-retired co-worker--you know, the one his best friend's ex-meth-head wife, whom he had hired, had actually physically shaken in a fit of anger?--and told her that I'd been forced to resign because he "just couldn't take it anymore." Presumably he was referring to what he referred to as my "bad attitude," or the fact that I had confronted him with his misdeeds and misjudgments more and more often.<br /><br />All I could think was, "What in the **** is he doing telling her something like that?" Leaving aside the fact that she had caught him in lie after lie over the years and KNEW he was full of squeeze, what was he thinking?<br /><br />This is the man who'd lied repeatedly, had hired a girlfriend, then the same lady as an EX-girlfriend in order to line HIS pockets, who hired the ex(?)-meth-head because of his personal relationship with her and her husband for a job directly under his supervision, who'd fired a perfectly innocent employee because the ex-meth-head couldn't stand her, who'd lied about clients complaining about me, who'd falsified mileage logs to line his own pockets, who'd falsified time sheets to make himself look good, and more other stuff than I care to take the time to re-write here, who had, in short, gone a long way to making life MISERABLE at work for me and several others, who had made us "TAKE IT" for years?<br /><br />All *I* did was tell him directly that some of what was going wrong was HIS FAULT--and, finally, under provocation, tell him to his face that he was bughouse crazy and acting like an ex-cokehead. Admittedly, not the smoothest move in terms of job retention, but the man had just come this close to accusing me of having an affair with a co-worker--a co-worker whom HE'D driven to distraction through his behavior over the years. <br /><br />And he just couldn't "take it." ****'s Bells, he'd PROVOKED IT. I think deliberately. I think he was looking to provoke me into something that he could take to his boss that would get me canned--and he got it.<br /><br />The other thing I was told that just had me LIVID was this: It seems my other driver had told our--her current, my former--boss's boss that she was "done." What did she mean? She meant she was "done." <br /><br />If you don't know what that means, it means you are on the verge of walking out.<br /><br />SO WHAT DOES MY OLD BOSS'S BOSS DO?<br /><br />She goes to my former boss and tells him TO LEAVE MY OTHER DRIVER ALONE, that she is to be allowed to do what she thinks she needs to do the way she thinks she needs to do it! <br /><br />Now, obviously, I have no objection to THAT. <br />
<br />
But note: if I go to my boss's boss and say, more or less, that I am about to quit, and my boss's boss goes to my boss and tells him to leave me alone, <i><b>does that not say loud and clear that she knows **** well who the problem is?</b></i><br /><br />Let me put it bluntly: that means that my boss's boss--and probably her superiors--KNEW my boss was causing problems and forced me to resign anyway!<br /><br />Not <i>HIM</i>.<br />
<br />
<i>ME</i>.<br /><br />WHY?<br />
<br />
You're going to say, "Because you called him bughouse crazy, MOTW," and yeah...I did that. After years of repeated provocation and maltreatment and outright lies. But I don't think that's why they kept him and got rid of me without ever hearing my side of the story (there were no witnesses, after all--only God knows what he told them).<br /><br />I think they did THAT because, as my boss's boss emphasized in the meeting that took place the day they got rid of me, our section, our division, of the company was the only one making a decent profit. I think they--God knows why, it sure as thunder wasn't HIS brilliance--thought that their profits were at risk if they got rid of him, even though they KNEW he was causing personnel problems and had every reason in the world to suspect him of outright corruption.<br /><br />I think the dollars mattered more than their integrity, and I say this about an ostensibly Christian organization.<br /><br />I know it sounds bitter. But that's what I think. And I doubt seriously I ever trust anyone in that particular Christian organization ever again. Their word stinks, as far as I'm concerned.Man of the Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691063580228409415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377354642754058446.post-277546534348354982014-11-26T20:06:00.000-08:002014-11-26T20:06:17.456-08:00Well, I Don't Work There AnymoreThose few of you who keep up with this blog know that I'd been having issues with my former boss for some little time. <br />
<br />
I have been advised by more than one person to bury this material, to never let it see the light of day, even anonymously. They think that I will come off looking bad to potential employers, that even though they agree with me that I'd been pushed entirely too far, that I will end up looking as though I had one of those legendary and infamous "bad attitudes." One other person heard the story and concluded that I "refuse to be cowed." You'll have to make up your own mind. I don't want to forget this stuff, and I think the odds of anyone ever figuring out who I am--besides the probably less than five people who actually know, that is--are slim and none, and I don't think I've given enough away for more than one person, who can be trusted to hold his peace, to ever have the proverbial snowball's chance of figuring out where I worked.<br />
<br />
At any rate, if you've been reading, you know that...well, let me quote myself from a few posts ago, talking about my boss--my former boss, now:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
...is a former cokehead <span style="color: blue;">(fool enough not to understand that we know all about it)</span> whom we seriously suspect of ducking out a few times a day for a quick hit on a joint. Just suspect, mind you. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
...has no serious ability to concentrate, possibly due to the aforementioned little personal quirk. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
...does not understand certain elements of his own job and is now at the point of having to be corrected ON THE LAW by at least one of his employees. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
...has proven himself completely unable to hire and retain employees as we steadily lose them due to the toxic environment he has created. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
....hired his live-in girlfriend for a "temporary" position directly under his supervision, said "temporary" position only being terminated when our then-office manager went to him and threatened to quit over it. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
...hired his now-ex-live-in girlfriend back for a "permanent" position when they broke up and she owed him money and that was the only job she could get that paid enough for her to pay him back. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
...fired his now-ex-live-in girlfriend about a year later, after she had paid him back, because he had since hired an ex-meth head <span style="color: blue;">(actually, we're not sure about the "ex")</span> who happened to be his best friend's wife, and the new employee and the old girlfriend mutually despised one another. No cause. Just "Your services are no longer needed." This was in spite of the fact that she was actually doing a good job. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
...ended up firing his best friend's wife when he finally, after more than two years, realized that she was never going to be able to do the job correctly and that she had actually physically shaken a 69-year-old co-worker in a fit of anger, and that no one had confronted him about her behavior because, well, she was the boss's personal friend. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
...has completely failed to make the connection that the previous episode means that his employees are unwilling to be frank with him for fears of his personal reaction. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
...is strongly suspected of stealing gasoline via company credit cards. </blockquote>
When I say "strongly suspected," I mean that the only possible explanation for the appearance of certain gas receipts was that he was gassing up his own car on the company card at six a.m. with some frequency, until the company credit cards got hidden. Amazing how that worked. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
...has been known to falsify mileage logs so as to get paid for trips he didn't make. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
...and more, but I'm running out of time. In short, he is a singular mixture of incompetence, veniality, savagery, and selfishness, probably the worst and most unethical boss I have ever had.</blockquote>
Now, knowing all that, and I COULD go on, you can imagine that our workplace relationship has been deteriorating over the years. It has been flatly impossible to ACTUALLY respect the man, as opposed to PRETENDING to respect him, and let me tell you, the prospect of him leading our little workforce in prayer once a week had more than one of us gagging. It was like being led in prayer by Bill Clinton.<br />
<br />
It seems to me that the deterioration really started to accelerate when he was forced to fire his best friend's ex-meth-head wife after it became crystal-clear that she had actually physically shaken a 69-year-old co-worker in a fit of anger. He talked to each of the employees in turn, and when it was my turn, I told him bluntly that the whole situation was HIS fault, that he had no business hiring her in the first place and he had put her in an impossible situation for which she was in no way prepared. He replied that he "took responsibility," but of course, that meant nothing. Nothing happened to him. Nobody, as far as I know, except me, said, ">>>>>>, you shouldn't have done that!" Saying you "take responsibility" means <i>nothing</i> in practical terms except that you're not going to try to palm the blame off on someone else. It doesn't mean you pay a <i>price</i> for your mistake, or unethical behavior, or whatever it is.<br />
<br />
At any rate, after that, it sometimes seemed to me like he was looking for opportunities to confront and aggravate me, and to exaggerate anything I did that was less than perfect. This wasn't just my impression; other employees also thought that he was "picking on" me.<br />
<br />
Eventually there was a blow-up over an episode I detailed in another post, and we hollered at each other over the phone in the course of a conversation wherein he said, among other things, that all his hiring decisions had been "the best decisions at the time."<br />
<br />
Sweet. "The best decisions" seemed to keep putting money in his pocket or putting his personal friends under his direct supervision, resulting in little things we lesser mortals refer to as "conflicts of interest," which would get managers in any other company FIRED. <br />
<br />
At any rate, I ended up calling his boss, and sure enough, she came down early the next Monday, had a conference with the boss, which, according to what was overheard through the door by one employee, went rather poorly for him. Then she had individual conferences with me, my other driver, and at least two other employees that I know about. Afterwards, we all got copies of her card and we were told not to hesitate to call.<br />
<br />
We kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. After all, even though we all stuck to what we personally had seen and heard, we had established a pretty credible case that the boss was a thief and a liar and serially abusing the business to line his own pockets. And we did see a few things. His boss dropped in another day and was overheard to say, "*******, I need to see your mileage and time sheets," and we had to make a few small changes to the way we were doing our vehicle mileage records, so we<br />
KNEW they at least recognized the <i>possibility</i> that he really WAS milking the company for personal profit. And he left us alone more. We knew he'd been "talked to." <br />
<br />
We thought that we were being taken seriously.<br />
<br />
We should have known better. <br />
<br />
Some few weeks after that, on one of the days when I had to stock up ****** ***** with ****** *****, which was a twice-weekly chore, I made the mistake of forgetting my work order. Crap. I did NOT want to go back two miles and get it, I knew I'd never hear the end of it. So I called my other driver, thinking that, perhaps, she had not yet left. She had, but said she was still close and would be happy to bring me my work order. I waited, and after, perhaps, ten minutes or so, MY BOSS DROVE BY. He had no business on that end of the campus; his only business on the campus that day was to pick up check stubs at the OTHER END of the campus. He drove past me, through some duplexes, and then headed back toward the offices. Then, perhaps five or six minutes later, he came back, drove right up to me, and asked me, "Are you waiting on someone?"<br />
<br />
"Yes. I'm waiting on ****** to bring me my work order."<br />
<br />
"Okay," he said, and drove off. I found out later that he had probably overheard ****** saying that she was bringing the work order, so it appears that he already knew full well what I was doing and followed my other driver, expecting to catch us...what? I texted ******, told her that he appeared to be checking up on me, and it turned out she had been in the building a few minutes. I didn't know. Worst that anyone could say was that I had wasted ten or fifteen minutes, though. I got my work order, she completed her business with *******, and that was that. <br />
<br />
Back at the warehouse, though, the boss followed me into the storage end and said, "Okay, MOTW, I've got to ask you, why does it take both you and ****** to deliver to *********?" And I told him it didn't; that I had already told him what happened, and did he think I lied to him the first time?<br />
<br />
And then, as my temper and the horribly wrong idea that my complaints were being taken seriously got the better of me, it hit me that the only reason to ask the question was because he DID think I had been lying, which in turn implied an attempt to conceal the truth, and next thing I knew, I said, "You're all but saying that ****** and I are meeting in secret! You know, you're about bughouse crazy! You're starting to act like an ex-cokehead!" He just said, "Oh, MOTW," and left the room.<br />
<br />
My other driver was as livid as I was when she heard the story. It had been fairly obvious to both of us for a long time that the man had been jealous--ridiculously--of the closeness of our friendship. It seemed like a transparently obvious attempt to make our relationship out to be something it wasn't, and it stung: part of the reason that friendship works is because she, as a woman in a committed relationship, would <i>never</i> consider running around with a married man, and I, as a married man, would <i>never</i> consider running around with another woman. In other words, it works because she knows I'm not trying to get into her pants and we both resented the smallest implication that things might be otherwise.<br />
<br />
The other shoe dropped on Monday. His boss came down for our weekly meeting, and after sharing with us that ours was pretty much the only branch of the company that was making good money <b><span style="color: blue;">(NOTE THAT, THE ONE OR TWO OF YOU WHO KNOW WHO I WORKED FOR: SHE WAS TELLING US THAT WE WERE THE ONLY BRANCH THAT WAS MAKING GOOD MONEY! IS THAT THE IMPRESSION YOU GOT AT THE...UH...BIG MEETING?)</span></b> She met on an individual basis with my other driver for a good, long time. Then she met with my boss and, I believe, my other driver for a good, long time. Then she met with other employees. I was in and out much of the day and I NEVER GOT SPOKEN TO until late in the day, after she'd spent some little time on the phone and reviewing her notes. <br />
<br />
At that point, I was called in and told that I would be allowed to resign and get paid for my three remaining vacation days. The alternative was to be fired outright, after almost eleven years and what had been touted just a few months before as a stellar, even legendary career. <br />
<br />
For those wondering, the place is organized in such as way that unemployment stuff doesn't apply. Couldn't get it. <br />
<br />
Whilst I was being perp-walked around the place, getting my things, my boss's boss asked me, "If these things were going on all this time, why didn't anyone say anything?"<br />
<br />
Seriously. She asked me that whilst perp-walking me around the building! Apparently her capacity for "getting it" is <i>extremely</i> limited. I say that whilst not really blaming her; I think she was doing what she had been told to do. Apparently it just didn't occur to her that no one said anything because we all thought that corporate leadership would shoot the messenger--and, on the excuse that I had "gone too far," that is <i>exactly what they did</i>.<br />
<br />
My other driver told me later that during their time together, my boss's boss had returned more than once to the fact that our branch of the company was the only one making good money, and I am convinced that in the end, corporate leadership decided to turn a blind eye to credible allegations of leadership abuse and outright theft because they naively thought the accused was responsible for the profits. They don't know enough about our business--or what was "our" business--to know that we have basically been in the right place at the right time, and I'm not sure they really care. <br />
<br />
I can't see into their heads, but personally, I think that between their cliquishness, their blindness, and the dollars, they either can't or won't see the truth.<br />
<br />
I've already got another job, and, with overtime, the pay cut isn't THAT bad, and I think the future is brighter. But I couldn't let this fiasco vanish completely down the memory hole. And I will say that there is not one person in the leadership of either that organization or the parent organization that I will trust on any level, not ever. Christian organization or not, I don't trust them or their judgment.<br />
<br />
Also, while it's not that I wish judgment to fall on them, I think they will have problems soon. There are a handful of jobs they will simply not be able to take anymore because they no longer have, and will not be able to get, someone with the requisite certification. There are certain jobs that now, only the boss knows how to do, and it will be by no means easy to get or to train someone else to do them, so that will help keep him busy--or they will start having to turn those jobs down, or delay them. Considering that some agencies counted on us doing those jobs...well...<br />
<br />
My other driver will probably be hitting the road soon after the holidays. She'll find other work FIRST, and then split. And then, probably in the space of 45 days, they will have lost two of the most experienced such employees in the state, and the only two such employees they had. They will almost certainly lose clients, maybe a LOT of clients, over our absence. We brought in and kept a lot of clients, and we will no longer be there.<br />
<br />
I wonder what corporate leadership will say about Fearless Leader at that point?<br /><br />The senior office lady is exactly that: senior. Her husband's already retired and six months ago, she almost followed suit. I speculated then that she might work until past the holidays and then retire. Even if she goes a bit longer, I am certain that her remaining time there can be measured in months, and, since she functioned as my boss's brain, disaster is sure to strike in her absence. I am not exaggerating. Time and again we have heard her telling him how this or that program or regulation ACTUALLY worked, as opposed to the harebrained conception HE had of how it worked. He hath not a clue. Without her, he is COOKED.<br /><br />With the two experienced drivers and the senior office lady gone, the pressure on the remaining staff will be intense. Only one of them has more than a year of experience, and she is going to school and probably will be there not one second longer than she absolutely has to be. The other two office people have other irons in the fire, and probably will not hang around if things erupt in flames. Perhaps the one employee remaining is determined to stay, but that is about it.<br />
<br />
In short, I think it is entirely possible that the whole team will go up in flames in less than a year, and I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't take a sense of satisfaction in watching the spectacle. <br />
<br />
Wonder if they'll take me seriously then?Man of the Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691063580228409415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377354642754058446.post-79705217569839550522014-09-22T19:25:00.002-07:002014-09-22T19:31:27.200-07:00My Own Co-Workers Don't Know What the Heck My Certification DoesI frankly have seldom been more aggravated. <br />
<br />
Now, see, I have a certain certification, one that requires a certain number of qualifications. EVERYONE has to pass a test, a fairly demonic test that requires, frankly, a significant level of academic talent and a lot of self-study. You must also have a four-year degree, or a two-year degree and a certain amount of on-the-job experience, or a high school diploma and six years of on-the-job experience. I fall into the last category.<br />
<br />
When we first thought we needed someone with this certification, I was willing and I was chosen because A) Snotty as it sounds, everyone knew perfectly darn well I was the only one sufficiently academically inclined to pull it off, and B) I had the years of experience necessary.<br />
<br />
But as time has gone on, even though I am not often called on for anything seriously related to that certification <span style="color: blue;">(we were never seriously in the running for the business it was originally intended for and my possession of the certification is now mostly for bragging rights)</span>, occasionally I notice that to this minute, nobody really knows what the heck I am supposed to be able to do with it. <br />
<br />
My boss's boss has asked me no less than <i>three separate times</i> what my certification is. <br />
<br />
A few weeks ago, I was asked to travel to SmallTown to <span style="color: blue;">(as close as I can from memory)</span> "assess item X for whether it is cost-effective to repair or replace."<br />
<br />
I got out there and, knowing NOTHING about the patient, saw fairly quickly that the item was serviceable, though, after 17 years of use, it had flaws. Two major parts were shot, despite overall good care having clearly been given to the item. A couple of braces had suffered major wear, though in my opinion they were not likely to fail and presented no safety issues. And the patient clearly DID NOT want to replace the item. He liked it and wanted it repaired, if possible.<br />
<br />
So I called the manufacturer. They told me MOST parts were no longer available for that item, and that without the serial number <span style="color: blue;">(which was totally obliterated, nor was the original paperwork available)</span> it would not be possible to look up the specs for the item--which was semi-custom--as originally ordered. This last was important information, because as a semi-custom item, my options were LIMITED.<br />
<br />
I could eyeball it <span style="color: blue;">(I didn't have a protractor, and it would have been of limited utility if I did)</span> and try to guesstimate a certain angle, and take a couple of other critical measurements. This would have been silly. That information was 17 years old, and just because the patient liked it didn't mean that mindlessly repeating it was a hot idea. He may have changed. His pathology may have changed. His pathology might have been <i>likely</i> to change. Remember: I had not been told a THING about the patient--and when you're talking about a patient's pathology, you sure as snail snot don't want the patient to be your only source of information. They've been known to lie, or just not know what the heck's going on, or to indulge in wishful thinking.<br />
<br />
I could have tried to measure the PATIENT, which in this case would have meant getting an accurate weight <span style="color: blue;">(With what? Did they think I kept a scale in the van?)</span>, height, hip width, distance from the floor to the popliteal crease, distance from the popliteal crease to the rearmost adipose tissue, distance from the seat to the armpit, and, most critically, RANGE OF MOTION, which is <i>critical</i> if PELVIC TILT might be an issue. RANGE OF MOTION is typically determined by a physical therapist, on a raised mat <span style="color: blue;">(you have to be able to measure some things in a seated position, too, which means the patient needs to be able to sit with his feet flat on the floor)</span>, and involves, among other things, the use of a goniometer, which is a device for measuring the angle formed by joints.<br />
<br />
I <i>could</i> have decided, all by myself, that the patient didn't actually <i>need</i> a semi-custom item and just gone with a lightweight item X with a few bells and whistles. <i>Yeah. Right. I'm the doctor. <b>Not.</b></i><br />
<br />
At NO POINT would I, by myself, have been able to make the determination whether or not a<br />
new item x was even medically necessary!<br />
<br />
Well, since <span style="color: blue;">(I THOUGHT!)</span> I had been asked just to see if the item was worth fixing or needed to be replaced, and since I do not have a goniometer, and since I sure as **** didn't have a raised mat, and since I thought it was stupid to guess at measurements on 17-year-old equipment, and since the man wanted to remain with his current item x anyway, I just determined that the needed parts were available, had a quote faxed over, and noted that if the cost of the parts exceeded half the cost of a new item x, then and only then would I recommend replacing the item.<br />
<br />
I never in a million years thought my task was supposed to extend to getting all the information necessary to getting the man a new item X. I mean, ****, I didn't have all the equipment for a mat evaluation, and ordinarily a person with my certification is not expected to do them, though I suppose I could stumble through it.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">MY FREAKIN' MISTAKE!</span></b> A couple of weeks later, the boss informed me and the warehouse guy that we were responsible for getting a quote on a new item X.<br />
<br />
Turns out there are like fifteen <i>bajillion</i> options available on the thing. Most were at no extra charge, but some--including some potentially critical ones--cost money. And the manufacturer, understandably, needed some specifics before giving us a quote. But dadgummit, I could only guess at those specifics! Even measuring the old item X directly would have been an approximation of some things at best, and if it didn't turn out right, the patient might very well end up rejecting a potentially three-thousand-dollar item. Still, I could have measured the old item if they wanted me to, if I'd known they were willing to do such a thing. I certainly couldn't have gotten all the necessary measurements of the patient, unless I made certain assumptions <span style="color: blue;">(no pelvic tilt! Full range of motion!)</span> which isn't the hottest idea in the world when you're dealing with complex rehabilitative equipment.<br />
<br />
And the place that was apparently using us as a subcontractor wanted us to provide a quote.<br />
<br />
<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">Today.</span></b></i><br />
<br />
And so I was getting some fairly snotty things said to me about my failure to get the relevant information. I protested that I'd been sent to see whether the item was worth fixing, not to measure the patient for a new one, only to be told, in a roundabout way, that if measuring the patient for a new item might have been necessary to making the decision, I should have done so.<br />
<br />
Maybe I should have. I know this: I'm asking for a goniometer. I haven't needed one for the two-and-a-half years I've had this certification, and I may not need one for the next ten, and I sure as snail snot wonder what the heck people who didn't even know I'd need a goniometer to do the job are doing criticizing me for the way I did it, but I'm asking for one. And the next time I'm asked to do ANYTHING resembling this, I will ask for a detailed list of information that I'm expected to bring back. And if a mat evaluation is needed, they can by golly expect me to ask for an appropriate surface.<br />
<br />
The capper: it occurred to me to look up the contractor that we were working for, and when I did, I found this:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>All services are provided after a thorough patient evaluation by a qualified rehab technician.</i></div>
<br />
<i>Really?</i> I am a "qualified rehab technician"? Well, that's pretty generic, and I suppose for some things, I am. <br />
<br />
A "thorough patient evaluation"? They sent me out there without any clue as to the patient's medical history and pathology, and without giving me a **** clue that I was supposed to come back with a detailed assessment of his physical capabilities. I just thought I was looking at a **** item X.<br />
<br />
Just remember that, the next time some company is bragging to you about how they do things. What they mean and what you are hearing may be two different things.<br />
<br />
In the meantime, like I say, if I wind up with such instructions again, you can bet your bottom dollar I will know IN DETAIL what they want before I go out there. They <i>think</i> I'm supposed to do what in almost every circumstance imaginable <i>the law requires a physical therapist to do </i><span style="color: blue;">(I'm serious: if you're dealing with Medicare or Medicaid, or most insurances following their practices, the law says you must have a physical therapist operating under a doctor's supervision--or the doctor himself--conduct that part of the process. You ordinarily only escape if you're doing the private-pay thing.)</span><br />
<br />
Not that I anticipate being there much longer anyway. After a certain major issue in life is settled, I'm going to try to be ready to move on early next year anyway.<br />
<br />
And lastly...AFTER the snotty comments, people found out that the manufacturer is in hot water with the feds and CANNOT SELL THE ITEM WITHOUT A PHYSICAL THERAPIST CONDUCTING AN EXAM. PERIOD. Or so I understand the situation. <br /><br />Wow.Man of the Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691063580228409415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377354642754058446.post-7611933326520104992014-09-17T17:48:00.002-07:002014-09-17T17:48:43.437-07:00Got 'Im! And He Doesn't Even Know It!<span style="color: red;">Yes, yes, I know: this blog has turned into little but a place to vent about my job. However, it's FREE, and I do enjoy letting it out. And I have some material on pipes and tobaccos in the works. So live with it.</span><br /><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
*****</div>
<br />You may remember that my boss has gotten completely weird about my pipe smoking--weird, that is, in that since I generally smoke no more than a bowl-and-a-quarter each day, with the quarter-bowl being smoked on the way to work, he never smells more than a quarter-bowl of smoke on me, if he smells anything at all. I mean, face it: that's hardly <i>any</i>thing.<br /><br />The man's had me go spray Febreze on myself multiple times over that stupid quarter-bowl of smoke. And to top matters off, NOBODY else I've asked in the place <span style="color: blue;">(and I am fairly sure I've asked everybody)</span> says they can smell anything unusual! It is JUST HIM. Literally, JUST HIM.<br /><br />I told him that recently when I got evaluated and he brought the stupid subject up <i>again</i>.<br />
<br />
Well, this morning, a couple of us needed to get fitted for new respirators--just in case we get exposed to someone with, say, extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, imported via illegal immigrants. Part of the process involved establishing a testing baseline, so when a scent was sprayed near us, we could tell if it was getting around the mask. <br /><br />Either my boss was doing it wrong<span style="color: blue;"> (wouldn't shock me)</span> or I genuinely couldn't smell/taste a thing, and I will have to do the whole thing over with a different scent another day.<br /><br />Five minutes later, it occurred to me that I had just been smoking, and maybe that had messed up the test. Subtle smells, you know.<br /><br />AND MY BOSS SAID, "If I'd known you were smoking, we'd have waited fifteen minutes."<br /><br />It took about ten minutes, I'm ashamed to say, before I realized that the man had just admitted in front of me and two witnesses that <i>when it came down to it</i>, HE COULDN'T SMELL SMOKE ON ME. The only time he "smells" smoke on me is when he has SEEN ME SMOKING THE PIPE.<br /><br />Or so it seems to me. Got 'im. He's either lying again <span style="color: blue;">(and no, I wouldn't put it past him. He'll do anything to take me down a peg.)</span>, or he's self-deluded.<br /><br />Oh, by the way, remember how I mentioned the other day that he can't hire and retain people?<br /><br />Well, apparently yesterday, we had a perfectly qualified applicant come in. Right experience and everything. <br /><br />Couldn't pay her. Guess where she's NOT going to take a job?<br /><br />Aaaaaaand two people have quit on us within the last seven days. Down to ONE full-time office person, and her with less than two years of experience...<br /><br />Crap. This could get ugly, and fast.Man of the Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691063580228409415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377354642754058446.post-88579218741317564352014-09-15T05:29:00.000-07:002014-09-15T05:29:28.488-07:00Attitude is Everything<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: red;">Short post, just off the top o' me 'ead.</span></div>
<br /><div style="text-align: center;">
*****</div>
<br />Here in just a very few minutes, I am going to shave and go in to work. The first thing that will happen is a weekly meeting. This meeting will be led by a man who...<br />
<br />
...is a former cokehead <span style="color: blue;">(fool enough not to understand that we know all about it)</span> whom we seriously suspect of ducking out a few times a day for a quick hit on a joint. Just suspect, mind you.<br /><br />...has no serious ability to concentrate, possibly due to the aforementioned little personal quirk.<br />
<br />
...does not understand certain elements of his own job and is now at the point of having to be corrected ON THE LAW by at least one of his employees.<br /><br />...has proven himself completely unable to hire and retain employees as we steadily lose them due to the toxic environment he has created.<br /><br />....hired his live-in girlfriend for a "temporary" position directly under his supervision, said "temporary" position only being terminated when our then-office manager went to him and threatened to quit over it.<br /><br />...hired his now-ex-live-in girlfriend back for a "permanent" position when they broke up and she owed him money and that was the only job she could get that paid enough for her to pay him back.<br />
<br />
...fired his now-ex-live-in girlfriend about a year later, after she had paid him back, because he had since hired an ex-meth head <span style="color: blue;">(actually, we're not sure about the "ex")</span> who happened to be his best friend's wife, and the new employee and the old girlfriend mutually despised one another. No cause. Just "Your services are no longer needed." This was in spite of the fact that she was actually doing a good job.<br /><br />...ended up firing his best friend's wife when he finally, after more than two years, realized that she was never going to be able to do the job correctly and that she had actually physically shaken a 69-year-old co-worker in a fit of anger, and that no one had confronted him about her behavior because, well, she was the boss's personal friend.<br /><br />...has completely failed to make the connection that the previous episode means that his employees are unwilling to be frank with him for fears of his personal reaction.<br /><br />...is strongly suspected of stealing gasoline via company credit cards.<br />
<br />
...has been known to falsify mileage logs so as to get paid for trips he didn't make.<br />
<br />
...and more, but I'm running out of time. In short, he is a singular mixture of incompetence, veniality, savagery, and selfishness, probably the worst and most unethical boss I have ever had.<br /><br />This man has been known to lecture me on "attitude" and will almost certainly say something about "attitude" during the meeting this morning.<br /><br />Welcome to my world.<br />
<br />Man of the Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691063580228409415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377354642754058446.post-57686084822327472172014-09-12T18:56:00.000-07:002014-09-12T18:56:56.909-07:00Just Jaw-Dropping Boss Stuff<span style="color: red;">If you're interested in this stuff--and God only knows why you might be, I am just venting again--for more complete context, you might want to read the previous post, from which the quoted material has been quoted.</span><br /><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
****</div>
<br />Ten days ago--September 2nd:<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"> ...</span><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">we passed the inspection handily, with the only real actions to be taken being a couple of administrative actions that </span><i style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">he</i><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"> needed to take.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">One of these was making sure that we--the </span><i style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">employees</i><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">--had </span><i style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">goals </i><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">recorded. Can't do anything without </span><i style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">goals</i><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">, you know.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">So, today, the so-and-so e-mailed out a form for employee self-evaluation, which concluded with a section for setting goals.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">Of course, he hadn't made up the form, and there were a couple of questions on it that frankly, given our situation, didn't make much sense. For instance, it asked if I thought I had made good progress on the goals set during my last evaluation.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><b>My last evaluation?</b></i><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"> I objected to my boss that I couldn't be expected to remember what my last evaluation said, as to the best of my recollection, it was made in 2006!</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">That made him get huffy, and he averred quite snottily that he had </span><i style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">much</i><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"> more recent documents in my file than that, </span><i style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">with my signature</i><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">, if I wanted to inspect them. And you know, while I was out making a small delivery, I decided that I </span><i style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">did</i><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"> want to see the last one, as when</span><i style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">ever </i><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">it was done, I </span><i style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">certainly</i><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"> couldn't remember what was on it.</span><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">He had it waiting for me when I got back. It was dated--drum roll, please--</span><i style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><b>June 18, 2010</b></i><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">. More than four years ago. I allowed as how I had been four years off, and the organization was four years behind.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">Now, think about this for a minute. First, it is quite obvious that my boss was utterly without a clue. The poor, useless spazz clearly thought he'd been evaluating me. That was both why he snapped at me and why he dug out the last evaluation before I'd asked for it--he </span><i style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">thought</i><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"> he was going to shove my comments down my throat!</span></blockquote>
<br />
<span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">Well, today, we went over the things. I'll leave out most of the play-by-play, but, given the foregoing, something stood out to me. You see, first I pointed out to him that it was clear that he had not done an evaluation on anyone in years.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><br />He objected. It wasn't true that he hadn't done an evaluation on anyone in years, he said; he'd evaluated everyone this Spring! </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">Then he said if I had a problem I could talk to the management person one step up--a person to whom I refer as "Tigger." And I replied that a fat lot of good <i>that</i> was, as Tigger had obviously allowed him to get away with total inaction for four years.<br /><br />And then he told me <i>that</i> wasn't true, either--that it was <i>Tigger</i> that had drawn his attention to the fact that I needed to be evaluated!</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">Before God, I'm not sure whether the man really thinks I'm that stupid or whether his lying has just gotten to the point of being pathological.<br /><br />First, it wasn't<i> true</i> that he'd evaluated everyone this Spring. I asked. Not when he was around, but, really, I mean, what did he<i> think</i> I was going to do? Take his word for it? Turns out that the warehouseman suddenly could recall being evaluated; so could our biller. My other driver didn't recall it, but couldn't swear not to have been. The only other person who's been there more than a year said she hadn't been.<br /><br />Second, <i>DID HE SERIOUSLY THINK THAT WAS A <b>DEFENSE</b>?</i> If he wasn't intentionally lying, it just means that he either deliberately ignored or simply forgot about his senior employee when he did evaluations for the rest of the staff!<br /><br />Next, you'll see from the quoted material that it was clear that the impetus for these evaluations was the inspection and the actions required by the inspector! He <i>told us that at the meeting</i> when he told us he was e-mailing out the forms! But when I called him on that, pointing out that that obviously meant he would not otherwise have been evaluating me at this time, and that Tigger had let him get away with it, all of a sudden, <i>by the most remarkable stinking coincidence imaginable</i>, it turns out that Tigger had told him to do it!<br /><br />And <i>THAT</i> was supposed to be a <i><b>defense</b></i>? That <i>Tigger</i> told him to do it instead of the <i>inspector</i>? <i>Either way</i>, he had no intention of evaluating me until he was made to! And why bother to defend Tigger? Even if she<i> had</i> genuinely told him to evaluate me within the last ten days, she's <i>still</i> let him get away without it for years!<br /><br />If it wasn't the dumbest cusswording thing I've ever heard, it was close. All of his words and actions on September 2nd completely contradicted the story. <i>WHY THE SHALE MAKE SUCH A STUPID THING UP?</i><br /><br />And to finish off...the man told me to keep a good attitude.<br /><br />And if you were wondering, the reason I hadn't asked the man for an evaluation every year is because I had just taken it for granted for years he just didn't want to do it and it turns out he certainly didn't have to. B</span><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">elieve it or not, there is no requirement in company policy that any employee be evaluated--EVER. </span><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><br /><br />As a matter of fact, if he'd just SAID that, I'd have more respect for him. My objection to the whole thing was him getting huffy with me when I pointed out the truth and when he started all this stupid lying about it.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">But I should expect it by now. The man lies like fish swim--all the time.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><br /></span>Man of the Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691063580228409415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377354642754058446.post-80123383718689919312014-09-02T17:07:00.003-07:002014-09-02T17:07:33.083-07:00A Truly Sorry Excuse for a Boss<span style="color: red;">Yes, I'm ranting and complaining again. <i>Terribly</i> negative, I know. Those <i>disgusted</i> with such--well, you have been warned and may leave now. Those <i>fascinated</i> will be delighted to know that the previous several posts have dealt heavily with the useless son of a jackal I have for a boss.</span><br /><br />
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*****</div>
<br />Well, Wednesday and Thursday of last week, we got checked out by our accrediting agency. The inspector's visit came as a surprise--it always does, they give you a two-month window and the inspection can be any time within that time frame--but I had no fears. As far as my role in accreditation goes, all I have to do is avoid doing anything dramatically stupid and I'm okay.<br /><br />My <i>boss</i> freaks out and lies. I sometimes wonder why, as some of the lies he is telling do no good whatsoever. For example, we have a certain variety of equipment huddled--cleaned, bagged, and tagged--in one corner of our warehouse that is not fully up to snuff. These units have been donated to us, or have almost reached the end of their useful lifespan, and we have deleted them from our official inventory. They work, but not at peak efficiency, and we have set them aside to use for charity cases. Everyone knows what they are for and I have even tagged them with that pertinent information.<br /><br />But when our inspector saw them and asked what they were for, rather than just say what I just said, <i>my boss lied and said that they were old units that were being kept for parts!</i><br /><br /><i>We don't even carry some of those brands.</i> What would this colossal, lying sack of squeeze have done if the inspector had actually looked at one of the tags and found my description? Why take such a chance? There was literally <i>no advantage whatsoever</i> to telling a lie and the son of a dog lied anyway. <br /><br /><i>That's</i> how habitual it is with him.<br /><br />Throughout the inspection, the boss took pains to avoid having the inspector alone with any one employee, so that he could dominate the conversation. It was painfully clear to everyone of us that he was deathly afraid that one of us would blurt out the truth about something he'd lied about. It is hard for me to believe that the inspector wasn't made suspicious by <i>his</i> behavior <i>alone</i>.<br /><br />Still, we passed the inspection handily, with the only real actions to be taken being a couple of administrative actions that <i>he</i> needed to take.<br /><br />One of these was making sure that we--the <i>employees</i>--had <i>goals</i> recorded. Can't do anything without <i>goals</i>, you know.<br /><br />So, today, the so-and-so e-mailed out a form for employee self-evaluation, which concluded with a section for setting goals. <br /><br />Of course, he hadn't made up the form, and there were a couple of questions on it that frankly, given our situation, didn't make much sense. For instance, it asked if I thought I had made good progress on the goals set during my last evaluation.<br /><br /><i><b>My last evaluation?</b></i> I objected to my boss that I couldn't be expected to remember what my last evaluation said, as to the best of my recollection, it was made in 2006!<br /><br />That made him get huffy, and he averred quite snottily that he had <i>much</i> more recent documents in my file than that, <i>with my signature</i>, if I wanted to inspect them. And you know, while I was out making a small delivery, I decided that I <i>did</i> want to see the last one, as when<i>ever</i> it was done, I <i>certainly</i> couldn't remember what was on it.<br /><br />He had it waiting for me when I got back. It was dated--drum roll, please--<i><b>June 18, 2010</b></i>. More than four years ago. I allowed as how I had been four years off, and the organization was four years behind.<br /><br />Now, think about this for a minute. First, it is quite obvious that my boss was utterly without a clue. The poor, useless spazz clearly thought he'd been evaluating me. That was both why he snapped at me and why he dug out the last evaluation before I'd asked for it--he <i>thought</i> he was going to shove my comments down my throat!<br /><br />Instead, they died in his. Turned out that my other driver hasn't been evaluated in years. Our biller can't remember ever having been evaluated. Nor our warehouseman. Of "the girls" up front, the only one who's been there more than a year has never been evaluated. <br />
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I asked every single one of them save the warehouseman to go to the boss and ask for a copy of their last evaluation. I hope they do it. I hope he turns a bright, tomato-red. <br /><br />Second, it's been four freaking years since I was evaluated! Frankly, in managerial terms, this is gross neglect, bordering on outright misconduct. Not that I didn't know it'd been a long time. I did. It just didn't matter to me because in this organization, your raises have <i>nothing</i> to do with your performance. Instead, every once in a great while, you are given the exact same percentage raise the entire rest of the organization gets. You can be mediocre or you can be great--makes no difference, with very rare exceptions. How they don't understand that that is a recipe for resentment and mediocrity is beyond me.<br /><br />Third, what kind of doorknob neglects such an area of his own job on such a massive scale and then has the nerve criticize any employee for anything?<br /><br />Fourth, had our inspector not indirectly raised the issue, he wouldn't be looking at evaluating anyone now. The neglect would still be going on!<br />
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Fifth, this destroys any claim he might make to giving a squat about any of our employees.<br /><br />Sixth, apparently, his superiors have no way of tracking or knowing whether he is evaluating his employees! What do you bet <i>he</i> gets evaluated annually? But they apparently don't give a shinola about us. Not that this is any great surprise. It is yet another reason leadership in the organization is despised throughout the system.<br />
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It is going to be with <b>GREAT</b> difficulty that I keep sarcasm out of my filled-out form. I will, in the "appraisal period" space, note <span style="color: blue;">(and make a hard copy of, to prevent editing by others)</span> that the appraisal period ran from June 18 of 2010 to the present.<br /><br />But when I leave, I'm not going to have anyone calling this workplace and have anyone be able to honestly say that I was any kind of a jerk before I left. So I'll leave it at that.<br /><br />Man of the Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691063580228409415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377354642754058446.post-34766785324993653462014-08-22T18:56:00.000-07:002014-08-22T18:56:39.162-07:00More Ranting About My Workplace<span style="color: red;">I know, gentle and most-likely non-existent reader, I know--you're sick of me griping about the shenanigans at my workplace.<br /><br />Sorry. Gotta vent somewhere. This is a BIG part of what anonymous blogging is FOR.</span><br /><br />
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*****</div>
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I almost didn't write this post. I'd made up my mind within fifteen minutes of arriving at work to write a little something, but by mid-day, the thought'd dropped out of my mind.<br /><br />It took "the girls" to remind me.<br /><br />They pulled something that completely poisoned what was left of the relationships--well, some of the relationships--around here. I will explain, to a limited degree.<br /><br />We have gone from having a relatively deep bench, experience-wise, to having a very thin one, and all in just the last few months. And all of it--<i>all of it</i>, as far as I am concerned!--directly traceable to the <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=define%3A+jackanapes&oq=de&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j69i60l3j69i59j69i57.3361j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8" target="_blank">jackanapes</a> in charge. We have three ladies, Customer Service Reps, up front. They are unsupervised the vast majority of the time. Only one of them has more than a year of experience in this surprisingly complicated business.<br /><br />I do not entirely blame them for what they do. As I said, they are largely inexperienced and unsupervised and do not have nearly as much to do as the boss thinks they do. I sometimes wonder if he really knows what they are often up to and is just scared to confront them for fear of not being able to replace them. Such a fear would not be entirely unfounded. We have found that, even in the Obamaconomy, it is next to impossible for us to hire people. In such circumstances, people do things they might not do under closer scrutiny.<br /><br />"The girls" are getting away with bloody blue murder. They make mistakes that CLEARLY show that they are not paying attention, or--often!--not even attempting to execute the fundamentals of their jobs. They lie about it, too, repeatedly claiming in meetings that they ARE TOO executing those fundamentals, even when evidence to the contrary is staring them in the face. Most maddening of all is the fact that they spend enormous amounts of their day texting and Facebooking on their cell phones. They KNOW they're not supposed to be doing that when they're supposed to be working. You can tell by the startled reaction they have when the door opens. They are wondering if they've finally been caught.<br /><br />I swear, to walk in on them is to catch them goofing off. It's maddening. If you drive a hundred and fifty miles and find that you've been given the wrong, out-of-date-for-years address because someone didn't do what they <i>claim</i> to do, and call and check it, it's maddening. And this goofing off goes on most of the day!<br />
<br />My other driver and I are slowly being driven insane by this situation. Our boss is completely ineffective. It is certain that the only three people whom he holds accountable to any sort of standard are the two of us and the warehouseman, the only three people who keep showing up and more than getting the job done. It's as though he knows <i>we</i> will take it and keep coming back, but as far as I can tell, he hasn't the nerve to confront "the girls" over <i>any</i>thing they do wrong, no matter how outrageous.<br /><br />Recently, one of them was caught--I won't say how--<i>at the casino</i> when she'd called in "sick."<br /><br />How many places do you know where you could pull THAT stunt and remain employed?<br /><br />Three guesses how long <i>I'd</i> last if I tried that?<br /><br />Three guesses how grateful my boss is that neither I nor my other driver ever do such a thing <span style="color: blue;">(and for that matter, the warehouseman, who has greatly improved his attendance in the last couple of months)</span>?<br /><br />At any rate, today, "the girls" made it abundantly clear that my other driver, the warehouseman, and I cannot trust them. They will stab us in the back without hesitation, and the three of us--well, at least my other driver and I, and I think the warehouseman, too--have made up our minds that, so help us, the Devil will be eating snowcones before we say one unnecessary thing to anyone else there, especially "the girls," ever again.<br /><br />All this could be avoided with real leadership on the scene, but that seems to be sorely lacking.<br />
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But, as I said, that situation isn't what I made up my mind to write about this morning; it just reminded me to write.<br /><br />What got me goin' this morning was my boss telling me to Febreze myself. <br /><br />You may recall that I am a light pipesmoker, not meaning that at around 200 pounds, I am light in weight, but that I do not smoke very much. Right now, I typically smoke about a quarter-bowl on the way to work, and a bowl before I go to bed. Hardly anything, really. <br /><br />I don't know why, but for some reason, it seems to occasionally drive my boss clear 'round the bend. It's not like it's any of his darned business, anyway, unless I'm breaking company policy on smoking, which I'm not.<br />
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All this week I've been smoking Stokkebye's <a href="http://www.smokingpipes.com/tobacco/by-maker/stokkebye/bulk/moreinfo.cfm?Product_ID=46799" target="_blank">Aroma Dutch Slices</a>.<br />
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Smoked it Monday morning. Not a word. Smoked it Tuesday morning. Not a word. Smoked it Wednesday morning. Not a word. Smoked it Thursday morning. Not a word.<br /><br />But THIS morning, the boss told me to spray myself down with Febreze, as it was "really strong."<br /><br /><i>Whiskey Tango ARE-YOU-FREAKING-KIDDING-ME?</i><br />
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I asked my other driver if she smelled anything unusual. She leaned over and sniffed and said no.<br />
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I put it down to this being, after all, MY BOSS, <i>a man who, when he drives my other driver's vehicle, rips off the window tinting that she very neatly put up at her own expense and just slaps it back on when he's done, with all the neatness of a drunken, two-bit hooker</i>, on the grounds that he "can't see through it," the man who, back when I was using Bluetooth<span style="color: blue;"> (you'd think he'd be GLAD I was using hands-free technology!)</span>, used to tell me that he couldn't hear me <span style="color: blue;">(all the little old ladies could!)</span>. I put it down, in short, to him being both a little bit nuts and determined to aggravate me.<br /><br />Well, my first stop was at our local facility and I decided to relay this little bit of insanity to the...well, the senior non-commissioned officer, let's put it that way...as I knew she would enjoy it. She always has plenty of her own "Deranged Boss" stories to tell; this is the lady that got raked over the coals for having a purple streak in her hair--say, that reminds me...<br /><br />...One of "the girls," at this point, has so many tattoos it is not possible for them to be covered up and she displays them proudly. But if I come in, covered with dirt and sweat from actually having had to do something, <i>I'm</i> the one who gets told I look unprofessional. But I digress...<br />
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Oh, by the way, I asked this lady if she smelled anything unusual, and she, too, said no.<br />
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At any rate, as soon as I got started, it was, "OMG! So-and-So is ALWAYS telling me I smell like smoke!"<br /><br />"But three-quarters of the staff here smoke, and you don't smell any different from them."<br /><br />"I know! Why does she keep picking on ME?"<br /><br />"I think I know why. It's because you're a leader, and the people in charge of this organization think that their leaders <span style="color: blue;">(and those in the public eye, like me)</span> should look and act as though they just stepped out of the pages of BAPTIST LIFE. They're not supposed to drink <span style="color: blue;">(even in moderation)</span>, smoke <span style="color: blue;">(even in moderation)</span>, have purple streaks in their hair, or wear knee-high boots."<br /><br />"THAT'S IT!"<br />
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And you know, it IS it. It's not enough for our leaders that we show up on time, or early, or stay late, get the job more than done, go above and beyond, live respectable lives, take care of our spouses and children, stay active in church, and so forth. They want us to look and act like THEY think Christians should look and act, and lately, they seem to have decided that it's a job requirement to which they can hold us accountable.<br /><br />Saying that they can go pound sand is putting it mildly.<br /><br />And "the girls" can go pound sand.Man of the Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691063580228409415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377354642754058446.post-6876581400486863392014-07-16T19:29:00.000-07:002014-07-16T19:29:27.960-07:00They Got It All--Now What?<span style="color: red;">I think it likely that at this point, my anonymous comments on an unnamed church will not cause any trouble. Only a handful of souls read this blog anymore, anyway.</span><br /><br />
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*****</div>
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I'll try to keep it brief. No one likes long blogposts.<br /><br />I belong to a church that is in decline. It was declining when I joined, probably about six years ago now. The ministry team then consisted of one semi-retired pastor with a background in sales and self-publishing who was serving on an interim basis, the music minister, who'd apparently been there since the dawn of time, and the youth/education minister.<br /><br />Within a month or two of me visiting, they'd called a youngish former missionary to the pastorate. He did, in my opinion, well, but like any other man, he wasn't perfect, and the church continued to decline. I think there was a definite turning point when he called a series of meetings for Sunday School teachers so that we could, once again, go over his self-authored booklet outlining what the church was all about and what was expected of the membership. I distinctly recall looking at another Sunday School teacher and saying, "So, I guess the problem is that the membership and teachers haven't been through this booklet enough times?"<br /><br />Not too long after that, he apparently felt called to go into politics. I will say no more save to note that it may have been a mistake.<br /><br />When he left, the church--or, rather, a handful of committee members--invited one preacher after another to preach in our pulpit. One or two of them I thought might have a chance, particularly one young fellow who, it seemed to me, actually demonstrated an attitude toward outreach and evangelism that might stand a chance of success in our neighborhood, which has changed dramatically since the church's heyday.<br /><br />And then, they decided that the best thing to do was call back the interim preacher who'd been there when I first started visiting, five years earlier.<br /><br />I found out later that this man and the music minister had worked together at another church before this.<br /><br />And then, REMARKABLY, the next step in the plan toward reversing the decline was to call back the youth/education minister who'd been there when I started visiting, even though the man had been let go, oh, three years earlier, as the church had already declined to the point where we couldn't afford to pay him. <br /><br />And just like THAT, the ministry team that had been there when I started visiting was reconstituted. Was it intentional? Was it planned to be like that from the moment our pastor left? I do not know. Maybe.<br /><br />But whether it was planned or not, I couldn't help but think, "Wasn't the church declining under these people? Why is rehiring them now considered a solution?"<br /><br />But I know how these things typically go in church life. I didn't say much, for I knew I'd be accused of divisiveness simply for asking reasonable questions.<br /><br />Within, I think, six or eight months of this staff's return, attendance dropped from about 150 or so to about 80. We do have some new members, but we have lost enough "old" members <span style="color: blue;">(for lack of a better term)</span> to keep attendance at about that level <span style="color: blue;">(or so they say. I never see more than about sixty.)</span> <br /><br />That is not a sustainable level for us to keep paying the kind of staff we have, pay the bills on a building the size of ours, and keep running the kinds of programs we always have. We are either going to go to a totally bivocational staff and shut off parts of the building and quit doing some things, or we are going to go bankrupt. Or we are going to grow.<br /><br />Naturally, NO BAPTIST CHURCH will EVER admit that they are not going to try to grow, so our new/old interim--now permanent, if part-time--pastor announced that the plan to grow was to become a "metro" church, by which he meant that it was time to quit worrying so much about the local population and let people know that we were "worth the drive." I found this so much hubris--after all, we have a huge number of churches in our city, and saying that OURS was worth the drive necessarily involved saying that OTHERS were worth only driving PAST--and, without naming names or naming churches, said something to that effect on Facebook.<br /><br />I was shortly told by the preacher that this was a Matthew 18 situation and advised that part of the plan was to do things in a spirit of unity and harmony. <br /><br />He wouldn't have even seen my comment had he not been looking over the shoulder of a Facebook friend who was helping out in the church office. He wasn't on my "friends" list and I have long had all my settings to "friends only," so make what you will out of his statement that he was in the habit of reading all the things I say on Facebook.<br />
<br />I agreed to keep any further comments off Facebook whilst noting that I disagreed with his proposed approach and, while I hoped to be proven wrong, I thought it likely that the church would be closing its doors within three years. He agreed that we certainly had a challenge ahead of us.<br /><br />Since then--several months now--"the plan" has come together. It consisted of:<br /><br />1) Removing the pews from our largish sanctuary and spending thousands of dollars on new chairs, and taking up much less space, so as to create a more intimate worship atmosphere. I spoke in favor of that, actually; anything to get the members to do something DIFFERENT.<br /><br />2) Focusing mainly on the Sunday morning worship service, de-emphasizing, to a degree, Sunday School, Sunday evenings, and Wednesday evenings--even going to the point of not having Sunday nights at all during the Summer and not having Wednesday evenings consistently.<br /><br />3) Making sure that all our friends knew that we were worth the drive.<br /><br />4) Reaching out to the neighborhood businesses. Exactly why the local businesses were worth reaching out to when the local people were <span style="color: blue;">(at least initially)</span> NOT is as unclear to me as it likely is to you. In practice, all this has meant is that the local Wendy's has given us coupons for free Frosties to use as prizes for a few of our events.<br /><br />5) Creating a "Welcome Center" for our guests. In practice that has meant putting two airpots full of coffee, some donuts, and cups into what used to be the foyer and is now the welcome center. <br /><br />6) Doing everything in a spirit of unity and harmony. Since, as far as I know--actually, to my certain knowledge, in some cases--the staff has routinely but politely dismissed input from church members, and those members are now FORMER members, having voted with their feet, and I agreed not to put comments on Facebook and to keep my thoughts on these policies out of the church arena <span style="color: blue;">(remember: I blog anonymously, and I am naming neither people nor church here, and the odds are very good that only one of my readers even knows where I go to church)</span>, the staff may well not really know what it is to experience <i>disunity</i> and<i> unharmoniousness</i>. It seems to me that the staff may not be able to distinguish the silence of the silenced, disinterested, and tired from a spirit of unity and harmony. It may be that they think a lack of open criticism constitutes having approval. It may be that they don't realize our near-halved attendance, despite leaving only the non-critical in place, is indicative of anything <i>but</i> harmony and unity.<br />
<br />And maybe there really<i> is</i> unity. Certainly they've gotten everything they wanted. They got their old team back. They got the Welcome Center. They got the changes in the sanctuary. They got the focus on the morning worship service. They got "unity and harmony," or at least an absence of criticism and a series of near-unanimous votes.<br /><br />So, my question: what now, guys? The decline hasn't been halted, at least as far as I can tell. I see nothing--zero, zip, zilch, nada--being either pursued or proposed that is in the smallest iota different from exactly what has failed for a quarter-century now. We pretty much run the same programs in the same way. We do nothing different in terms of outreach. I don't even think we HAVE outreach, unless you want to pretend that doing VBS is outreach<span style="color: blue;"> (which most churches do; they say that VBS is the church's greatest outreach effort of the year, which, if true, is pathetic, because it is, judging by the numbers I've seen for the last decade, a failure, year after year after year)</span>. <br /><br />
You got everything you said you wanted. What now? I'll give you credit for <i>wanting</i> to get something done. But to tell the truth, you three--four, if you count the former pastor--have been instrumental in convincing me of something I had suspected for a long time: most professional ministry staff go to seminary and come away with no more idea what to do, no more real knowledge, no greater grasp of the Word, than the average old lady in the pews. I <i>suspect</i> that the three of you, and probably certain committee members, thought that if only <i>you</i> were in place as a team again, people who'd left would come roaring back. That the church was declining under you, too, when you were together before, was overlooked. <br /><br />You all read the same books and the same magazines and go to the same conferences and you all think the same officially approved groupthink. You just don't THINK. You just parrot the same stuff everyone else parrots, and I really do think that if the decline of the North American church in general, and the Southern Baptist Convention specifically, is ever halted, it will be <i>in spite of </i>ministers like you instead of<i> because of</i> ministers like you. Man of the Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691063580228409415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377354642754058446.post-7996310573001122212014-07-14T15:42:00.001-07:002014-07-14T15:42:48.047-07:00A Memory Dredged UpJust a little while ago, I had occasion to remember an incident with my boss, about nine years ago, shortly after he first started.<br /><br />For context, it is important that you know that it was, at the time, quite routine for me to work 11-12 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays, due to the routes I had to cover.<br /><br />And also let me note that he seriously proposed having me go home early on Fridays, so I wouldn't draw any overtime pay. Not that there wasn't anything to do; he just wanted to avoid having the overtime on his payroll sheets. Guess he thought it made him look bad. I let him know in no uncertain terms that I had NO liking for the idea of working 24 hours in two days and not getting an extra nickel out of it. <br /><br />Okay, moving on: at this time, my son was 15 years old and not able to drive, obviously. He had taken a part-time job with the local library system. He had to be there at six. I got off at five. It took me twenty minutes to get home and at least fifteen more to get him to work. There was obviously next to no time for error, and, in order to avoid complications, when necessary and when I knew I had a busy day, I would come in early.<br /><br />I had a co-worker, a very intelligent and fine worker, who nevertheless committed something of a faux pas one day; she had promised someone in our little town that I would swing by after normal hours to deliver something. She thought it no big deal; it was only a few minutes. I said I didn't HAVE a few minutes, explained why, and in the end, SHE did the delivery. It was she who'd made the promise, after all.<br /><br />The next day, that prince of a boss of mine lectured me on it, saying that I should think about putting my kids in daycare, <em>"...because, MOTW, sometimes we have to work late."</em><br />REALLY. That I WAS working late or coming in early at least two days a week and often more was <em>completely forgotten</em>. That the child in question was FIFTEEN FRECKLING YEARS OLD and TOTALLY IRRELEVANT to daycare never occurred to him.<br /><br />It was the sort of totally insane and inconsiderate thing that only a true chucklehead untethered to reality would say.<br /><br />I've been putting up with more of the same for about nine years. Just today, I looked at my route for tomorrow: eleven stops, leaving from our little town to Harrah (about two hours away), on up through The City, and finishing in Edmond. Three new people with attendant sets of paperwork to fill out and three installations. That is about an eleven to twelve hour day. I don't mind, in a way; I'll take the OT money. But it galls me that I am so taken for granted that I never get the courtesy of a "MOTW, are you able to do that tomorrow?"<br /><br />As I've said before, I have to see how someone's health looks and pass an important test, probably early next year. Then we'll re-evaluate how long I'm staying with these people.Man of the Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691063580228409415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377354642754058446.post-51683144694465451762014-07-02T18:20:00.001-07:002014-07-02T18:20:52.518-07:00Pointless Griping and MoaningI have to admit to being a little embarrassed about all the workplace griping I've done lately. I don't like to listen to it in other people, so I expect that others don't like to listen to it from me. <br />
<br />I've had people close to me ask why I don't just leave, if I hate the place so much. As I've said before, there's more than one reason. For instance, as my other driver has often said, it's not the job, it's HIM, referring to my immediate boss. If it weren't for his bizarre shenanigans, life'd be a lot more bearable, and we all keep kind of half-waiting for him to stroke out or get caught in some illegality or something.<br /><br />One thing that just ****** us the **** off (supply your own words) is the way the man either wildly exaggerates, or flat-out makes stuff up. The senior office lady, a very sharp lady of many years' experience and deep knowledge (far exceeding our boss's), has observed more than once to a couple of us that our boss craves drama, drama that <i>he</i> needs to solve, to make himself feel needed, and if there isn't any drama, he'll create it.<br /><br />Boy, howdy. Ain't THAT fun to live with.<br /><br />You may recall, a few months back, that I was read the riot act over my "attitude," that he was telling me that people were calling in and saying things about how I'd spoken to them, and "the girls" in the office were cringing every time someone called or they had to give me a service ticket?<br /><br />Turns out none of "the girls" corroborated that, and the only two specific instances of my alleged bad behavior he cited--well, when I next went to those places (by accident--he did not intend to send me!), turns out they had no problem with me at all. <br /><br />God knows what he heard, but he apparently blew it all out of proportion and used it as an excuse to lecture me about a "chronic" problem--about which I've heard NOTHING for the last three months, which I find odd, for an ongoing problem.<br /><br />Yesterday and today, the little so-and-so ticked me off by...<br /><br />Okay, we get a lot of stuff given to us, donated, okay? And it is pretty much up to us how we use it, and we have done a lot of good with it. We have also committed a lot of idiocy, so much that I tend to think of it as routine.<br /><br />Yesterday, there was a ticket in my stack, a donated item ticket, and it had a handwritten note from my boss warning me that the address was changed and that the new address was NOT figured into my route (My boss makes out my route. Routinely butchers it, too, as he consistently ignores the time frames printed on certain tickets). Okay. I checked. It really wasn't anywhere near the paying customers, and since the ticket was already a week old, and I had been to the City in question three times last week, and despite ample opportunity to insert it into my route last week, I had never seen it before, I just assumed that, LIKE MOST "DONATION" TICKETS, it was something I could do when I was next in the neighborhood. Yesterday, I just stuck it at the bottom of my stack and thought I'd go do it if I didn't run out of time.<br /><br />Well, I DID run out of time. I was trying to get back in time to take my two younger kids to evening VBS, and I barely made it. <br /><br />In the meantime, the lady had called our office and wanted to know if the item was going to reach her that day. Our office lady had the misfortune of having to tell her no. <br /><br />Remember: this was a GIFT from us to her. WE DID NOT OWE THAT LADY A THING. Nor had anyone given me the slightest inkling that timing was an issue.<br /><br />Well, we're working a short week this week, as we are closed on Independence Day (Not that we get a paid holiday, oh, no no no no NO, those are for MANAGEMENT STAFF), and as a result, we have been cramming a lot into each day. I worked 11 and a quarter hours on Monday, came in half an hour early yesterday, and when I came in an hour early today, did my boss thank me for helping to keep up?<br /><br />Oh, no no no no NO. Instead, he first let me know my vehicle was a pit (it WAS dirty, but I literally have not had a chance to touch it up in a week), then let me know that I wasn't filling out a form I created (I am not making this up!) correctly, and that I should have gone by that "donation" household yesterday, that when I didn't tend to things like that, "the girls" had to answer the resulting calls!<br />
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Really? We had that ticket since last MONDAY, I was in the City Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and it was such a burning priority that I never saw it ONCE until yesterday? If it was such a hot issue, why didn't he have me take it last week? Why didn't someone put a sticky note on there alerting me of the fact?<br /><br />Well, when I took it out today, of course, it wasn't a big deal at all. The lady had just called to inquire about it, and if someone had just said, "He hasn't been able to get to it yet, next time he's in the area he'll drop it off," that would have been just FINE.<br /><br />In the meantime, I'm putting in more hours than any other employee, and far from getting THANKED for it, I'm getting castigated for not doing MORE.<br /><br />I am going to leave. In about six months, I'll know what I need to know about a certain relation, and I should pass a VERY IMPORTANT TEST, and then, I will consider myself to have a little more freedom. I am antsy, for my employers--wonderful Christian people that they are--have been known to fire people merely for looking for another job. (I am not making that up). So when I do decide to start looking, I have to be prepared for the possibility that I may be out of this job before landing the next.<br /><br />But I will be spectacularly ready to look for work, having spent six or seven months preparing, and if the Obamaconomy allows me the opportunity, I will leave, and frankly, the place will experience a disaster. There are some things that (literally!) only I can do, I (literally!) cannot be replaced due to a unique set of circumstances that allowed me to acquire qualifications that ordinarily, only college graduates acquire (and if you think a college grad with my certification is going to put up with the pittance I make [I have never been rewarded for the work I had to put in to acquire that certification--never!] and not having any paid holidays, you are out of your mind), willing to work the oddball hours, and, last but not least, I am probably the only thing that's been keeping my other driver there.<br /><br />My other driver is the best friend I have in this world, and it is likely that my other driver will leave about the same time I leave. Maybe the same day.<br /><br />And I won't deny that the ensuing debacle will be fun to watch.<br />
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<br />Man of the Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691063580228409415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377354642754058446.post-66585254449386591222014-05-28T18:47:00.000-07:002014-05-28T18:47:24.054-07:00Not Really My Favorite Kind of Republicans: the Horrible Truth About My Workplace Leadership, Part VII<span style="color: red;">These little rants are written as though addressed to various elements of my workplace leadership. If you want to know more, seek ye out Part I.</span><br />
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I remember, years ago, going into corporate headquarters and seeing little flyers plastered all over the place, flyers congratulating the company president on achieving his doctorate. I was impressed, until I asked someone what he'd gotten the doctorate<i> in</i>.<br /><br />"Secondary Education," is what I was told. I've never checked it out, but I've no reason to believe the person who told me that was lying or mistaken. And since I was fully aware that <i>any</i> degree in education is one of the easiest degrees to obtain, perhaps somewhere just above "basket weaving" in difficulty, and since "secondary education" has exactly <b>NOTHING</b> to do with our alleged mission, I suspected, and suspect to this day, that getting that particular doctorate was simply the quickest and easiest way for our company president to get people to call him "Doctor So-and-So."<br /><br />If that's what he wanted, I have to admit that it worked. To this day, everyone calls him "Doctor So-and-So," and I would be willing to bet dollars to donuts hardly anyone knows what that degree is, at least outside of his long-term employees.<br /><br />Later, I asked my boss if he happened to know why the man pursued a degree utterly unrelated to his ostensible job, and he opined that it didn't really matter: "His real job is to schmooze with the politicians in The City."<br /><br />Great, just great, I thought: the man at the top of our division is a lobbyist.<br /><br />I think of that story every so often. I thought of it last week and this week, when every employee got multiple e-mails from corporate leadership, asking them to flood the switchboard at the state capitol, begging them not to cut <i>our Medicaid funding</i>.<br /><br /><b><i><u>Our</u></i></b> Medicaid funding. That was most important. You didn't mention a thing about areas of Medicaid spending that had nothing to do with your allegedly not-for-profit business. The doctors and nurses and staff in other businesses that would have to cope with a shrinking state budget didn't concern you.<br />
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If you haven't already figured it out, this whole scenario absolutely galled me. You belong to a denomination that is so heavily identified with the Republican Party that I have actually run across people <i>who refuse to join it </i>because they believe they would be joining a wing of the Republican Party. Although I do not, of course, <i>know</i>, I would be willing to give three-to-one odds (were I a gambling man) that every man and woman in the corporate office is a registered Republican. The fact that the Republican Party is the closest thing we have to an anti-abortion party pretty much guarantees that.<br /><br />The Republican Party is ostensibly the party of controlling spending, the party of getting government out of things best left to the private sector, of reducing the tax burden. <br /><br />No one is mad enough to say that the state ought to just stop all Medicaid spending immediately; it would cause too much societal upheaval, as people who've come to depend on it, and all their relatives, would immediately find their lives dramatically changed. But I would bet dollars to donuts that if you asked rank-and-file Republicans in this state if they thought Medicaid ought to be <i>scaled back</i>, or <i>phased out gradually</i>, you would find most of them would agree. Certainly precious few of them would say that Medicaid spending should remain <i>static</i> and I bet almost <i>none</i> would say it should<i> increase.</i> <br /><br />I am as certain as I can be without actually asking you in person, which I am not about to do, for I am sure the ensuing conversation would get me fired, that you would say you're in favor of smaller government.<br /><br /><i>Say</i> it, yes. <i>Believe</i> it? Not so much, it appears. When it comes to how much money <i>your</i> business gets from the state, you howl and squeal and ask all your employees to join right in. No suggestions about how to increase state revenue, mind you. Just, "Don't cut our funding!" <br /><br />You had the nerve to tell people to tell their legislators that we couldn't continue to do the kind of ministry we do unless the state remained "in partnership" with us, by which you meant, of course, that we wouldn't be able to take some residents unless Medicaid paid part of their tab. <br /><br />You don't have any faith at all in the private sector to deal with the situation. You just immediately squeal that you shouldn't be ejected from your place at the trough. <br /><br />Let me tell you, there is something in politics that has <i>always</i> galled me, and galls me to this moment: when someone has the nerve to suggest that stealing from your neighbors in order to fund your "ministry" or good works is acceptable behavior. And taxation unrelated to legitimate governmental roles is exactly that, in my book: stealing.<br /><br /><i>I hate that</i>. And I would bet almost anything if some liberal came along and told you that he was going to float taxing you to pay for marriage counseling for homosexual couples who got "married" in Vermont you would say you hated it, too. Yet you had the <i>nerve</i>, when push came to shove, to characterize picking the pockets of the citizens of this state to maintain your margins as the state being "in partnership" with you. I wonder, ladies and gentlemen, how the people who find their share of that "partnership" coming out of their checks every payday would react to your impromptu lobbying. What would they think of your motivations?<br /><br />I don't think they'd think much of it. I think they'd accuse you of masquerading as small-government conservatives when it comes to everyone else, and being big-government liberals when it comes to yourselves.<br /><br />Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you're not Republicans at all. Maybe, instead of RINOs, or instead of big-government Republicans, you're flaming Democrats.<br /><br />
But boy, I'd hate to bet on it. Man of the Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691063580228409415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377354642754058446.post-73733753890842821232014-05-18T16:23:00.000-07:002014-05-18T16:23:33.430-07:00Up to HERE with Bogus Applications of Matthew 18<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before I get started, here is the text in question, from the <b>English Standard Version</b>:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Okay, there it is. Got it? Good.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, I have just about had it up to my <i>eyeballs</i> with bogus applications of this passage. Let's just note the obvious first:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This passage assumes <i>locality</i>. That is, this is not about something that occurred elsewhere in Christendom, maybe somewhere across the world. At the time Jesus was speaking, you could go to the offender. You could take other church members. This was never about publicly responding to words published or spoken publicly to the whole of society.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The passage says, "...sins against<i> you.</i>.." Whether you take "you" to mean "you" personally as an individual or "you" as the local church (again, the passage assumes locality), the passage is not about something that the offender did to someone else, that is, it's not about--let's just pick something <i>wild</i> as a hypothetical--it's not about you seeing your ostensible brother beating the squeeze out of a little old lady and burning her house down, and then going to him alone, then with two or three brothers, and then, say, to the police. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The passage says "<i>sins</i>." This is not about questions of direction, wisdom, brass-tacks decisions, and so forth.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, for four quick examples, though many more could quickly--<i>quickly!</i>--be produced:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1) Remember when Brian McLaren was actually being listened to? You remember Brian McLaren--high grand poo-bah of the so-called "Emergent Church?" You remember how he wrote several books which, among other things, had pretty severe criticism for just about every stream of Christendom that has ever existed?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I (and others) critiqued his books and his thinking, I (and presumably others) were piously asked if we had gone privately to Brian to express our concerns first.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Feh. Fie on that. He hadn't--at least not that I know of--sinned against me or my church. What he'd done was very public and required public responses. It was absurd to say that critiquing his critiques was a "Matthew 18" situation. It was on the level of saying that the early church was obligated to go privately to Marcion first, before responding to his public heresy by publicly labeling it heresy. It was on the level of saying that Martin Luther should have traveled to Rome to express his concerns to the pope before nailing up the 95 Theses.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2) Not all that long ago, I was driving down the road and noticed that a local church which I had formerly attended had changed its name to something "hipper," for lack of a better word. And I observed on Facebook and Twitter that this would likely contribute nothing whatsoever to church growth. Next thing you know, people were telling me it was a "Matthew 18" situation, that I should have first gone to the pastor to privately express my "concerns."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Say <i>what</i>? Are you <i>mad</i>? No sin involved, just a difference of opinion.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3) Again, not all that long ago, I made the dreadful mistake of observing that a change in a certain church's direction would a) likely not contribute a blessed thing to that church's growth and b) involved renouncing outreach to the people in the neighborhood. I didn't mention the church's name nor any individual. When I expressed my thoughts, I was expressing generalized thoughts about this sort of strategy's viability. But I was told that this, too, was a "Matthew 18" situation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Again, difference of opinion, not sin.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4) Just over the last few days, there have been a couple of posts elsewhere in the blogosphere regarding the admission of Muslims to one of our Southern Baptist seminaries. It will not surprise you to learn that one of the comments I read on those posts suggested to the blogger that this was a "Matthew 18" situation and that the blogger should have gone to the seminary president privately, etc., etc., etc.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh, for the...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First of all, who is the offended brother here? Is there even a church in view? I think not. One of the offended parties is this man's employer, the Southern Baptist Convention, which--God knows I hate breaking it to you, but someone has to do it--is not the church.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Considering this quote, and assuming that the information is correct (I do not know from first-hand observation, obviously):</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">... In a faculty meeting in 2012, ************** warned anyone who questioned him about Muslims being admitted into ****************, or anyone who was disloyal to him and discussed this matter with others not associated with *************** would be terminated.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is apparent that the other offended parties would have been those who were threatened with the loss of their jobs over a difference of opinion or--and this is critical--<i>carrying out further steps in their own Matthew 18 process.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That's what I'm sayin': the <i>blogger</i> wasn't in a Matthew 18 situation; the <i>threatened faculty</i> were.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Over and over and over again, I see "Matthew 18!" being used as an excuse to stifle discussion, dissent, disagreement, criticism of actions and thinking. It was never meant for any of those things.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is getting ridiculous.</span><br />
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<span class="text Matt-18-17" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span class="woj"><br /></span></span>Man of the Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691063580228409415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377354642754058446.post-64988086188869519562014-05-17T16:32:00.000-07:002014-05-17T16:32:03.189-07:00What You Say and What You Do: the Truth About My Workplace Leadership, Part VI<span style="color: red;">These little rants are written as to various elements of my workplace leadership. If you want to know more, seek ye out Part I.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Yes, it's been a little while since the last installment in this series. Been busy.</span><br />
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Okay, I want to talk a little about that New Person's Class that you sent me to several weeks ago. I had things to say at the time. Just haven't been able to get to them 'til now.<br />
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Now, it's undeniably true that I enjoyed being publicly praised and treated like an intelligent human being for a change, but there were,shall we say, some things I noticed.<br />
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First, there were the video clips and pictures. Most of them were snapped or shot a few years ago when some other company's workplace video went viral and your marketing people thought they could duplicate it. As a result, they had lots and lots of footage of residents and employees dancing on the premises.<br />
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In ten years, these video clips, some brochures, and one other thing to be named shortly are the <i>only</i> things I have ever seen our marketing department produce. The images on the sides of our vehicles, I guess. Other than eat Convention dollars, I have <i>no idea</i> what marketing does.<br />
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And<i> they</i> certainly don't know what we here in our little subdivision of the company do. I see not the <i>slightest</i> hint in any of their materials that they have the smallest clue what we do. Certainly they are never here. I have been here for half of our 20-year existence and I recall seeing them here only to shoot the aforementioned video clips and that "one other thing."<br />
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That "one other thing"! Words fail me. As mentioned, we have grown to our present volume with <i>no</i> effective marketing support, so when we were told that the marketing team was FINALLY going to come spend a day with us, we were very excited. We thought we would have a chance to help them understand our business.<br />
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It turned out they were here to make a half-day long pitch for us to contribute to the employee assistance fund! And to beg us to "like" their Facebook page!<br />
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As far as I can tell, in common with most of our chain of command, marketing still has not the teensiest fraction of an idea what our subdivision does.<br />
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And, of course, I saw <i>lots</i> of people I've known over the years in those videos and photos. And all I kept thinking was, "I saw you screw THAT one, and THAT one, and THAT one..."<br />
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How about my co-worker who, despite universally-acknowledged superlative work, you let go without any pay raise at all for almost four years (me, too, by the way)?<br />
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How about the two key employees who had each been with you for 26 years, each in charge of her own unit, and who both retired on the same day? They had been there for so long they remembered when you took paid holidays away--away from everyone except management, of course. They had been there for so long they remembered when you took real benefits away. And on the day they retired, you treated them so, so well! They brought in their own cake and goodies. You miserable sods didn't throw them a retirement party. You didn't give them a card. <i>You miserable <b><span style="font-size: x-large;">CLOTS</span></b> didn't even have the common decency to call or come by to wish them a happy retirement!</i><br />
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I know. I was there. I saw it.<br />
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How about the people you fired because news had reached you that they were looking for other work? You didn't try to see what the problem was, did you? You didn't try to "save" those employees, did you? No, you just fired them.<br /><br />You fired other people for taking second jobs.<br />
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There were a couple of other interesting things. You kept bringing up the point that you wanted your residents to feel as much like they were at home as possible--a laudable goal, I admit. But the interesting thing was something of a bone of contention became evident: you see, not too long ago, you started to discourage your personnel in these facilities from wearing the work clothes that people in their profession have <i>always</i> worn. Instead, you wanted them to wear "business casual," because your residents needed to feel like they did when they were at home, instead of as though they were in a facility. The workers accustomed to wearing their "traditional" garb have objected to being asked to wear business casual, on the perfectly reasonable grounds that the stuff's more expensive to maintain and clean, and they deal every day, as one of the ladies at that meeting said, with "blood, urine, feces, vomit, and filth."<br /><br />Your response at the meeting? Did you offer a clothing allowance to anyone who would abide by the new standards? Of course not! You just reiterated that it was all so the residents could experience an atmosphere as much like home as possible. Of course, it cost you not a <i>cent</i> to ask this of your <i>employees</i>, did it?<br />
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Oh--before I go on, let me note that I have seen how this works out in practice. It's not <i>enough</i> to wear "business casual." It has to be YOUR idea of "business casual." One of the senior employees at one of the facilities, a lady whom I know well, let me know she'd been "talked to" about her choice of attire (which was perfectly fine, I've seen it), and also <i>ABOUT A SMALL PURPLE STREAK IN HER BLONDE HAIR.</i> Anything in the employee handbook about that? No, of course not, but that never stops you people from making it up as you go. It's pathetic. That place <i>can't run</i> without that lady, and you're messing with her because your poor, shriveled-up soul can't handle an itsy-bitsy bit of purple in her hair.<br /><br />Now, to go on. Remember, the whole idea is to provide an experience as close to what the client had at home, right?<br /><br />Of course, I have been in all the facilities many, many times. I have seen it all. Shoot, I may be the ONLY one who's seen it all.<br /><br />The other day, I happened in on one of the senior employees in a facility--this is the same one who got "talked to" about her purple streak--on her knees in the storeroom, stocking diapers and the like. Now, this is a lady of considerable experience and education. I teased her a bit: "Say, that looks like something that in most places would be done by someone a lot further down the totem pole!" (This is true, by the way.) <br />
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She responded, "Oh no...they can't read." And she was serious! The lower-level personnel in her facility <i>cannot be counted on to read well enough to stock a freaking shelf. </i> Bear in mind they're helping to take care of the helpless.<br />
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Next: like I say, I get around. It is very curious to me that your facilities are filled--just <i>jammed</i>, in a few instances--with foreigners. <br /><br />Now, I must interject: don't get me wrong. As a rule, I like foreigners, and frankly, the ones at these facilities are generally doing pretty good jobs. I am on "hugging terms" with some of them. <br /><br />Nevertheless, you can easily go down the hallway and hear conversations in Spanish and various West African dialects, and a very large percentage of the employees have very thick accents--if they can speak English at all. <br /><br />I'm serious about that last part. I am on friendly terms with one Hispanic lady who, when we met at one of these facilities, could scarcely speak a word of English. Yet she got hired, didn't she?<br /><br />Now, here's my question: at what point did you conclude that your residents all had experiences at home that included thick foreign accents and hallway conversations in a variety of languages, none of which they spoke themselves? I mean, you MUST have concluded that, since EVERYTHING is all about the client, and you want your clients to have an experience as close to what they had at home as possible, RIGHT?<br />
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Of course not. You want them to have that kind of experience IF IT DOESN'T COST YOU. If it costs your employees, FINE. But if it's coming out of your pockets...well, it's not such a big issue, is it? And besides, you'll tell me, you can't GET anyone else.<br /><br />That, of course, is utter rot. The upscale facilities--yes, I've been in those, too--have people who grew up with English as their native language, and who can read. Of course, they cost more money, but they are available.<br /><br />Now, truthfully, I don't blame you for going with the lowest-cost personnel that can get the job done. It is what I would do myself. But I wouldn't then turn around and condescendingly lecture my employees that everything we do is for the sake of creating an atmosphere as much like clients' former homes as possible.<br /><br />That just isn't true. I wonder if it's ever occurred to you that it actually borders on <i>cruel</i> to have a hallway full of dementia patients, surrounded by staff speaking foreign languages?<br /><br />Surely it at least occurred to you that it's not an experience those clients grew up with?<br /><br />Surely?<br /><br />You people claim to pay "competitive wages." I wonder if you realize what it is you are competing for. Apparently, it's for semi-literate people and/or people who grew up speaking another tongue. <br /><br />Man of the Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691063580228409415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377354642754058446.post-65461677760679278982014-05-07T04:58:00.004-07:002014-05-07T04:58:58.776-07:00I Do NOT Smoke "All the Time," Dadgummit!Have to vent a little bit. Doubt seriously anyone ever sees it. Nobody reads this thing anymore.<br /><br />Last night, I was asked if I really wanted to die. Um, no.<br /><br />Then why are you smoking so much? It turns out that this meant I was smoking <i>daily</i>, and maybe even more than daily.<br /><br />My response was, and is, that that is not very much! Let us review:<br /><br />I smoke a pipe and an occasional cigar. The ACS and the Surgeon General found years ago, and there has never been any serious research overturning this (questionable as I think the Surgeon General's statistics were) that there was "little, IF ANY" increase in death rates for pipe smokers versus never-smokers. Catch the "if any?" You should. Means they couldn't actually be sure there was any increase in death rates for pipe smokers. And that was for people smoking <i>up to ten pipefuls</i> a day. <br /><br />Furthermore, the stats showed that there was no difference--<i>no difference, <b>period</b></i>--in death rates from never-smokers for people who smoked five or fewer pipefuls a day, or three or fewer cigars a day, or, for that matter, two or fewer cigarettes a day. In a huge swath of the country, roughly the area between the Mississippi and the Rockies, pipe smokers who smoked five or fewer pipefuls a day <i>actually lived longer than never-smokers.</i><br /><br />For the uninitiated, five pipefuls a day is about a pound of tobacco a month.<br /><br />Now, for perspective: it is true that I try to smoke as much as I can reasonably find time for. I cannot smoke in the house; I must smoke in the entryway or on the porch. I cannot smoke at work. I cannot smoke in my work vehicle. I have dinner to cook and so forth. The gruesome reality is that I often (but not always) pack my pipe about a third of the way full and smoke on the way to work. I probably only smoke a quarter of a bowl that way, but let's call it a third. And then, I usually smoke a bowl towards the end of the evening. And that is usually IT. Occasionally, I find time to squeeze in another half-bowl in the evening, and occasionally, on a Saturday or Sunday, I might find time for two whole bowls! It's totally--<i>totally</i>--fair to say that I smoke an average of a ten to twelve bowls a week and NEVER more than fifteen (and <i>that</i> pretty rarely).<br /><br />Again:<i> totally no difference in death rates for those who smoked fewer than <b>thirty-five bowls a week.</b> Many in that range actually outlived the never-smokers.</i> <br /><br />I don't even come close to that level of smoking. It is impossible for me to find the time.<br /><br />Not that this will convince any of you who are completely indoctrinated, but there it is.<br />
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<br />Man of the Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691063580228409415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377354642754058446.post-15129981328610275332014-04-19T16:40:00.000-07:002014-04-19T16:40:28.870-07:00Attitude is Everything, or the Truth About My Workplace Leadership, Part V<span style="color: red;">These little rants are written as though to various elements of my workplace leadership. If you want to know more, look up part I.</span><br />
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*****</div>
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By now, you've figured out that when you pulled me over for a half-hour talk about my "negative attitude," it made me mad. I admit it: it made me <i>really</i> mad. When you, first, told me that I had a negative attitude, and then that it made me come across as condescending and even mean, there was so much more going on in my mental background than you could have <i>possibly</i> been aware of, even had you cared--which I am convinced you never would have.<br /><br />You see, I have occasionally heard something of the sort ever since I was a <i>kid</i>. And over the years, I have become painfully, <i>bitterly</i> aware of some things that tend to lead to the accusations. And I struggle to deal with them--far more than you know.<br /><br />Some of what I am about to say is going to come across as awfully self-congratulatory. I am truly sorry. If I could explain this without doing so, I would.<br /><br />Let me say also that over the last few posts, I feel almost as though I have been swimming in a cesspool. I <i>do not like</i> complaining about this stuff. A very large part of me is fully aware that hardly anyone listens to complaints. And it's not like <i>you'll</i> ever see or hear this. I'm posting this anonymously in the blogosphere partly to <i>vent</i>, so that I can express what I think without erupting all over you and any innocent bystanders.<br /><br />I am tired of keeping silent about it all. You people drive me nuts.<br /><br />Okay, let's start:<br /><br />I became aware when I was very, very young that many people around me reacted very negatively to my vocabulary. It wasn't that I said bad things; it was, simple as it sounds, that I routinely used words they simply weren't familiar with. Every kid gets called names, of course. I claim no unusual experiences in that regard. The kinds of names I was called were those intended to make me feel freakish and to take me down a peg. Naturally, I often responded in kind, calling people things intended to make them feel <i>stupid</i>. And it worked, much of the time.<br /><br />By the time I was in junior high, it wasn't all that unusual for someone to either pick on me or threaten to do so. And when I got the chance, I took up Taekwon-do. It didn't take too many reverse punches to people's solar plexi before people stopped picking on me.<br /><br />I wasn't mature enough to realize that people don't <i>like</i> feeling stupid and a much easier way to solve the problem would have been just to go to some trouble not to intellectually intimidate people, to make them understand at the outset that I valued them as human beings regardless of their intelligence. I just got a reputation for sarcasm and rudeness--probably well-deserved. <br /><br />But in my defense, much of the time I wasn't<i> trying</i> to make people feel stupid. They just had the misfortune to be in the same class with the kid with the huge vocabulary and who made easy As. And by the time I was in my early 20s, I had begun to appreciate people who didn't have the same set of gifts I had--I had been in the Marine Corps Reserves, I had worked in industrial environments, I had worked in the fast-food business. As a matter of fact, in probably the one really positive experience I had in fast-food management, I went to a seminar and the guy leading asked what, in retrospect, was a really obvious question: "Are you getting the results you want using the methods you're using?"<br /><br />Well, <i><b>no</b></i>. And I began to make a conscious effort to change the way I interacted with people. And it was about that time that I began to realize what a "bad attitude" was. <br /><br />I had a district manager at the time that occasionally used the term, and one day, after he said, "Well, so-and-so just has a bad attitude," I asked him, "Rick, I hear you use that term from time to time, and I'm never sure just what you mean. Could you tell me what you mean by 'bad attitude'?"<br />
<br />And he said, "Anything that's not good for the company."<br /><br />By that time, I had learned not to respond with the obvious: "By that definition, a gas explosion under company headquarters is a 'bad attitude.'" I just took it to mean that "bad attitude" means whatever management wants it to mean. It is a universal label that doesn't really mean <i>anything</i> except they don't like something about that guy. He may not be doing anything wrong. The only way to guard against being labeled as having a "bad attitude" is to pretend enthusiasm for everything management says, no matter how insane or stupid. Kind of like how I behave around you, my company's leadership.<br /><br />"Negative" attitude is a little different. It wasn't until I had spent some time in sales, and, yes, some time in this job before I began to understand that one--or those two, I should say, for there are at least two kinds of "negative" attitude. You see, salespeople spend most of their time hearing, "No!" If they let it sink in, they're sunk, so to speak. They won't be able to work up the nerve to pick up the phone one more time. So they--and many managers, too--have a certain psychological investment in pretending that everything is okay, and if anyone around them punctures the illusion, they therefore discount that person's opinion as "negative."<br /><br />And then there's the kind of "negative" attitude that I occasionally get tarred as having. It's a little different. You see, as I mentioned earlier, I began to realize in my early twenties that people don't like feeling stupid, and to go to some trouble not to make them feel that way. <br /><br />But by my mid-forties, the problem had grown, in some respects, rather more difficult to handle. <br /><br />Have you ever heard the term "personal presence?" You could say that it is the amount of psychological space a person takes up in the room. And by my mid-forties, my personal presence had grown enough to be a problem for some people. It mystified me in one way; I had made so many mistakes and errors of judgment in my life that I certainly didn't occupy an exalted position in life, certainly didn't have an outsized income or lifestyle. But what I did find was that I had read and retained so much, had seen so much of life, had interacted with so many people, and--yes, acquired a fair amount of physical self-confidence, that is, I had pretty much lost any fear that someone might be able to beat me up if they didn't like what I said, that some people just couldn't handle it. My presence in the room could be overwhelming for some people. Some people liked it--those are the people that automatically assumed that I was the leader. Others...not so much.<br /><br />One time, a church member of whom I was actually quite fond actually stepped backwards from me and turned her head away. "What's wrong?" I asked.<br /><br />"Oh, I don't know. You just intimidate me <i>so much</i>."<br /><br /><i>Really</i>. I thought I was being gentle as a lamb. <br /><br />As this kind of thing has become unintentionally easier and easier for me, often unconsciously easier, I have really worked hard to be gentle and unthreatening. It doesn't always work, of course, but it usually does. Pretty much the only time I ever have a problem is when there is something else at work, something about which I can do nothing.<br /><br />That is usually when I have to say <i>no</i>.<br /><br />I have to say that more and more often. It is not my fault. We have been getting more and more clients who are utterly dependent on government for every aspect of their existence. You will say that my saying this is more evidence of my negative attitude, but the reality is that for every person who is on the dole through no fault of his own, there are three who are on it for pretty obvious reasons and a lot of these people have what is popularly known as an "entitlement attitude" and know how to play the system to get their way. And oh, they will do it. They won't hesitate.<br /><br />So when you send me to these people to "assess" (as an aside: you do not know how to spell "assess." You keep spelling it "access.") their equipment and situations, often knowing <i>full well, in advance</i>, that they are full of squeeze, that you are sending me <i>solely</i> so you can say that you sent <i>the expert</i>, and I have to tell them, "No, that won't work," "No, that's totally inappropriate for your needs," "No, no insurance or government program in the world will pay for that," "No, your equipment is in a perfectly usable state," well...they don't like it. And sometimes they will call up and swear that I was mean to them. And you will say, "Well, what did he say to you?" And they--like clockwork!--reply that<i> it wasn't what I said, it was how I said it</i>. Short of lying through their teeth, <i>what else are they going to say</i>? As I keep saying, I go to extraordinary lengths to keep from being rude!<br /><br />Then you take into account the comments from the dementia-ridden, the drug-addled, the hard-of-hearing, and the stir-crazy, couple it all with the fact that you are yourself intimidated by me and constantly feel the need to take me down a peg, and--bam!--there you go. I have a "negative attitude." <br /><br />I can't begin to express how galling it was to be accused of having a "negative attitude" by a man who's been known to slam down and break keyboards in a fit of rage, who's been known to holler at little old ladies, who will go beet-red in the face at the slightest provocation. <br /><br />But--almost three weeks ago now!--after that little talk, I made up my mind how I am going to handle clients--and <i>you</i>--in the future. I am going to make <i>you</i> say no. I am going to go into these situations and make it clear that I want to help and get them what they want, but there are some things only my boss can approve--and I'm going to call you up right on the spot and humbly ask you, with the client listening, whether you will approve it or not. If you say no, the client's reaction is <i>your</i> problem. If you say yes, it likely means more time on the clock for me. <br /><br />So far, it's been working like a charm and you haven't even picked up on what's going on. You're such a control freak you've been taking it as confirmation that you are <i><b>the boss</b></i>.<br /><br />Playing you like a fiddle, m'man, playing you like a fiddle.<br />Man of the Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691063580228409415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377354642754058446.post-21639160610828488972014-04-18T16:01:00.000-07:002014-04-18T16:01:31.038-07:00The Awful Truth About My Workplace Leadership, Part IV<span style="color: red;">These little rants are written as though addressed to elements of my company's leadership. If you want to know more, look for the introduction to part I.</span><br />
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*****</div>
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I swear, I am going to get to some more interesting stuff, stuff about how you treat your people, the way you hire people, the "Muskogee Mafia," a certain kind of monitor that cost us about--oh, I think it was about half a million over ten years, even though it was utterly USELESS, most of them literally sitting in boxes for years and years, and was a huge waste of the money that little old people leave our organization in their wills. I am going to get to all of that. But you keep doing things on a day to day basis that make me say, "I can't leave that out. It's so bizarre. Too 'good,' in a way, or 'bad,' in another way, not to mention."<br />
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Sooooooooo...let's talk about payroll. Just for today.<br />
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I get paid by direct deposit. For <i>years</i>, my "check" has hit the bank about five in the morning. So I was a little surprised to see my balance basically unchanged by six a.m., but I didn't panic. Maybe they just ran a little bit late this time, I thought. But when I checked again about ten and didn't see it, I went to the boss.<br />
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Turned out you hadn't managed to get OVER NINETY HOURS OF MY TIME on that check! All you had put on it was the pittance you pay for me being "on call" (and it is <i>not</i> industry standard, by the way, not by a long shot, hasn't changed in years and years and years)! You didn't know what happened, you said, and you got right on it, and sure enough, by late afternoon, I was able to drive across town, pick up a check, and go deposit it. <br />
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Good thing I didn't have anything on auto-draft, wasn't it? Good thing neither the payroll place nor the bank had shut down early for Good Friday, wasn't it? But one of the reasons I <i>don't</i> have anything on auto-draft is that I've seen you characters in action for more than ten years.<br />
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How often you've screwed up my paychecks depends on how you count incidents. Was the time where <i>you forgot to put my raise on my checks for <b>four solid months</b></i> one incident, or eight (two-week pay periods)? (And by the way, you can see what a pittance the raise was--I hadn't noticed its absence from my checks!) Was the time where you screwed up putting another raise on my checks for three successive pay periods (each time you said, "It'll be on the next check!") one incident, or three? And then there are the times where you just made it clear that you can't be counted on to add or subtract. All of this has made me watch my checks <i>very</i> closely, believe you me!<br />
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Nor am I the only one. I am not dealing with pay, per se, here, not in the sense of how much you pay. I'll get to that in another post. But you can take it to the bank: if you go to your long-term people, your key people, the people who have been around for a while, and ask them, "Have they ever screwed up your pay?" you will be astonished at the number of people that roll their eyes and say, "Yeah! Duh!" I am not making this up. Sometimes I think you people think I don't talk to <i>anybody</i> because I spend so little time talking to <i>you</i>. But that's not the case. I don't talk to <i>you</i> any more than I have to because I'm afraid what I really think will slip out. I do talk to just about everyone else I meet across the system, and I hear a lot that you people think everyone's forgotten, or maybe never noticed in the first place. I hear the outrageous stories. I know what a deep-seated loathing there is for our leadership team throughout our system. So, yeah, I've heard people talk about your payroll screwups.<br />
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You're infamous for it. Everyone in the organization knows that getting people's paychecks right simply isn't a priority for you. And that stinks on ice. If there is one obligation pretty much everyone acknowledges bosses to have, it's getting people's checks to them <i>right</i> and <i>on time.</i> I'm an old guy, see, and I have worked for a number of different companies. And you know what? <i>None</i> of them <i>ever</i> screwed up my pay. Not <i>once</i>. I worked for one firm for <i>fourteen years</i> and they never screwed up my pay. I worked for another for <i>four</i> and they never screwed up my pay. But you guys? I think if I said you'd screwed up my pay ten times in ten years, I'd be giving you too much credit.<br />
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You outsourced your payroll recently. I wonder if it was as the result of complaints? If so, it took too long. And furthermore, you're still not getting it right. And lastly, think this kind of thing might contribute to people's "negative attitudes"?<br /><br />Naaaaaaahh...couldn't be. It's never the bosses' fault, is it?Man of the Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691063580228409415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377354642754058446.post-80079864076672999552014-04-17T17:35:00.000-07:002014-04-17T17:35:37.162-07:00MMMMBBWWWWAAAHHHAAAHAAA!! Or The Continuing Misadventures of My Workplace Leadership, Part III<span style="color: red;">Mercy. I have so much more to tell you about my workplace leadership. There are still hairs on your head that need curling and, I promise you, some of what I have to say will curl hair on the baldest head. But today I must gloat. The following is written as though to my immediate superior.</span><br /><br />
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*****</div>
<br />You know, boss, I really could not have set this day up any better if I had scripted it. Two weeks ago--three, as of Monday--you pulled me aside to lecture me on my attitude. You told me I came across as condescending and mean, as uncaring. <br /><br />And, after an appropriate show of<i> faux</i> contrition on my part (for I didn't believe a word of it), you told me that, after ten years with the company, and five years after the New Person's Class was started, you were sending me to the next one. I'll pass over the content of the class for now (but I will cover it in a future post! I promise!), but I'll say that to this second, I do not know if you scheduled me for that class for punishment, or if you did it because you thought it might straighten out my alleged negative attitude, or if you'd been told to do it by your superiors.<br /><br />What I <i>do</i> know is that you did <i>not</i> expect me to be<i> lionized</i> in front of the audience as the "Shining Star" honoree. I <i>do</i> know that you did not expect the president and vice-president of the company to spend about ten solid minutes publicly praising me for my intelligence, quick wit, and--most satisfying of all--my <b><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">LEGENDARY AND CONTAGIOUS POSITIVE ATTITUDE</span></i></b>. You did <i>not</i> expect that my contributions to the class would be repeatedly singled out for praise by them. You did <i>not</i> expect the president of the company to declare, basically, that he thought I was one of the smartest and best-informed men he had ever met. You did not expect that every company official in attendance would come away tremendously impressed with my knowledge, bearing, and attitude.<br />
<br />I know, because when you asked me how the class went, your face went from its usual artificial smile to absolutely<i> blank</i> within one second flat--and then you left the area. I could not have been more satisfied if I'd been Mordecai being paraded around by Haman.<br /><br />Let's see you top that.Man of the Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691063580228409415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377354642754058446.post-19968066853192731842014-04-16T17:04:00.001-07:002014-04-16T17:04:26.304-07:00 The Awful Truth About My Workplace Leadership, Part II<span style="color: red;">These little rants are written as though addressed to elements of my company's leadership.
If you want to know more, look for the introduction to part I.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
****** </div>
<br />
Well, I <i>was</i> going to talk a bit about how you accused me a couple of weeks ago of having (first) a "negative" attitude, then of sounding "condescending" and "mean." And I may do that yet, if I get time. But this morning, at our weekly meeting, you made my jaw drop. Metaphorically speaking, that is. You didn't <i>see</i> anything but me smiling and you didn't <i>hear</i> anything but me agreeing.<br />
<br />
What did you do?
You lectured your entire crew, first, on being present and on time. Now, I am not knocking those things. They are important in the workplace. No denying it. But considering, Sir, that it's <i>you</i> that hired the recovering--well, not so recovering--pill-popper and boozer who keeps missing--oh, I'd say three or more days a month, and is late other times, and you've kept him on for well over a year now <i>in spite of this</i>, exactly what are you going to say to the office ladies who are sometimes twenty minutes late because of something involving their kids? Are you going to discipline <i>them</i> and let the other guy get off scot-free? I don't think that's going to fly, and no one believes you're going to discipline the other guy, because the reality is that attendance issues aside, he is so good at his job that nothing ever suffers when he's absent! He's always ahead! Besides that, you hired him to replace that ex-live-in girlfriend you'd hired, and then unjustly fired. Won't look good if it turns out you would have been better off keeping your ex-girlfriend, will it?<br />
<br />
Amazingly, you were apparently so ticked off at him being absent Monday that you spent time going over almost <i>two years</i> of old time sheets, just so you could tell us all how long it'd been since the entire crew was present and on time for a whole week.<br />
<br />
Productive use of your time, wasn't it? Oh, I know you thought it made your point, and in a way, it did. It also made you look a petulant horse's rear and, I promise you, made every single person in the place who's ever been late because of a child, because of car trouble, because they were stuck behind a train, because there was a wreck on the turnpike between here and the small town where they live, madder than an old wet hen. It made you look ineffectual, because, after all, it's <i>you</i> that has put up with it. And nobody believes you'll do anything about it, either. Why should they?<br />
<br />
Having accomplished the by no means small feat of ticking off your entire staff with your first words of the meeting, you then lectured your <i>entire crew</i> on having good attitudes! It was nothing short of amazing. Either you think nobody on your staff has a good attitude, or you are unwilling to confront the women on your staff about their bad attitudes one by one (You have, of course, already lectured me and the other guy about our alleged bad attitudes). You don't come out looking good no matter how you slice this. You either have a talent for serially hiring people with bad attitudes, or you make people with good attitudes into people with bad attitudes (this would be my bet), or you see bad attitudes where none exist (also very likely), or you haven't the anatomical features necessary to confront women with bad attitudes.<br />
<br />
Really. Did it not even occur to you to ask yourself how likely it was that <i>everyone else</i> in the building had bad attitudes, whilst you did not? Doesn't the answer reveal itself as soon as the question is asked?<br />
<br />
Couple of more things, small things, but this is <i>my</i> rant: First thing this morning, you asked me to spray Febreze all over myself. I had--<i>God forbid</i>--smoked a quarter-pipeful of tobacco on my morning drive. Now, the fact that you think my tobacco reeks wouldn't bother me, except for two things: (1) It doesn't, or at least not as bad as cigarettes. I've asked the others. (2) You never ask the cigarette smokers to Febreze themselves, and those nasty cigarettes leave a worse smell than my pipe does, any day of the week. Not to mention the butts they leave outside the doors. You are just being ridiculous. It is just one more of your efforts to take me down a peg. You want to take me down a peg because...well, I may touch on that in another post.<br />
<br />
Second: you made sure to tell me to wash the van and go to special effort to make sure all bug guts were off my windshield, because I am driving the van to New Person's Class
tomorrow. What the shale? It's not that I mind doing it--takes me five minutes to run the van through the wash and a few more with some Windex for the windshield, after all--it's that it was <i>bizarre</i>. The van wasn't dirty. Nobody would look at it and say it was dirty. <i>I asked people.</i> And what do you think is going to happen when I show up for class? Do you think that everyone in attendance is going to pile out and come look at my work van? Do you think the campus administrator is going to come out and inspect it? Even if they <i>did</i>, nobody would say it was dirty. Even the interior is clean. I keep it empty of debris and wipe the thing down about once a week.
Again, not that I mind the washing. Not that I don't want the van clean, too. It's that utterly weird connection you made between getting the van cleaned and going to that class. Weird because they have not the slightest thing to do with each other. It's like telling me,"You've got class tomorrow. Make sure you do the dishes."<br />
<br />
You know, I initially just told our other driver that story. Then later, when the office ladies looked out the front doors and saw me cleaning my windshield, they asked her about it, and she told them what you had said. According to her, the universal reaction was, "He said <i>what</i>?"
So it's not just me. It really was weird. But that's part for the course for you these days, isn't it? Most of us came to the conclusion some little time back that there's something <i>wrong</i> with you. It's gone way beyond just being a jerk. You keep doing and saying bizarre crap that nobody understands. But of course, as far as you're concerned, <i>you</i> are just <i>fine.</i> It's everyone <i>else</i> that needs an attitude adjustment.<br />
<br />
Right?Man of the Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691063580228409415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377354642754058446.post-51776135741080120652014-04-15T18:33:00.000-07:002014-04-15T18:33:08.396-07:00The Awful Truth About My Workplace Leadership, Part I<span style="color: red;">Well, for the longest time, I have been steamed at my place of employment. I am hardly the only one. All across our system, people are steamed. I am in a position to know. </span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red;">But I can't do much about it. I don't want to quit right now; I have a few small personal matters I want to tend to and keeping this job for a little while longer will suit me. Also, the job market stinks on ice, as everyone knows. So there's that.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red;">But I do want to vent a bit, and--lucky you!--for various reasons, I have kept notes of some of the more outrageous things over the years. I think I am going to make a series of posts about them. I will alter names, dates, places, and subject matter enough to disguise who I am and where I work. The very small number of people who already know who I am and where I work will not give me away. Many will find it immature and boring, but I will enjoy writing the rants.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red;">These little rants will be written as though addressed to my company leadership. Today's is short. I hope you enjoy it.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red;">Why don't I just quit, you ask? Like I say, I have my reasons. Plus, <i>I like the job. It's the leadership that has me ready to pull out my hair.</i></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
******</div>
<br />
Well, you've finally seen fit to send me to New Person's Class. It's kind of funny. I'm sure you would deny that sending me now, five years after they started giving these classes, and more than ten years after I started with the company, is related to the alleged attitude problem that <strike>you've given me</strike> you've recently accused me of having, and the lecture about which I've already meekly absorbed. I'm sure you would remind me that when they started having these classes, I was told then that <i>everyone</i> would eventually have to take it, no matter whether they'd been with the Company five weeks or five years.<br />
<br />
And they did say that. I remember. I think the unique demands of my weirdo schedule--and let's not forget that <i>you </i>set my schedule--made it practically impossible for me to attend, and everyone just kind of forgot about it. But now that you've scheduled me to take the class in a few days, a few memories come to mind.<br />
<br />
For instance, I remember why they started these classes in the first place. We had high turnover throughout the system (Though the administrators, if you asked them directly, would deny this. "Oh, MOTW, we have a <i>wonderful</i> turnover rate," even though it was a running joke throughout the system at the time.) and it was hoped that the New Person's Class would slow turnover, give everyone a sense of being on the same team, a sense of our "mission." This did no good, of course, because you have no idea what you're doing half the time and that kind of thing makes it hard for anyone to have a real sense of "mission." Plus, your repeated habit (to be detailed in other posts) of royally screwing your employees makes it hard for them to feel like part of a team, class or no class.<br />
<br />
At any rate, turnover is still high.<br />
<br />
Another thing I remember: you have facilities in multiple places throughout the state, but for the first two or three years, the classes were offered only in the City! Yes, you made your poor low-level staffers, people making just 8.50 an hour, drive a hundred and fifty miles in some cases, just so they could listen to you characters congratulate yourselves and tell them how well you treat your people. <i>Really</i>. It took you two or three years to start offering the classes in another part of the state, and even now, some people from some facilities still have to drive more than 90 minutes so they can partake of the wondrous rapture that was prepared, if I recall correctly and I think I do, <i>by one of your little office drones that has never actually been in the field and done the kind of work that we do.</i><br />
<br />
You thought you were building team spirit with <i>that</i>? No, what you were building--adding on to, really, you've been building it for years and years--was a sense of resentment and a deep-seated conviction that you were a collection of clueless horse's rears. I know. I've been all over the system and talked to people.<br />
<br />
You know,speaking of that negative attitude you accused me of having, it'll be interesting to see how they handle that. You see, I also know that people used to see me <i>in the class material.</i> It seems I am a legend in customer service. It seems, according to some (including some of <i>you</i>), that I am "the most beloved employee in the system." So I wonder if my smiling face is still in the class material. It would be rich if it is.<br />
<br />
Oh, don't worry. I'll go, and I guarantee you'll be told later, if you ask, that I was tremendously enthusiastic and a positive element in the class.<br />
<br />
Or didn't you know? Acting runs in the family.Man of the Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691063580228409415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377354642754058446.post-45426990855075364472013-08-07T18:17:00.001-07:002013-08-07T18:17:05.602-07:00Back AgainIt's been months since I last posted anything. It's not that I haven't had things to write; it just hasn't been convenient. My desktop died, my workplace blocks Blogger (Only God knows why), and I find it inconvenient to type anything of any length on my daughter's notebook or my wife's Chromebook. The inter-relatedness of much of what I've been reading and thinking about hasn't helped. Some of the things I've been thinking about touch on other things I've been thinking about in such ways that it is difficult to talk about one subject without talking about, or at least making reference to, others. I didn't like the thought of putting together monster posts that tried to cover way too much.<br />
<br />
But it turns out I can't keep my mouth shut; things that should have wound up here, where I enjoy a relative amount of anonymity, and where I can make cloaked references to organizations for the sake of illustration without members of those organizations ever having much of a clue (if any) that I am doing so and getting all honked off about it, wound up in other forums, doled out sentence by sentence. The fact that I never used names, that I would generally talk about things in general ways, turned out not to be enough. <br />
<br />
I shouldn't have been surprised. If you get annoyed (for example) at a goofball approach to music ministry, reflect that it's epidemic throughout the Southern Baptist Convention, and that it's produced, overall, negative results, all that may be <i>true</i>, and it may never mention <i>your church</i>, but it doesn't require an Einstein for a <i>member</i> of your church to figure out that your inspiration for the comment came from observing the shenanigans at your church.<br />
<br />
That wasn't smart. Oh, every scrap of it was <i>true</i>. But it still wasn't smart.<br />
<br />
Well, I won't be making comments like that in other forums anymore, and the one or two readers I have here, if they know where I go to church at all, will be able to take comments that I make here as illustrative, as I generally intend them to be. <br />
<br />
I've heard a lot of horsequeeze lately, and I don't deny that I'm frustrated, so much so that I'm finding it difficult to hold my peace, so I've decided to start writing at work, saving it to a flash drive, and uploading it to Blogger when I get a crack at my daughter's notebook.<br />
<br />
I've never had but a handful of readers here, and of those few, of the few that know or suspect who I am, remember this:<br />
<br />
It's true that I vent sometimes, especially about what's going on in the North American church, the Southern Baptist Convention, and even my own church. Sometimes it seems to me that all of them are in the grip of some kind of collective insanity. Leadership seems deranged to the point of being psycho and members seem unable to discern this and wind up mindlessly defending what should be considered indefensible. <i><b>If you're one of those members, one of those people, and what I say here upsets your applecart, please remember this much: I am not trying to destroy any of those institutions. In fact, my great fear is that they are on the verge of suffering very great damage, and all I am trying to do is throw some thoughts out there for the handful of people that might consider them.</b></i>Man of the Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691063580228409415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377354642754058446.post-40606208817081085972012-11-18T13:11:00.000-08:002012-11-18T13:11:22.789-08:00More Thoughts on Christian LibertyI have to admit that some of the things I've heard lately about Christian liberty have bothered me more than a little bit--and no, it's not just because if I gave in to some people's thinking, I'd be giving up my daily glass of red wine and pipeful of tobacco. It'd be easy for some people to think that, and in fact, I'd bet dollars to donuts ('cept that'd be <i>gambling</i>) that it is precisely what some of my critics <i>do</i> think. But it's deeper than that.<br />
<br />
As I put it to my Sunday School class the other day, a rather large part of me is growing increasingly concerned over what I have almost come to see as a spineless, wimpy, apologetic approach to Christianity--and by "apologetic" I most emphatically do <i>not</i> mean "concerned with making the case for." I mean, in case it's unclear, an approach to the doctrine and practice of Christianity that makes it sound as though it were something to be ashamed of, something to be apologized for, rather than the very truth of God! <br />
<br />
I'm also concerned that a large group of Christians, many of them in leadership positions, are, for whatever reasons, spending time trying to convince or even coerce other Christians into making concessions that they have no business whatever making.<br />
<br />
Over and over again, I see the case being made that we should give up our liberty to do <i>this</i> or partake of <i>that</i>, on the grounds that:<br />
<br />
A) We don't actually have liberty to do that, it's a sin...even though I can't cite Scripture to prove it...I just <i>know</i> it, dadgummit, <i><b>okay?</b></i> Oh, you want a verse? You actually want me to prove my case from the Bible? That's awfully petty of you, don't you think?<br />
<br />
B) There might be a "weaker brother" out there...somewhere...maybe. <br />
<br />
C) We might look "worldly."<br />
<br />
D) I just have this feeling this might be one of those things Jesus is calling you to give up...no, no, I don't have a verse, I just have a peace about it...<br />
<br />
E) Exercising your liberty in that fashion causes dissension, and we're supposed to be unified.<br />
<br />
F) <i>Speaking up for</i> your liberty to do that causes even <i>more</i> dissension. <i>You</i> should give up on <i>your</i> position for the sake of unity. No, I don't think I should have to give in on <i>my</i> position. What could have possibly put such a thought in your head...sinner?<br />
<br />
Well, "reasons" such as those could be multiplied endlessly--and <i>no</i>, these are not straw men, I've actually heard this kind of pap more than a few times--and I'm less concerned about them than I am the motivations behind them. It's easy to give a perfectly reasonable response to each of these reasons. That's not the problem.<br />
<br />
I'd say the problem, or at least a big part of the problem, is that upon being <i>given</i> perfectly reasonable responses to these and other objections, not a few of my Christian brothers and sisters will still not be neither content nor convinced. They will simply bring up another objection, only to have it answered, and another, and another, and they will never admit that they were wrong. Instead, they will <i>grow annoyed with me</i> and start twisting verses and insinuating all sorts of things. They're so interested in controlling my (or someone else's) behavior that they cannot think rationally upon the subject in question.<br />
<br />
When did we get to the point where no one defends Christian liberty? How did we wind up in a place where it's sometimes actually seen as selfish and inappropriate to do so? Why are we always to assume that Christian liberty is something that we can <i>have</i>, but must never <i>exercise</i>? Why is it always the people who are striving with all their might to constrict the exercise of Christian liberty who must be accommodated?<br />
<br />
How has modern Christianity become all "taste not, touch not," and <i>no</i> "We did not yield to them in submission for even an hour"?<br />
<br />
Why is it that no one seems willing to say to such people, "You're full of stewed prunes, you're not a weaker brother, you just can't stand it that I don't agree with you, and you need to mind your own business"? To those who would reply that that is insufferably rude, I cannot agree. People who are trying to restrict others' behavior without any clear Biblical warrant for doing so have not the slightest bit of room to criticize others for rudeness.<br />
<br />
Why do you not see that your refusal to mind your own business is every bit as much an affront--MORE SO--than others' refusal to bend to your will?<br />
<br />
Listen to Paul, in 2nd Corinthians, contrasting the way the false teachers treat the flock with his own behavior:<br />
<blockquote>
For you gladly put up with fools, since you are so smart! In fact, you put up with it if someone enslaves you, if someone devours you, if someone captures you, if someone dominates you, or if someone hits you in the face. I say this to our shame: we have been weak.</blockquote>
Paul is sarcastically--note, by the way, that Paul was not afraid to use sarcasm--saying that he was too "weak" to do these things, of course--too "weak" to "enslave," to "devour," to "capture," to "dominate," to hit someone in the face. But in the process, he is noting that these behaviors are characteristic of the false teachers! They "enslave," that is, <i>they deprive of liberty.</i> They "dominate," that is, they tell other people what to do when they have no business doing it. And so on.<br />
<br />
They sound disturbingly reminiscent of some of our Southern Baptist brethren, and for some reason, people are terribly loathe to call them out on it--or even to mention their behavior in <i>abstract</i>. <br />
<br />
And <i>just</i> as clearly, Paul is implying, if not saying outright, that the Corinthians <i>shouldn't</i> put up with behavior like that from their teachers! They <i>shouldn't</i> put up with someone dominating them, depriving them of their liberty, and so forth! <br />
<br />
It's one thing to have iced tea instead of a Samuel Adams' <i>Cream Stout</i> when you're in the company of a brother who's a recovering alcoholic. It's another thing <i>entirely</i> to acquiesce when some teetotaling, bluenosed busybody who wouldn't touch a drop of any sort of liquor at <i>gun</i>point piously tells you that he's a "weaker brother" and demands that you not only not drink around <i>him</i>, but that you don't drink <i>any</i>where, any<i>time</i> lest he be tempted beyond endurance by the mere <i>thought</i> of you having a glass of wine sometime in your life. One is loving and merciful; the other is shamefully cowardly and weak.<br />
<br />
And the modern North American church is <i>eaten up</i> with this sort of thing. I can't remember the last time I heard anyone say or write anything along the lines of, "With love, brother, I really think you ought to just mind your own business on this."<br />
<br />
No wonder the North American church is barely holding its own, if that. We've become a bunch of weenies. Who wants to join a bunch of weenies? (And watch: someone will object to my use of "weenies.")<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Man of the Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691063580228409415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8377354642754058446.post-53916319909947832732012-11-07T19:00:00.000-08:002012-11-07T19:00:34.922-08:00Shoot, Yes, I'm Concerned<br />
"Concerned" is really too mild a word. But it'll do to hang this post on.<br />
<br />
Look, the Republicans lost the White House. I'll keep it brief.<br />
<br />
I'm amazed. As I tweeted the night of the loss, if Republicans can't beat a president <i>this bad</i>, you have to consider that they might well be pretty much spent as a political force.<br />
<br />
The president inherited a situation that was bad, but survivable, and promptly made it worse. Not only that, he and his party--I hate to use this overworked phrase, but it fits so well--rammed Obamacare down the nation's throat. They passed other nightmarish legislation, like Dodd-Frank. And there is probably more on the way.<br />
<br />
Going into election day, I thought there was <i>no way</i> the American electorate would reward him with a second term. I didn't think <i>anyone</i> who voted for McCain would vote for Obama, and furthermore, I thought that many who'd supported Obama the first time would never do it again, and lastly, I thought that many conservatives who sat out the last election rather than vote for "Amnesty John" would vote for Romney this time.<br />
<br />
Not that Romney was a great candidate. I said during the primaries that we could do a lot better. But <i>surely</i>, I thought, any <i>idiot</i> could see that he would be far preferable to Barack Obama.<br />
<br />
Well, apparently I was wrong. By now, if you've been paying attention, you know the gruesome reality: the total turnout was (upon my last news reading) down by some fourteen million votes. Obama was about ten million votes under his 2008 totals, and, to my complete and utter shock, <i>Romney was about four million votes below what McCain got</i>. <br />
<br />
The difference between Obama and Romney in the popular vote was, last time I looked, about 2.5 million. One has to consider the possibility that if the other four million who'd voted McCain had shown up this year, Romney would've won.<br />
<br />
What the heck happened to them? I don't know. <br />
<br />
I do know that there's a lot of mischief already poised and ready to launch with the new year, and more on the way. Just how bad it can get, nobody really knows. I do know we can't go on borrowing and spending this way forever, nor, despite the President's rhetoric, can we tax our way out of it. There simply isn't enough money, not if you took <i>all</i> the income of the top earners, to do it. Sooner or later, a fiscal catastrophe is going to occur. It may be very near.<br />
<br />
And I don't want to think about what the President meant when he told Vladimir Putin's right-hand-man that he'd have a lot more flexibility after his re-election.<br />
<br />
I know it's true, as Ann Coulter pointed out, that it's very difficult to upset a sitting president, and it's also true that the party out of the White House typically picks up BIG gains in the mid-terms, especially in a situation like we're going to have in 2014. And it's also true that lame-duck presidents often have a harder time getting things done than they would like. And it's certainly possible that the Benghazi affair has yet to be fully plumbed, and the bitter harvest from Obamacare and other Democratic foolishness will soon kick in, and a lot of people will realize what they've done by not voting, or voting the wrong way.<br />
<br />
But I fear that the damage inflicted over the next few years will be permanent, or at least years-long. I now have utterly no confidence in my ability to stay employed, though I'm certainly working to enhance my employability. I really question what's going to happen to my country, my liberty, and my children. <br />
<br />
But I'm not going to remain static. I'm going to do everything I can to cope, to improve, and to aid my country and my children. And I hope that you do the same.<br />
Man of the Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691063580228409415noreply@blogger.com0