In the previous two posts we've established that the Worthless Co-Worker has been rehired and is as loony tune as ever. Actually I believe she's even more mentally unstable now than when she worked here the first time.
I think everyone knows someone who is mentally unstable, or bat shit crazy if you will. There are some people who actually get more unstable as they age. It's almost like Alzheimer's where a person starts out getting a little forgetful and progressively gets worse. That's the best way to describe her in my mind. The first time she worked here she was a little bit unstable, and now is even more unstable. I just see it getting worse as she gets older.
We also established that my boss is in hot water with his new boss in the last post as well. To some extent this is warranted because he's been allowed to coast and under perform in the past.
The Worthless Co-Worker went through the 30 day probation period on her best behavior. There weren't any signs of the shit storm of a tsunami approaching once she got past this 30 day probationary period. Oh yes, there were signs of loony tune there, but it all related to her personal life, which the boss and I really didn't care about. As a matter of fact we expected that to be the case because that's just her.
In hindsight two and two should have been put together. If she couldn't get along with anyone, and I mean anyone in her family, why was she getting along with us so smoothly during her first 30 days here? This applied to any friends she had. Well, friend any way, I only know of one person who tolerated her who could be classified as a friend to her, and that friendship ended in this time frame as well.
No, we were simply amused by her tales of woe when it came to her family and friend(s). The thinking was "Yup, she's still crazy, but no trouble here, so whatever." It was entertaining in a train wreck, non-lethal way to us.
Once the probationary period ended it all changed. The boss was her main target. She knew his boss disliked him and in her demented mind she thought if he was fired she was the logical choice to replace him. She knew I had no interest, and never have, in being the manager of the store.
All of a sudden when I was working with her, her litany of complaints about the boss grew. As they grew they took on a life of their own, becoming far worse to her than the reality of the situation. While some of her complaints had validity, most were overblown and way out of proportion. When she wasn't receiving a sympathetic ear from me all of a sudden I was a problem to her as well.
When she made a mistake it was always my fault. Most of her assertions were so outlandish I spent most of my time simply alternating between being amused and irritated with her.
She'd ring up a sale using a wrong finance option and it was my fault because I told her it was okay. Never mind I was off the day it occurred, it was still my fault.
She'd screw up inventory when product shipments were received and it was my fault because I told her not to worry about updating the system. (Um, yeah, not so much. The company takes inventory control anally serious.)
She left a product bin outside the gate on the mall floor one night when closing and apparently I once again was at fault because I told her it was okay to do something like that. Never mind that what was actually said by me to her the next day was that this had happened in the past by a previous employee and we were lucky to have nothing stolen overnight. (And seriously, how does one close and lock a gate, kneeling down right next to this product bin by the way, and not realize that maybe you should pull it back into the store prior to locking the gate?)
Naturally she uses these excuses when confronted by the boss and he sees through her absurdity. She then goes off the deep end and declares she doesn't appreciate being called a liar. My response to her is to simply quit lying then and take responsibility for her own actions. As you might have guessed this doesn't go over well either.
One of her biggest complaints about the boss is that he never cleans. True enough. Sadly she thinks she's the only one who does any cleaning though. The truth of the matter is all she does is talk about cleaning and by simply talking about cleaning it suddenly transforms into actual cleaning on her part. I've never seen her do any cleaning, ever. When I pointed out to her that talking about cleaning and actual cleaning are two different things she goes berserk. Bat shit crazy berserk.
If she's not selling well it is the fault of the boss because naturally, in her mind, if he's not doing his job, she can't sell anything. Now I'm willing to concede the boss is lazy, although he's improving because.. well... he has to due to his new boss and his demands. I also know that neither his laziness nor her craziness for that matter, have never inhibited my sales.
There have been many instances of property destruction since she's returned as well. A towel rack in our bathroom has mysteriously been pulled off the wall. One of our phones has had its phone cord damaged and the phone rendered unusable. While it can't be proven she's responsible for the damage, both items, in her mind, didn't work properly and she has wanted them replaced. Since there was nothing wrong with either item they weren't replaced, until damaged of course.
Any way....
Her complaints and whining were falling on deaf ears here. This enraged her, more so than a normal person could ever imagine. The week of Black Friday rolls around and in the retail world this is a huge event. Our district manager decided to show up on Monday of that week when it was just myself and the Worthless Co-Worker working to cover plans and strategy for the week. The day was going well and the Worthless Co-Worker was behaving and acting reasonably sane for a change. Right when the district manager announced he was satisfied with what we were doing and he was leaving she speaks up.
She informs him she needs to speak with him privately and off they go out into the mall and they're gone for over 2 1/2 hours.
And once again, as this post is long enough as it is, the next post will continue this seemingly never ending drama. As you may have guessed she threw the boss, and myself to some extent, under the bus. She came back into the store all teary-eyed...... to be continued.
Showing posts with label Karma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Karma. Show all posts
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Well, She's Back: Part Two
Note: Reading the previous post prior to reading this one is recommended.
As mentioned in the previous post my boss has a new boss as of last July. There were many reasons for this change which I'll attempt to layout as follows:
1) We're a profitable store but not growing as fast as the average company store has the past year or two.
2) The previous district manager was too hands off and too far away from us to hold my boss accountable for store operations. He's close to retirement and is just basically on cruise control.
3) (This probably should have been #1) My boss, who is a nice guy, is probably the laziest person I've ever worked for.
4) The fact that we were short handed for the better part of 10 months does fall directly on my bosses shoulders. The lazy factor played a significant role in this.
5) His last hire, before bringing the Worthless Co-Worker back on board, was his brother-in-law who possibly was the nicest guy on the planet. He was probably the dumbest guy on the planet as well and couldn't give product away, much less sell anything. Hiring family is a violation of company policy as well.
6) My boss loves his laptop and always has his head buried in it watching sports on weekends and his head buried in facebook and yahoo games during the week. Naturally this is against company policy.
7) My boss is also a social butterfly who wanders the mall yapping at people in other stores and just generally goofing off rather than doing his job.
I think you guys get the picture by now.
So.... the new district manager:
1) Gung-ho.
2) Asshole, which honestly doesn't bother me much, and is definitely needed at this point.
3) Pretty smart guy, and pegged my boss from the get-go as a slacker.
4) Has zero tolerance for bullshit. (A trait I'm very fond of actually.)
5) Has a strong dislike of my boss.
Unlike our previous district manager who we saw for one day every quarter this guy shows up quite frequently. And usually unannounced, something the previous district manager never did. There's no doubt in my mind he's trying to catch my boss not following policies, and he has caught him at a few things, but nothing that would call for terminating him.
This district manager pretty much knows what is going on and is looking to catch my boss not doing his job. He's talked to people who have worked with my boss in our district in the past and has a pretty clear picture of what is going on.
Back in August this district manager called me 3 times in one week trying to wheedle information out of me about my boss and didn't like my response(s) to his calls. I neither confirmed, nor denied anything he'd heard or thought. I don't like to lie, but also didn't want to throw my boss under the bus. On the 3rd call I blew up at the district manager and told him to get off his ass and get down here and find out for himself what he was asking of me.
Basically my boss has been in hot water since this guy took over. But I can also say he's finally waking up and getting his act together. He's got a ways to go though and I'm not sure he's going to keep his job. It's a shame in one way because he's very capable of running the store if he'd just get off his ass and do it.
Adding insult to injury, so to speak, he hires back the Worthless Co-Worker. Her only redeeming quality is that she sells fairly well. She's also mentally unstable. I chose to describe her as mentally unstable rather than bat shit crazy because a lot of people will say someone is crazy. While I possess no degree in psychology I'm positive she's unstable.
So now the table is set and with the next post I will layout specifics on her actions and antics that is probably going to get my boss, and herself, fired before this circus act is over.
Stay tuned.... and stuff.
As mentioned in the previous post my boss has a new boss as of last July. There were many reasons for this change which I'll attempt to layout as follows:
1) We're a profitable store but not growing as fast as the average company store has the past year or two.
2) The previous district manager was too hands off and too far away from us to hold my boss accountable for store operations. He's close to retirement and is just basically on cruise control.
3) (This probably should have been #1) My boss, who is a nice guy, is probably the laziest person I've ever worked for.
4) The fact that we were short handed for the better part of 10 months does fall directly on my bosses shoulders. The lazy factor played a significant role in this.
5) His last hire, before bringing the Worthless Co-Worker back on board, was his brother-in-law who possibly was the nicest guy on the planet. He was probably the dumbest guy on the planet as well and couldn't give product away, much less sell anything. Hiring family is a violation of company policy as well.
6) My boss loves his laptop and always has his head buried in it watching sports on weekends and his head buried in facebook and yahoo games during the week. Naturally this is against company policy.
7) My boss is also a social butterfly who wanders the mall yapping at people in other stores and just generally goofing off rather than doing his job.
I think you guys get the picture by now.
So.... the new district manager:
1) Gung-ho.
2) Asshole, which honestly doesn't bother me much, and is definitely needed at this point.
3) Pretty smart guy, and pegged my boss from the get-go as a slacker.
4) Has zero tolerance for bullshit. (A trait I'm very fond of actually.)
5) Has a strong dislike of my boss.
Unlike our previous district manager who we saw for one day every quarter this guy shows up quite frequently. And usually unannounced, something the previous district manager never did. There's no doubt in my mind he's trying to catch my boss not following policies, and he has caught him at a few things, but nothing that would call for terminating him.
This district manager pretty much knows what is going on and is looking to catch my boss not doing his job. He's talked to people who have worked with my boss in our district in the past and has a pretty clear picture of what is going on.
Back in August this district manager called me 3 times in one week trying to wheedle information out of me about my boss and didn't like my response(s) to his calls. I neither confirmed, nor denied anything he'd heard or thought. I don't like to lie, but also didn't want to throw my boss under the bus. On the 3rd call I blew up at the district manager and told him to get off his ass and get down here and find out for himself what he was asking of me.
Basically my boss has been in hot water since this guy took over. But I can also say he's finally waking up and getting his act together. He's got a ways to go though and I'm not sure he's going to keep his job. It's a shame in one way because he's very capable of running the store if he'd just get off his ass and do it.
Adding insult to injury, so to speak, he hires back the Worthless Co-Worker. Her only redeeming quality is that she sells fairly well. She's also mentally unstable. I chose to describe her as mentally unstable rather than bat shit crazy because a lot of people will say someone is crazy. While I possess no degree in psychology I'm positive she's unstable.
So now the table is set and with the next post I will layout specifics on her actions and antics that is probably going to get my boss, and herself, fired before this circus act is over.
Stay tuned.... and stuff.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Remember When....
Remember when you could turn your television off and it didn't draw any electricity?
Or how about making toast in the morning. You popped in the bread, pushed the lever down, the bread toasted, popped up, and the toaster was off.
Or even your microwave?
Now nothing seems to be truly off unless it's unplugged. They have lighted numbers that stay on, or clocks that run continuously, or as in my television the brand name is lit up when the television is turned off.
(Trust me VIZIO, I don't need your name lit up to know what brand you are. You're actually not that impressive of a brand now that I think about it.)
What a waste, and I'm tired of having to unplug, or shut down power strips in an effort to conserve energy. But I'll continue because there is a tangible cost involved. As an experiment I didn't unplug anything, or shut down the power strips to various appliances in March. My electric bill was approximately $12.00 higher, and that's with electric heat, which I'm sure less was used due to February being a colder month than March.
Personally I don't need my microwave to tell me what time it is. I just need the damn thing to heat up whatever slop I've decided to throw down my gullet. I don't need a television to remind me what brand it is, whether on or off, it just needs to provide a viewable screen when I'm actually interested in watching whatever garbage a network is showing.
And my toaster? I'm not blind, so the damn numbers don't need to be lit to see that the toast is under toasted, or burnt. My eyesight and sense of smell are both intact, thank you very much.
I don't even want to get started about the power a shut off, but not powered down computer draws.
This is the type of stuff that keeps me up at night, or at least I blame when I wake up at 4:00 am in the morning. I need to blame something, or someone so today's target is these appliance manufacturers.
But I guess there's always a silver lining, as I'm working a couple of twelve hours days and had I woke up to an alarm I wouldn't have had time to make a blog post. I'm not too sure that balances out the tiredness I'll be experiencing later today though. Damn appliances anyway.
Or how about making toast in the morning. You popped in the bread, pushed the lever down, the bread toasted, popped up, and the toaster was off.
Or even your microwave?
Now nothing seems to be truly off unless it's unplugged. They have lighted numbers that stay on, or clocks that run continuously, or as in my television the brand name is lit up when the television is turned off.
(Trust me VIZIO, I don't need your name lit up to know what brand you are. You're actually not that impressive of a brand now that I think about it.)
What a waste, and I'm tired of having to unplug, or shut down power strips in an effort to conserve energy. But I'll continue because there is a tangible cost involved. As an experiment I didn't unplug anything, or shut down the power strips to various appliances in March. My electric bill was approximately $12.00 higher, and that's with electric heat, which I'm sure less was used due to February being a colder month than March.
Personally I don't need my microwave to tell me what time it is. I just need the damn thing to heat up whatever slop I've decided to throw down my gullet. I don't need a television to remind me what brand it is, whether on or off, it just needs to provide a viewable screen when I'm actually interested in watching whatever garbage a network is showing.
And my toaster? I'm not blind, so the damn numbers don't need to be lit to see that the toast is under toasted, or burnt. My eyesight and sense of smell are both intact, thank you very much.
I don't even want to get started about the power a shut off, but not powered down computer draws.
This is the type of stuff that keeps me up at night, or at least I blame when I wake up at 4:00 am in the morning. I need to blame something, or someone so today's target is these appliance manufacturers.
But I guess there's always a silver lining, as I'm working a couple of twelve hours days and had I woke up to an alarm I wouldn't have had time to make a blog post. I'm not too sure that balances out the tiredness I'll be experiencing later today though. Damn appliances anyway.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
I Want A "Do-Over" This Week
Car Problems? Check.
Computer problems? Check.
Work Problems? Check.
Monday started off as any other Monday for me. Wake up, eat some breakfast, shower, and head to work. The only problem is that my car apparently wanted the day off. Trudged back inside, called son the mechanic to make arrangements for car problem, then called taxi to ferry my ass to work that day. Relatively cheap repair as the shop where my son works gives healthy discounts to family members. Car tow, new starter, and new oil pan gasket replaced for less than $260.00. (Apparently small oil leak from oil pan shorted out starter.)
My daughter's car also felt it was time to rebel against her as well. She fried her clutch on Monday for the second time in the last year. This wasn't a complete surprise, but not one I saw coming quite this soon as we'd replaced her clutch last summer. The kid likes driving a stick, but driving a stick isn't her forte. Mom and Dad raided their respective "piggy banks" and shelled out about $4000.00 for a different car, with an automatic transmission to keep the kid mobile.
My computer has been dying a slow death. Not a huge surprise since it's over six-years-old and gets a lot of use. Talked to the "Geek Squad" at Best Buy and they summed up the problem in a few words. After doing some remedial math on repair costs versus a new computer cost a new desk top computer was purchased last night. Nothing fancy but another $525.00 down the drain. (Well not exactly $525.00 but who counts pennies?)
I worked the last couple of days with the new kid we recently hired. I've been pretty impressed with him honestly. He's pretty sharp and nothing like the "Worthless Co-Worker" he replaced. He informed me yesterday that his girlfriend dumped him the day before Valentine's day. I momentarily felt bad about this until he told me the reason for the dump. Apparently she doesn't want to move to the other side of the state with him for a new job he accepted. His last day is an undetermined day next week. The boss, who has been off the last two days, has yet to be informed. That will happen today I guess. I don't see him staying beyond this weekend because the new place that hired him wants him "immediately" and he's raring to go. Since I'm off today and tomorrow I'm guessing Saturday will actually be his last day.
So the hiring process commences again. Hopefully it won't take 3 months to get him replaced as it did with the "Worthless Co-Worker." I'm not holding my breath though as it always takes an ungodly amount of time to get people hired here. The one thing I do know is that the boss will be thrust into panic mode about this. March isn't a good month to be short handed for us as we do a couple of off-site sales events in addition to having a store to staff. Compounding this is his wife is pregnant and due in late March as well. He had planned to take one week of vacation when the baby arrived which probably isn't feasible now.
That's been my week so far, how's your week going?
Computer problems? Check.
Work Problems? Check.
Monday started off as any other Monday for me. Wake up, eat some breakfast, shower, and head to work. The only problem is that my car apparently wanted the day off. Trudged back inside, called son the mechanic to make arrangements for car problem, then called taxi to ferry my ass to work that day. Relatively cheap repair as the shop where my son works gives healthy discounts to family members. Car tow, new starter, and new oil pan gasket replaced for less than $260.00. (Apparently small oil leak from oil pan shorted out starter.)
My daughter's car also felt it was time to rebel against her as well. She fried her clutch on Monday for the second time in the last year. This wasn't a complete surprise, but not one I saw coming quite this soon as we'd replaced her clutch last summer. The kid likes driving a stick, but driving a stick isn't her forte. Mom and Dad raided their respective "piggy banks" and shelled out about $4000.00 for a different car, with an automatic transmission to keep the kid mobile.
My computer has been dying a slow death. Not a huge surprise since it's over six-years-old and gets a lot of use. Talked to the "Geek Squad" at Best Buy and they summed up the problem in a few words. After doing some remedial math on repair costs versus a new computer cost a new desk top computer was purchased last night. Nothing fancy but another $525.00 down the drain. (Well not exactly $525.00 but who counts pennies?)
I worked the last couple of days with the new kid we recently hired. I've been pretty impressed with him honestly. He's pretty sharp and nothing like the "Worthless Co-Worker" he replaced. He informed me yesterday that his girlfriend dumped him the day before Valentine's day. I momentarily felt bad about this until he told me the reason for the dump. Apparently she doesn't want to move to the other side of the state with him for a new job he accepted. His last day is an undetermined day next week. The boss, who has been off the last two days, has yet to be informed. That will happen today I guess. I don't see him staying beyond this weekend because the new place that hired him wants him "immediately" and he's raring to go. Since I'm off today and tomorrow I'm guessing Saturday will actually be his last day.
So the hiring process commences again. Hopefully it won't take 3 months to get him replaced as it did with the "Worthless Co-Worker." I'm not holding my breath though as it always takes an ungodly amount of time to get people hired here. The one thing I do know is that the boss will be thrust into panic mode about this. March isn't a good month to be short handed for us as we do a couple of off-site sales events in addition to having a store to staff. Compounding this is his wife is pregnant and due in late March as well. He had planned to take one week of vacation when the baby arrived which probably isn't feasible now.
That's been my week so far, how's your week going?
Sunday, February 13, 2011
The Only Thing Missing Is Fish
Ice fishing yesterday comprised of 11 hours of time, 3 different locations, and a crappy photographer. True to his word my kid drove right up to the first spot of fishing. In the first spot we fished at we were sitting on top of 22 feet of water with the fish finder showing a ton of fish under us. Unfortunately none of them were hungry as we sat there for two hours with nothing to show but a few weak bites.
Naturally this wouldn't do and my son the fishing fanatic decided we needed to move to another location. He was in a fishing tournament the previous weekend and decided that that's where the fish were. He also assured me it was a spot we could drive right up to like this first spot we tried. So we packed up and headed out to that spot. Again the second spot showed a ton of fish under us and we were sitting on top of 11 feet of water. We caught a ton of fish in second spot. Not one keeper in the bunch though. I don't think I've ever caught so many fish at one time as we did there. Every "Bambi" in this lake was biting, but not one fish worth keeping. (Or taking a picture of.)
The crappy photographer (me) failed to take any pictures of our second stop of the day, which was a shame. This spot was like a small city with hundreds of vehicles and ice shanties set up.
My son decided after a few hours in the second spot another relocation was called for. He was genuinely flummoxed by the lack of sizable fish being caught. The first spot we went to was his favorite spot and had never let him down before. The second spot he had done well in the weekend before.
As he was mulling different spots to move to he recalled me telling him where I used to catch a lot of fish when I was a kid and he'd never been there before. I reluctantly agreed to try this spot as he'd been bugging me in the past to go there. My reluctance was related to a couple of factors. One being we were talking about a spot that I hadn't ice fished in forty years. Two being there was no easy access to this spot and no way possible to drive right up to this spot. In other words we were going to be hauling 250 pounds of equipment on a hefty hike to get there. Welcome to my nightmare folks.
We arrive there and he's in love with the spot. There's about a dozen people set up in this area. It's a big area and a lot of deep water ranging from 40 to 60 feet deep in places. He decided to drill several test holes to set up the fish finder for the best spot. I swear I drug that ice shanty for over a mile as he went from spot to spot looking for fish. He wasn't pleased with the test results and I finally had to put my foot down, before collapsing with exhaustion, to tell him we weren't going to catch any fish by simply drilling holes in the ice.
We were seeing fish, just not the appropriate number to please him. He took pity on me and we finally set up in what he deemed was an acceptable location. And yeah, we didn't catch a thing worth keeping once again. We finally packed up and got off the ice before dark. I was beat. Him, not so much. He decided he wasn't done fishing for the day and decided he was heading to the "dam" to catch fish. When he asked me if I wanted to go I politely declined stated he was nuts. He got out his cell phone and called a friend and they made plans to hook up for a night of fishing.
A phone call from him later last night found him to be pretty happy. He was finally catching fish and wished I was there. I told him it wasn't the end of the world that we didn't do that well earlier in the day and maybe I was bad karma and all he really needed to do was to get rid of me to catch some fish worth keeping. He didn't quite buy into that so I imagine he's going to want to drag me out again in the future. Below are a few pictures, all from the first location we started out at.
Time to drill a hole
Truck sitting on top of 28 inches of ice.
Setting up the ice shanty.
Just about fully set up.
The kid in the shanty.
Fish (depth) finder to the left, heater in the center, my knee on the right.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Bow-legged Shuffle And A Missed Ride
Kids of every generation wear clothes that befuddle us old folks. Weirdly dyed hair, piercing of body parts not meant to be pierced occur, tattoos that are a bit much, and other oddities. For the most part I just shake my head in amusement quite frankly.
(Although apparently I'm not always amused. I remember my son coming home one night about 8 years ago when he was nineteen with blue hair. I do recall not saying anything though. As he walked into the living room and glanced over at me I apparently didn't hide my dismay very well. He also misinterpreted my look of dismay as one of anger because his first words were, "Dad, don't worry, it washes right out and I'm going to wash it out right now." I never uttered a word in response. I can say I think back on that night with amusement now though.)
There is one fad, or style, if you will, that seems to defy running its course though. (The use of the term style is used loosely here. The term running plays a role here though.) That's the wearing of pants hanging down somewhere between the bottom half of one's ass and one's knees.
It seems like the first time I saw young guys running around with their pants hanging off their asses was about 10 years ago. I remember thinking how ridiculous this latest "fad" or "style" was and that it couldn't last long. Apparently it has endured though because young guys still run around wanting to show us their boxers, or lack thereof of undergarments.
Watching them try to walk a straight line amuses me. They all invariably have to wear a belt cinched tightly to keep the pants somewhat held above their knees and can't actually walk placing their feet directly in front of them. Their feet have to shuffle forward, placed about a foot to the outside of their shoulders, to keep their pants from falling down around their ankles. Trying to run had to be hilarious, but until Sunday I hadn't seen that feat attempted.
I was standing outside Sunday at work taking a smoke break. The mall exit I do this by also serves as the bus stop exit. As I was standing out there the city bus was there and it was the last bus of the day coming/leaving the mall. As the bus started to pull away a young guy burst out of the mall and started running after the bus. At first I thought there was something wrong with the kid and he had some kind of disability by the way he was running. His legs were splayed way out to the right and left of him as he "shuffled" after the bus. His pants were losing altitude as the bus faded from my view, as well as his view. He finally gave up the chase, with his pants now located below his knees.
I wasn't laughing just yet though. Plenty of other people were though. He then started to shuffle back to the mall trying to pull his pants back up. This effort caused me to laugh. He kept yanking at them and they wouldn't come up over his knee area. Apparently the belt was cinched so tight he had to stop and release the belt buckle, then the pants nose dived around his ankles, with him then holding the belt in his hand as it slipped out of the belt loops in his pants completely. I had tears running down my face as he stood there with his pants down around his ankles and a belt dangling in one hand.
As he commenced his walk of shame shuffle back to the mall entrance I noticed he was a tad upset. Missing the last bus I surmised could do that I thought. Compounding that with the fact that I was still laughing encouraged him to threaten me with an "ass kicking" as well as he shuffled up to the mall entrance. Stupid kid. All this did was to get me laughing much harder at him. When I informed him threats from a kid who couldn't keep his pants up weren't to be taken seriously he muttered a few curse words at me and went back into the mall.
Gee, I sure hope he found a ride home.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Scarecrows Are Meant To Be Seen And Not Heard
The scarecrow in this instance is Sarah Palin.
The news has been dominated by the tragedy in Arizona the last few days. No surprise there. When a fruit loop kills and/or wounds twenty people it's not an insignificant event. There are people who feel Sarah Palin and her actions and rhetoric are somewhat responsible for this tragedy as well.
No one knows, at least as of yet, what drove Jared Loughner to do this. This guy is mentally unstable and what drove him to commit this heinous act could have a variety of factors involved. He may very well have been influenced by the rhetoric and actions of Sarah Palin, or not. There's enough hateful rhetoric spewed by all politicians to go around, especially over the last decade. Political and Religious rhetoric have simply gotten out of hand, and we've allowed it to happen. Politicians know this type of campaigning works, and that's what is truly shameful about the election process in this country. People buy into the rhetoric.
Sarah Palin isn't presidential material. I can easily say that despite the fact that I don't disagree with everything she spouts off about. She's very fond of telling us what is wrong in America, and there are things wrong in America today. Hell, that's easy to say. What I've never heard her utter is solutions to fixing what is wrong in America though. She's all rhetoric and sound bite.
(And, before going any further, I'm no fan of Obama either. He was simply the better choice in the last election, yet a poor choice at the same time.)
Sarah Palin is no more qualified to be a president than I am. And I'm not qualified in any way, shape, or form. But I do know there are several things I don't want in a president, as follows:
1) I don't want a president who quits when the going gets rough. Palin couldn't even finish a term as a governor, why would we expect that she could adequately do a much more demanding job? If she couldn't hack running a sparsely populated state how could she hack running a nation?
2) I don't want a reality TV star running my country. It's just simply not presidential.
3) I don't want someone who feels it was a great idea to post gun sight images on her web site(s) over congressional districts, or opposing politicians. Whether this was a factor in the tragedy in Arizona or not. Someone who aspires to be president shouldn't be this stupid and not know that this could possibly incite violence and unwanted actions. It was a childish maneuver period.
4) I want a presidential candidate with real solutions, not simply hateful rhetoric. It's easy to spout off about problems and not have any concrete solutions to problems. She's not wrong in stating that we have problems here. But everyone and anyone can do that. Someone who aspires to be president has to have solutions though.
Sadly, we haven't had a great, or even good president in quite some time. What's even sadder is that we've allowed this to happen. Apparently our expectations in the leader(s) of our country isn't too high. Personally I think we, as a country, can take some responsibility in the tragedy in Arizona. We've allowed politicians from all spectrum's to spew hateful vitriolic rhetoric. We've bought into it. Doesn't say too much about our intelligence or expectations does it?
The news has been dominated by the tragedy in Arizona the last few days. No surprise there. When a fruit loop kills and/or wounds twenty people it's not an insignificant event. There are people who feel Sarah Palin and her actions and rhetoric are somewhat responsible for this tragedy as well.
No one knows, at least as of yet, what drove Jared Loughner to do this. This guy is mentally unstable and what drove him to commit this heinous act could have a variety of factors involved. He may very well have been influenced by the rhetoric and actions of Sarah Palin, or not. There's enough hateful rhetoric spewed by all politicians to go around, especially over the last decade. Political and Religious rhetoric have simply gotten out of hand, and we've allowed it to happen. Politicians know this type of campaigning works, and that's what is truly shameful about the election process in this country. People buy into the rhetoric.
Sarah Palin isn't presidential material. I can easily say that despite the fact that I don't disagree with everything she spouts off about. She's very fond of telling us what is wrong in America, and there are things wrong in America today. Hell, that's easy to say. What I've never heard her utter is solutions to fixing what is wrong in America though. She's all rhetoric and sound bite.
(And, before going any further, I'm no fan of Obama either. He was simply the better choice in the last election, yet a poor choice at the same time.)
Sarah Palin is no more qualified to be a president than I am. And I'm not qualified in any way, shape, or form. But I do know there are several things I don't want in a president, as follows:
1) I don't want a president who quits when the going gets rough. Palin couldn't even finish a term as a governor, why would we expect that she could adequately do a much more demanding job? If she couldn't hack running a sparsely populated state how could she hack running a nation?
2) I don't want a reality TV star running my country. It's just simply not presidential.
3) I don't want someone who feels it was a great idea to post gun sight images on her web site(s) over congressional districts, or opposing politicians. Whether this was a factor in the tragedy in Arizona or not. Someone who aspires to be president shouldn't be this stupid and not know that this could possibly incite violence and unwanted actions. It was a childish maneuver period.
4) I want a presidential candidate with real solutions, not simply hateful rhetoric. It's easy to spout off about problems and not have any concrete solutions to problems. She's not wrong in stating that we have problems here. But everyone and anyone can do that. Someone who aspires to be president has to have solutions though.
Sadly, we haven't had a great, or even good president in quite some time. What's even sadder is that we've allowed this to happen. Apparently our expectations in the leader(s) of our country isn't too high. Personally I think we, as a country, can take some responsibility in the tragedy in Arizona. We've allowed politicians from all spectrum's to spew hateful vitriolic rhetoric. We've bought into it. Doesn't say too much about our intelligence or expectations does it?
Monday, January 3, 2011
Feeling Poorly
I get paid every two weeks.
Scratch that.
I'm supposed to get paid every two weeks.
A few months ago my paycheck was delayed, along with the (ex)Worthless Co-Workers. At that time this was a minor annoyance to me and a life shattering event to the (ex)Worthless Co-Worker. The payroll department blamed it on the postal service, which may have been the reason for all I know. That incident caused the (ex)Worthless Co-Worker to lose her mind. (What little she possessed anyway.) She thoroughly pissed off everyone in the payroll department with wild accusations of why she didn't receive her paycheck. Sadly comical.
I can't honestly totally buy into blaming the postal service though myself. The (ex)Worthless Co-Worker and I lived in different towns so that would mean two different postal offices would have been involved in this dastardly conspiracy. We did both receive our checks though about 2 days later after informing payroll about the lack of funds. My guess is they simply forgot to mail them and when notified about it someone noticed them sitting somewhere in the payroll department, then threw them in the mail.
Neither she nor I had made use of direct payroll deposit, so our checks were mailed to us. Hers was mailed because her credit was so bad that no bank would let her have a checking account. I simply like paper paychecks and waiting an additional day or two is no big deal to me.
I may have to rethink that now.
My last payday was Friday. Meaning Friday, of the Christmas Eve variety. Like ten days ago. Since they mail payroll checks on Thursday nights I wasn't too concerned with the lack of a paycheck for a few days, holidays and all. I figured I'd have to wait until last Tuesday at the latest for a check to arrive.
Tuesday arrived, right on schedule, but no check.
Wednesday arrived, as it always does after a Tuesday, but no check.
Slight concern crowded my mind, but I remembered from the last incident that in the payroll policy it states somewhere to allow a week for a check to arrive before whining to payroll about a lack of a paycheck. No problem.
Thursday arrived. A day off for me. (Gotta love days off.)
And as you've probably already guessed, no paycheck. Moderate concern now. Hey, I'm not a rich guy by any means and I'd just spent a truckload of money on Christmas. I was feeling a bit of a cash crunch. Still not quite an earth shattering event though. Since I was off and knew no one in corporate would be working on Friday I called the boss and asked him to call corporate to inform them that I hadn't been paid yet, and to look around and see if maybe they had forgotten to mail it. Since last payday was Christmas Eve I figured things were probably hectic for that department and getting them into the mail just may have been overlooked. I fully realize mistakes can be made and shit happens.
He dutifully calls and no one is there. They left at noon to start the New Year's weekend early apparently.
Friday arrived and yet again, no paycheck.
So Monday (today) rolls around and I get a phone call from the payroll department based off the message the boss left for them last Thursday. The lady was a total bitch. Apparently she had me confused with the (ex)Worthless Co-Worker, or the boss left a nasty message last week. In her opinion it's my fault for not receiving my check because I don't do direct deposit. (Just when I was thinking about going that route her attitude about it probably has me not electing to go that way now.) She informed me how hard it is to mail a paycheck. When I asked how much harder it could be than sending a copy of the paycheck to everyone, regardless if they have direct deposit it or not, she totally flipped out. They mail a pay stub to everyone. I also pointed out that my boss had received, in the mail, his pay stub, and he does direct deposit.
After her tirade about me not joining the 21st century and doing direct deposit she asked me what I wanted her to do.
Well, 'effin duh, pay me, perhaps?
I remained civil, surprisingly so. My boss is a little nervous though. He knows how I normally react to bitches/assholes.
I informed the bitch that I would check my mail tonight when I get home from work and if it wasn't there I'd call her tomorrow and they'd have to resend it, then I hung up without waiting for a reply from her. Naturally I'm the bad guy here because within 10 minutes of me hanging up the boss calls me and asked why I hung up on this bitch. She apparently lit into him and told him a bunch of bs about our phone call. Seething, I told him exactly went on with this crazy bitch.
I almost hope there's no paycheck in my mailbox when I get home tonight now. Since she feels I was the asshole in our conversation today she's going to get her wish tomorrow if there's no check.
Since I'm down to $17.00 dollars in my wallet and the need of gas and cigarettes are on the horizon I'll have to stop at my bank on the way to work to pull some money out of savings. I absolutely hate pulling money out of savings. I like money to stay there once I put it there. But I'm doing it, and I'm not going the direct deposit route now. If it's truly harder to process my paycheck for her I have no intention of making this bitches job any easier.
As I'm sitting here, getting more and more pissed, I know exactly what I'm going to do, even as much as it hurts to pull money out of savings I'm going to pull out $200.00 in cash. (I'm a big fan of cash availability.) I'm also going to transfer $2000.00 from savings to checking so that I can ride out any more crap like this in the future. (Should it occur again.)
And tomorrow, if there's no check, I'll be calling payroll with the boss present, with her and I on speaker phone, so he can hear this silly bitch rant and rave.
The saddest part of all this is I don't care if they screwed up and simply forgot to mail the damn check. I just want it mailed. Mistakes happen. Should this be the case and she simply forgot to mail it, she'll never admit to it though. She's not the type of person who admits to making a mistake in my opinion.
Scratch that.
I'm supposed to get paid every two weeks.
A few months ago my paycheck was delayed, along with the (ex)Worthless Co-Workers. At that time this was a minor annoyance to me and a life shattering event to the (ex)Worthless Co-Worker. The payroll department blamed it on the postal service, which may have been the reason for all I know. That incident caused the (ex)Worthless Co-Worker to lose her mind. (What little she possessed anyway.) She thoroughly pissed off everyone in the payroll department with wild accusations of why she didn't receive her paycheck. Sadly comical.
I can't honestly totally buy into blaming the postal service though myself. The (ex)Worthless Co-Worker and I lived in different towns so that would mean two different postal offices would have been involved in this dastardly conspiracy. We did both receive our checks though about 2 days later after informing payroll about the lack of funds. My guess is they simply forgot to mail them and when notified about it someone noticed them sitting somewhere in the payroll department, then threw them in the mail.
Neither she nor I had made use of direct payroll deposit, so our checks were mailed to us. Hers was mailed because her credit was so bad that no bank would let her have a checking account. I simply like paper paychecks and waiting an additional day or two is no big deal to me.
I may have to rethink that now.
My last payday was Friday. Meaning Friday, of the Christmas Eve variety. Like ten days ago. Since they mail payroll checks on Thursday nights I wasn't too concerned with the lack of a paycheck for a few days, holidays and all. I figured I'd have to wait until last Tuesday at the latest for a check to arrive.
Tuesday arrived, right on schedule, but no check.
Wednesday arrived, as it always does after a Tuesday, but no check.
Slight concern crowded my mind, but I remembered from the last incident that in the payroll policy it states somewhere to allow a week for a check to arrive before whining to payroll about a lack of a paycheck. No problem.
Thursday arrived. A day off for me. (Gotta love days off.)
And as you've probably already guessed, no paycheck. Moderate concern now. Hey, I'm not a rich guy by any means and I'd just spent a truckload of money on Christmas. I was feeling a bit of a cash crunch. Still not quite an earth shattering event though. Since I was off and knew no one in corporate would be working on Friday I called the boss and asked him to call corporate to inform them that I hadn't been paid yet, and to look around and see if maybe they had forgotten to mail it. Since last payday was Christmas Eve I figured things were probably hectic for that department and getting them into the mail just may have been overlooked. I fully realize mistakes can be made and shit happens.
He dutifully calls and no one is there. They left at noon to start the New Year's weekend early apparently.
Friday arrived and yet again, no paycheck.
So Monday (today) rolls around and I get a phone call from the payroll department based off the message the boss left for them last Thursday. The lady was a total bitch. Apparently she had me confused with the (ex)Worthless Co-Worker, or the boss left a nasty message last week. In her opinion it's my fault for not receiving my check because I don't do direct deposit. (Just when I was thinking about going that route her attitude about it probably has me not electing to go that way now.) She informed me how hard it is to mail a paycheck. When I asked how much harder it could be than sending a copy of the paycheck to everyone, regardless if they have direct deposit it or not, she totally flipped out. They mail a pay stub to everyone. I also pointed out that my boss had received, in the mail, his pay stub, and he does direct deposit.
After her tirade about me not joining the 21st century and doing direct deposit she asked me what I wanted her to do.
Well, 'effin duh, pay me, perhaps?
I remained civil, surprisingly so. My boss is a little nervous though. He knows how I normally react to bitches/assholes.
I informed the bitch that I would check my mail tonight when I get home from work and if it wasn't there I'd call her tomorrow and they'd have to resend it, then I hung up without waiting for a reply from her. Naturally I'm the bad guy here because within 10 minutes of me hanging up the boss calls me and asked why I hung up on this bitch. She apparently lit into him and told him a bunch of bs about our phone call. Seething, I told him exactly went on with this crazy bitch.
I almost hope there's no paycheck in my mailbox when I get home tonight now. Since she feels I was the asshole in our conversation today she's going to get her wish tomorrow if there's no check.
Since I'm down to $17.00 dollars in my wallet and the need of gas and cigarettes are on the horizon I'll have to stop at my bank on the way to work to pull some money out of savings. I absolutely hate pulling money out of savings. I like money to stay there once I put it there. But I'm doing it, and I'm not going the direct deposit route now. If it's truly harder to process my paycheck for her I have no intention of making this bitches job any easier.
As I'm sitting here, getting more and more pissed, I know exactly what I'm going to do, even as much as it hurts to pull money out of savings I'm going to pull out $200.00 in cash. (I'm a big fan of cash availability.) I'm also going to transfer $2000.00 from savings to checking so that I can ride out any more crap like this in the future. (Should it occur again.)
And tomorrow, if there's no check, I'll be calling payroll with the boss present, with her and I on speaker phone, so he can hear this silly bitch rant and rave.
The saddest part of all this is I don't care if they screwed up and simply forgot to mail the damn check. I just want it mailed. Mistakes happen. Should this be the case and she simply forgot to mail it, she'll never admit to it though. She's not the type of person who admits to making a mistake in my opinion.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Life Has Become Like A Never Ending Shampoo
Yes, life is just a daily lather and rinse job, then repeat. I'm feeling a little less than human, and more mundane machine like. I almost miss the ex-Worthless Co-Worker. (Key word being almost.) There is some news about her though, albeit mostly rumors and odd facts. We'll get to that in a bit.
The last week has been mostly irritant free when it comes to dealing with customers. I guess all the assholes got their shopping done earlier this month. Now that I've typed that I'm sure that'll change with the few shopping days left before Christmas.
I did have a confrontation with the mall marketing manager the week before last. She's a piece of work. She seems to think she can tell stores how to operate on a daily basis. When I pointed out that she's just simply a marketing manager and has no say in how we operate she went off the deep end, which resulted in me going off on a much deeper end on her ass. To make a long story short she was trying to impress two friends she had in the mall one day and crossed my path in her efforts to impress them.
Then she made the mistake of going to the mall manager and telling her tale of woe about me. (She really doesn't like me much apparently.) Stupid woman. She forgot that there were several witnesses to our encounter as it happened in front of our store and her story didn't match up with mine, nor the witnesses. So she ended up getting her ass chewed and told to simply do her own job, and quit interfering with store operations.
We haven't seen her since, which is upsetting to the witnesses to our encounter as they're the guys in the Verizon Wireless kiosk in front of our store. They're young guys and like ogling her as she struts up and down the mall, as long as that's all she does and doesn't stop and talk to them. I guess I've reached an age where a good looking, but snobby control type bitch isn't worth ogling over. I hope she never comes to our end of the mall ever again myself.
There's that I guess. Now we can cover the exploits of the ex-Worthless Co-Worker.
1) From a mall janitor -- He stated that he knew the ex-Worthless Co-Worker didn't go to Israel and get married and that she moved into her mother's home about 40 miles away. This didn't turn out to be true though.
Because.....
2) Two days later a sister of the ex-Worthless Co-Worker stopped in and said that she did indeed go to Israel with the "spiritual husband" to get married last week. This ended up being partially true.
Because....
3) A few days later another sister of hers stopped in and told us that they did go to Israel but the ex-Worthless Co-Worker refused to get married while there. Apparently there's trouble in paradise. (Big surprise there, huh?) So they're back in the states and she's going to move to New Mexico and live with the guy, but they're just going to be friends. I think this move has occurred already. I'm not quite sure though as this information was gleaned from the boss as I wasn't there when this sister popped into the store.
4) Last night a couple popped into the store and asked me if I missed her. I told them no, then asked how they knew her. They owned the apartment building and rented to her. They were very happy to see she's gone. She was perpetually late with rent and apparently a pig as well. They stated it took them 3 days to clean her apartment once she was out. That part surprised me a bit because the ex-Worthless Co-Worker was always talking about how often she cleaned. Far from a clean freak in their words.
I can't believe it's been a week since my last post here. I'll be glad when the Christmas is over with from a work standpoint. Hopefully I can get back to regular posting. I kind of miss this blogging stuff. I'm hoping I'll have time to put together another post before Christmas, if not, I'd like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and thank you for coming here and reading my drivel. I hope Santa fills your stockings with things you like, and stuff.
The last week has been mostly irritant free when it comes to dealing with customers. I guess all the assholes got their shopping done earlier this month. Now that I've typed that I'm sure that'll change with the few shopping days left before Christmas.
I did have a confrontation with the mall marketing manager the week before last. She's a piece of work. She seems to think she can tell stores how to operate on a daily basis. When I pointed out that she's just simply a marketing manager and has no say in how we operate she went off the deep end, which resulted in me going off on a much deeper end on her ass. To make a long story short she was trying to impress two friends she had in the mall one day and crossed my path in her efforts to impress them.
Then she made the mistake of going to the mall manager and telling her tale of woe about me. (She really doesn't like me much apparently.) Stupid woman. She forgot that there were several witnesses to our encounter as it happened in front of our store and her story didn't match up with mine, nor the witnesses. So she ended up getting her ass chewed and told to simply do her own job, and quit interfering with store operations.
We haven't seen her since, which is upsetting to the witnesses to our encounter as they're the guys in the Verizon Wireless kiosk in front of our store. They're young guys and like ogling her as she struts up and down the mall, as long as that's all she does and doesn't stop and talk to them. I guess I've reached an age where a good looking, but snobby control type bitch isn't worth ogling over. I hope she never comes to our end of the mall ever again myself.
There's that I guess. Now we can cover the exploits of the ex-Worthless Co-Worker.
1) From a mall janitor -- He stated that he knew the ex-Worthless Co-Worker didn't go to Israel and get married and that she moved into her mother's home about 40 miles away. This didn't turn out to be true though.
Because.....
2) Two days later a sister of the ex-Worthless Co-Worker stopped in and said that she did indeed go to Israel with the "spiritual husband" to get married last week. This ended up being partially true.
Because....
3) A few days later another sister of hers stopped in and told us that they did go to Israel but the ex-Worthless Co-Worker refused to get married while there. Apparently there's trouble in paradise. (Big surprise there, huh?) So they're back in the states and she's going to move to New Mexico and live with the guy, but they're just going to be friends. I think this move has occurred already. I'm not quite sure though as this information was gleaned from the boss as I wasn't there when this sister popped into the store.
4) Last night a couple popped into the store and asked me if I missed her. I told them no, then asked how they knew her. They owned the apartment building and rented to her. They were very happy to see she's gone. She was perpetually late with rent and apparently a pig as well. They stated it took them 3 days to clean her apartment once she was out. That part surprised me a bit because the ex-Worthless Co-Worker was always talking about how often she cleaned. Far from a clean freak in their words.
I can't believe it's been a week since my last post here. I'll be glad when the Christmas is over with from a work standpoint. Hopefully I can get back to regular posting. I kind of miss this blogging stuff. I'm hoping I'll have time to put together another post before Christmas, if not, I'd like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and thank you for coming here and reading my drivel. I hope Santa fills your stockings with things you like, and stuff.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Sometimes The Little Guys Win
Saturday was a day of stupidity and greed. This time of the year is no fun working retail. Understaffed compounds this issue, but I've accepted it as it's one of the facts of retail that the Christmas shopping season involves ridiculous hours, understaffed or not. (While I've accepted it I still reserve the right to bitch about it though.)
This is my ninth year of working retail. Our mall has shut down twice due to snow storms in that time frame. They have no regard for the safety of employees, or customers for that matter. It's all about money. Saturday was no exception. The following is the weather warning I saw when I returned home from work. Note that it says an additional 2 to 5 inches of snow is expected. That doesn't sound so bad does it. That "additional amount" is going to be placed on the 15.9 inches we received as of 5:30 pm Saturday though.
BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL NOON CST SUNDAY... A BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL NOON CST SUNDAY. * DANGEROUS BLIZZARD CONDITIONS AND WHITEOUTS WILL CONTINUE INTO SUNDAY MORNING. WINDS OF 25 TO 35 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 45 MPH... COMBINED WITH HEAVY SNOW...WILL CAUSE ZERO VISIBILITY...WILL CLOSE ROADS AND POSSIBLY PREVENT EMERGENCY SERVICES...AND MAY PRODUCE POWER OUTAGES. * LOOK FOR HEAVY SNOW TO CONTINUE OVERNIGHT...THEN GRADUALLY DIMINISH AFTER MIDNIGHT. AN ADDITIONAL 2 TO 5 INCHES OF SNOW IS POSSIBLE BY SUNDAY MORNING. * SUSTAINED WIND SPEEDS OF 25 TO 35 MPH WITH GUSTS TO NEAR 45 MPH WILL CAUSE BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW AND BLIZZARD CONDITIONS INTO SUNDAY MORNING. * PLAN ON WIND CHILLS TO DROP TO 15 TO 25 BELOW ZERO AFTER MIDNIGHT TONIGHT AND TO 20 TO 30 BELOW ZERO SUNDAY MORNING. * ONLY EMERGENCY TRAVEL IS RECOMMENDED.
The mall opened Saturday at 7:00 am. No surprise there. At that time we had about 4 inches of snow on the ground and driving was still tolerable. I was scheduled to work from 1:00 pm to 10:00 pm. At about 9:00 am the snow picked up considerably and the wind was increasing. I called the boss to tell him I was probably going to come in earlier than scheduled. I knew the mall wasn't going to close so I figured I might as well go in early to have at least a chance of the trip to work being a little bit safer than waiting until my scheduled time to go in.
I left for work at 11:00 am and a normal 20 minute drive took just under 40 minutes. As I was driving to work my thought was that this storm would be the one where the mall would actually close early. The brunt of the storm was supposed to hit that afternoon and go through Sunday morning. That rational thought proved unfounded though.
When I arrived at work I was surprised at the number of people that were actually shopping. No there wasn't a lot of them by any means. I'd estimate that the mall had about a fourth of the traffic it normally would on a Saturday. Road conditions were bad, and only getting worse. Plows were being called off the roads for safety reasons.
The mall manager had apparently been in the mall about 8:00 am to simply announce that there was no way the mall was going to close on a Saturday during the Christmas season for whatever reason. Naturally he was long gone and safely tucked in at home by the time I arrived at the mall.
As the boss and I observed the traffic that was in the mall at about noon I was getting pissed. Most of the traffic in the mall was parents with babies and toddlers in strollers. Now I figure if adults want to put themselves in peril and go out in weather like this it's one thing. I couldn't believe they'd risk the safety of little kids though. To. Go. Fucking. Shopping. Never mind there is still two weeks until Christmas and ample time to shop when the weather is much better and driving is much less risky. Morons to the highest degree.
At 1:30 pm the mall was finally a ghost town. There were a few shoppers left. I surmise they were just stopping by the mall before attending a Mensa meeting since they had to be highly intelligent people to be out and about still. (In all reality they were examples of the demise of Darwin's Theory of survival of the fittest.)
Mall security was having a field day with accidents in the parking lots surrounding the mall. As I went out for a smoke break at about 3:00 pm I noticed three cars were involved in a fender bender. Apparently as someone was backing out of a parking spot another car couldn't, or wouldn't stop, and hit them. This pushed the car that was backing out of a parking spot into the car that parked next to them. A car that looked suspiciously a lot like my boss' car. It was hard to tell at the time though since the car was covered with about a foot of snow and I didn't honestly think it was his. Sadly it was as security called the boss about 30 minutes later to let him know.
The snow was coming down hard and the wind was blowing like crazy. Visibility was down to about 50 yards. When I went back inside I told the boss whether the mall was closing or not 4:30 pm was my limit. I figured that would give me about 30 minutes of daylight left to try and get home. He called the mall manager and the mall manager reiterated that the mall was not going to close and that if any store closed the mall would fine them.
Now my boss is a very nice guy, a definite rule follower. He finally grew a set of balls though and informed the mall manager to fine away, we were closing at 4:30 pm. I think the fact that someone hit his vehicle set him off. His car didn't sustain a lot of damage but the dent in his rear panel and cracked tail light lens were enough to send him over the edge. This was about 3:40 pm and he was scheduled to go home at 4:00 pm.
Within 5 minutes of hanging up with the mall manager a security guard shows up because the mall manager called them and told them to come to our store and stress that we couldn't close and that we would be fined if we did.
The boss went into full crazy mode. It was amazing. He told the security guard to get lost and we commenced closing right then and there. As we were shutting down equipment and lights other store personal started to show up to see what we were doing.
A movement was born. It was a domino effect and other stores started shutting down. We walked out of the mall at about 4:10 pm and roughly 50% of the stores were closed, or in the process of closing. Tomorrow should be an interesting day at work I'd say.
And the drive home, you know the one, where it normally takes about 20 minutes? It took slightly over an hour. There were cars all over the place and the ditches were full of them. The only people making any money yesterday were the tow truck companies, because people weren't bright enough to stay home.
It's amazing how greed and stupidity prevail over common sense.
This is my ninth year of working retail. Our mall has shut down twice due to snow storms in that time frame. They have no regard for the safety of employees, or customers for that matter. It's all about money. Saturday was no exception. The following is the weather warning I saw when I returned home from work. Note that it says an additional 2 to 5 inches of snow is expected. That doesn't sound so bad does it. That "additional amount" is going to be placed on the 15.9 inches we received as of 5:30 pm Saturday though.
BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL NOON CST SUNDAY... A BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL NOON CST SUNDAY. * DANGEROUS BLIZZARD CONDITIONS AND WHITEOUTS WILL CONTINUE INTO SUNDAY MORNING. WINDS OF 25 TO 35 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 45 MPH... COMBINED WITH HEAVY SNOW...WILL CAUSE ZERO VISIBILITY...WILL CLOSE ROADS AND POSSIBLY PREVENT EMERGENCY SERVICES...AND MAY PRODUCE POWER OUTAGES. * LOOK FOR HEAVY SNOW TO CONTINUE OVERNIGHT...THEN GRADUALLY DIMINISH AFTER MIDNIGHT. AN ADDITIONAL 2 TO 5 INCHES OF SNOW IS POSSIBLE BY SUNDAY MORNING. * SUSTAINED WIND SPEEDS OF 25 TO 35 MPH WITH GUSTS TO NEAR 45 MPH WILL CAUSE BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW AND BLIZZARD CONDITIONS INTO SUNDAY MORNING. * PLAN ON WIND CHILLS TO DROP TO 15 TO 25 BELOW ZERO AFTER MIDNIGHT TONIGHT AND TO 20 TO 30 BELOW ZERO SUNDAY MORNING. * ONLY EMERGENCY TRAVEL IS RECOMMENDED.
The mall opened Saturday at 7:00 am. No surprise there. At that time we had about 4 inches of snow on the ground and driving was still tolerable. I was scheduled to work from 1:00 pm to 10:00 pm. At about 9:00 am the snow picked up considerably and the wind was increasing. I called the boss to tell him I was probably going to come in earlier than scheduled. I knew the mall wasn't going to close so I figured I might as well go in early to have at least a chance of the trip to work being a little bit safer than waiting until my scheduled time to go in.
I left for work at 11:00 am and a normal 20 minute drive took just under 40 minutes. As I was driving to work my thought was that this storm would be the one where the mall would actually close early. The brunt of the storm was supposed to hit that afternoon and go through Sunday morning. That rational thought proved unfounded though.
When I arrived at work I was surprised at the number of people that were actually shopping. No there wasn't a lot of them by any means. I'd estimate that the mall had about a fourth of the traffic it normally would on a Saturday. Road conditions were bad, and only getting worse. Plows were being called off the roads for safety reasons.
The mall manager had apparently been in the mall about 8:00 am to simply announce that there was no way the mall was going to close on a Saturday during the Christmas season for whatever reason. Naturally he was long gone and safely tucked in at home by the time I arrived at the mall.
As the boss and I observed the traffic that was in the mall at about noon I was getting pissed. Most of the traffic in the mall was parents with babies and toddlers in strollers. Now I figure if adults want to put themselves in peril and go out in weather like this it's one thing. I couldn't believe they'd risk the safety of little kids though. To. Go. Fucking. Shopping. Never mind there is still two weeks until Christmas and ample time to shop when the weather is much better and driving is much less risky. Morons to the highest degree.
At 1:30 pm the mall was finally a ghost town. There were a few shoppers left. I surmise they were just stopping by the mall before attending a Mensa meeting since they had to be highly intelligent people to be out and about still. (In all reality they were examples of the demise of Darwin's Theory of survival of the fittest.)
Mall security was having a field day with accidents in the parking lots surrounding the mall. As I went out for a smoke break at about 3:00 pm I noticed three cars were involved in a fender bender. Apparently as someone was backing out of a parking spot another car couldn't, or wouldn't stop, and hit them. This pushed the car that was backing out of a parking spot into the car that parked next to them. A car that looked suspiciously a lot like my boss' car. It was hard to tell at the time though since the car was covered with about a foot of snow and I didn't honestly think it was his. Sadly it was as security called the boss about 30 minutes later to let him know.
The snow was coming down hard and the wind was blowing like crazy. Visibility was down to about 50 yards. When I went back inside I told the boss whether the mall was closing or not 4:30 pm was my limit. I figured that would give me about 30 minutes of daylight left to try and get home. He called the mall manager and the mall manager reiterated that the mall was not going to close and that if any store closed the mall would fine them.
Now my boss is a very nice guy, a definite rule follower. He finally grew a set of balls though and informed the mall manager to fine away, we were closing at 4:30 pm. I think the fact that someone hit his vehicle set him off. His car didn't sustain a lot of damage but the dent in his rear panel and cracked tail light lens were enough to send him over the edge. This was about 3:40 pm and he was scheduled to go home at 4:00 pm.
Within 5 minutes of hanging up with the mall manager a security guard shows up because the mall manager called them and told them to come to our store and stress that we couldn't close and that we would be fined if we did.
The boss went into full crazy mode. It was amazing. He told the security guard to get lost and we commenced closing right then and there. As we were shutting down equipment and lights other store personal started to show up to see what we were doing.
A movement was born. It was a domino effect and other stores started shutting down. We walked out of the mall at about 4:10 pm and roughly 50% of the stores were closed, or in the process of closing. Tomorrow should be an interesting day at work I'd say.
And the drive home, you know the one, where it normally takes about 20 minutes? It took slightly over an hour. There were cars all over the place and the ditches were full of them. The only people making any money yesterday were the tow truck companies, because people weren't bright enough to stay home.
It's amazing how greed and stupidity prevail over common sense.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Still Here, Somewhat
This was supposed to be the week the boss and I allowed ourselves two days off from work before the holiday hours really get extended. So yesterday and today were my "scheduled" days off.
And not so much.
The boss decided to be sick yesterday, thus giving him (essentially) 3 days off this week.
I'm not liking him much right now.
Oh, he was actually sick, this time anyway. But he's always never "feeling well." I have a little trouble drumming up appropriate sympathy for him when he's actually 'illen because he always seems to be sick.
He did manage to open the store yesterday and put in about 3 hours before calling me and begging me to come in. I guess a 10 hour day is better than a 13 hour day. But I was definitely bummed because I had just worked two 13 hour days and was looking forward to time off.
So far, so good today. He knows he better be on his deathbed if he calls today.
I've got my babysitting gig to attend to this afternoon. This is a gig I actually look forward to every week. I get to hang out with my "not quite two-year-old" granddaughter.
It's one of life's little pleasures for me.
We've been short-handed for over a month now. It's so hard to believe we can't get a qualified candidate hired, especially with the unemployment rate hovering near ten percent.
I can't wait for the Christmas "shopping" season to be over with. The extra money I'm making doesn't compensate for the time off I'm quite fond of and missing.
So that's today's whiny ass post for you.
And not so much.
The boss decided to be sick yesterday, thus giving him (essentially) 3 days off this week.
I'm not liking him much right now.
Oh, he was actually sick, this time anyway. But he's always never "feeling well." I have a little trouble drumming up appropriate sympathy for him when he's actually 'illen because he always seems to be sick.
He did manage to open the store yesterday and put in about 3 hours before calling me and begging me to come in. I guess a 10 hour day is better than a 13 hour day. But I was definitely bummed because I had just worked two 13 hour days and was looking forward to time off.
So far, so good today. He knows he better be on his deathbed if he calls today.
I've got my babysitting gig to attend to this afternoon. This is a gig I actually look forward to every week. I get to hang out with my "not quite two-year-old" granddaughter.
It's one of life's little pleasures for me.
We've been short-handed for over a month now. It's so hard to believe we can't get a qualified candidate hired, especially with the unemployment rate hovering near ten percent.
I can't wait for the Christmas "shopping" season to be over with. The extra money I'm making doesn't compensate for the time off I'm quite fond of and missing.
So that's today's whiny ass post for you.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
I'm Going To Make The Best Out Of Working Black Friday
As some of you know I'm less than thrilled with working on Black Friday. Not the work itself, but the fact that I'll be getting up at 3:30 am to cater to shoppers who should still be in bed themselves.
But I'm going to make the best of it.
I'm actually going to pass on a little Christmas cheer as well.
Because, as you all know, Christmas is all about giving. Pictured below is a twenty dollar bill. I'm going to strategically place these throughout the mall for people to find. (Along with some ten and fifty dollar bills.)
I'm going to bask in the happiness of the lucky shoppers who will discover these bills as they stampede through the mall in search of getting their loved ones the perfect gift.
I can see the smiles I'm going to be bringing to about 15 lucky people who find these bills.
Of course there's a catch. As you stroll through this post you'll see for yourselves.
As they bend over to pick up these bills thinking how lucky they are they're bound to flip it over to see:
But they all will hear a voice say "Merry Christmas, and please dispose of them properly."
(Well, some of them will, if I'm not busy helping the customers stampeding through our store as these are discovered.)
Monday, November 15, 2010
Guess Who's Looking For A Job
There's a saying that all good things must come to an end.
That was brought home "with a vengeance" yesterday for me.
There are probably many of you sitting there reading this and saying to yourselves, "No surprise to me."
I've posted many different times about this situation here. Many of you have read along with the tales spun here and have had to think, "How does this person manage to tie their shoes correctly, let alone keep a job with their stupidity displayed so often."
You may have even thought with the last post written here that that has to be the icing on the cake. This person has just gone too far, and needs to be unemployed, maybe even institutionalized.
I shudder to even contemplate the process to find new employment, especially this time of year. For one, it's getting cold out there. I'd hate the thought of running around in the cold begging for a job, or maybe even begging to keep/get my old job back.
(Because yes, there was begging involved, even some tears.)
Thank God, I'm not writing about myself here though.
(Although I'm wondering how many comments I'll be receiving consoling me on the loss of a job by people who skim through here and have failed to read this far.
And seriously,
I'm awesome at my job, despite the fact I can't tie my shoes, and the need to be institutionalized.)
The (ex) Worthless Co-Worker is back in town after quitting here a little more than two weeks ago.
After selling off most of her worldly possessions and running off to New Mexico to be with her "spiritual husband" she's slunk her way back into town, perhaps a little wiser in the way of the world. Perhaps, being the key word here. I wouldn't hold my breath on that one though. She is incredibly stupid.
Apparently "Mr. Wonderful" isn't so wonderful after all. So she's back in town, broke, which isn't new frankly, and homeless, somewhat anyway. She's staying with a sister apparently.
She popped into the store yesterday afternoon with her tale of woe. We were busy so I didn't catch all of it myself. The boss was the recipient of her rambling story of her life over the last couple of weeks. She's a crazy bitch, that one.
She figured since she's "only" been gone for two weeks she should get her job back. In her opinion we should, or the company rather, just consider the last two weeks as vacation time. She feels she should be allowed to just pick up where she left off basically.
When this delusional thought of hers was debunked by the boss the tears flowed freely. There were two of us crying actually. One with utter despair, mine with laughter. Her inability to grasp reality was just too much. I did manage to wait until after she left to display my tears though. I'm not a totally heartless bastard after all.
Naturally, there's a moral to this story. Maybe, just maybe, a woman shouldn't run off halfway across the country with plans to marry a guy they've never actually met in person. It's certainly something most people would think would be wise. Oddly enough, I can see her doing this again though. She's not "most people" in any sense of the word(s). She is actually that stupid to repeat this again, as far as I can see.
So while she's not coming back here to work, I did implore her to keep in touch. She's handy for blog fodder after all.
That was brought home "with a vengeance" yesterday for me.
There are probably many of you sitting there reading this and saying to yourselves, "No surprise to me."
I've posted many different times about this situation here. Many of you have read along with the tales spun here and have had to think, "How does this person manage to tie their shoes correctly, let alone keep a job with their stupidity displayed so often."
You may have even thought with the last post written here that that has to be the icing on the cake. This person has just gone too far, and needs to be unemployed, maybe even institutionalized.
I shudder to even contemplate the process to find new employment, especially this time of year. For one, it's getting cold out there. I'd hate the thought of running around in the cold begging for a job, or maybe even begging to keep/get my old job back.
(Because yes, there was begging involved, even some tears.)
Thank God, I'm not writing about myself here though.
(Although I'm wondering how many comments I'll be receiving consoling me on the loss of a job by people who skim through here and have failed to read this far.
And seriously,
I'm awesome at my job, despite the fact I can't tie my shoes, and the need to be institutionalized.)
The (ex) Worthless Co-Worker is back in town after quitting here a little more than two weeks ago.
After selling off most of her worldly possessions and running off to New Mexico to be with her "spiritual husband" she's slunk her way back into town, perhaps a little wiser in the way of the world. Perhaps, being the key word here. I wouldn't hold my breath on that one though. She is incredibly stupid.
Apparently "Mr. Wonderful" isn't so wonderful after all. So she's back in town, broke, which isn't new frankly, and homeless, somewhat anyway. She's staying with a sister apparently.
She popped into the store yesterday afternoon with her tale of woe. We were busy so I didn't catch all of it myself. The boss was the recipient of her rambling story of her life over the last couple of weeks. She's a crazy bitch, that one.
She figured since she's "only" been gone for two weeks she should get her job back. In her opinion we should, or the company rather, just consider the last two weeks as vacation time. She feels she should be allowed to just pick up where she left off basically.
When this delusional thought of hers was debunked by the boss the tears flowed freely. There were two of us crying actually. One with utter despair, mine with laughter. Her inability to grasp reality was just too much. I did manage to wait until after she left to display my tears though. I'm not a totally heartless bastard after all.
Naturally, there's a moral to this story. Maybe, just maybe, a woman shouldn't run off halfway across the country with plans to marry a guy they've never actually met in person. It's certainly something most people would think would be wise. Oddly enough, I can see her doing this again though. She's not "most people" in any sense of the word(s). She is actually that stupid to repeat this again, as far as I can see.
So while she's not coming back here to work, I did implore her to keep in touch. She's handy for blog fodder after all.
Friday, November 12, 2010
If Only Muslim Extremists Had A Therapist
Catchy title, huh?
I'm sure this post is going to offend some anal retentive type person. Just a word to take note of in the title:
"Extremists"
Anyway, on to my offending way.
You Muslim Extremists, or Islamic Terrorists if you prefer, are really a bunch of dysfunctional dimwits. If your beliefs and actions weren't so damn appalling they'd be laughable. You are the most insecure segment of the human race possibly. No doubt your lack of intelligence and your upbringing has a lot to do with it.
Seriously I can see some reasons why you're so fucked up. Not necessarily to the point of your violent beliefs though. A blind man can see plenty of things that would rob the male species of your culture of any brains and hope for any semblance of a normal life.
One example is the turban, or whatever that thing you wear on your head is actually called. Smothering a brain that is clearly as deficient as yours is never a good idea. Plus you guys seem to wear this on blazing hot days, trudging through the desert, planning your next act of terrorism. I guess no one has told you that hats hold heat in. Your brains have to be fried.
You also dress like a girl. Those robes can't do much for the male psych I'd imagine. Grow a pair of balls and put on some pants. Maybe if you'd quit dressing like a girl you wouldn't have the overwhelming urge to perform violent acts to prove your manhood.
And your intelligence? Simply laughably sad. Who really thinks becoming a suicide bomber is a good career enhancer? You die, killing innocent people, you morons. Who in their right mind straps a bomb to their chest and thinks that's a wise move?
And you know what?
Let me fill you in on a little secret.
There aren't any virgins waiting for you, much less forty of them, when you die. Your inability to get laid on Earth isn't going to make a difference in death. You know, take off the dress, and maybe you would get laid while you're alive and the promise of sex with another corpse, or forty of them, for that matter, wouldn't seem so appealing to you. If you need laid that bad I'll give you a few bucks for a prostitute, or a camel.
Stupid bastards anyway.
I'm sure this post is going to offend some anal retentive type person. Just a word to take note of in the title:
"Extremists"
Anyway, on to my offending way.
You Muslim Extremists, or Islamic Terrorists if you prefer, are really a bunch of dysfunctional dimwits. If your beliefs and actions weren't so damn appalling they'd be laughable. You are the most insecure segment of the human race possibly. No doubt your lack of intelligence and your upbringing has a lot to do with it.
Seriously I can see some reasons why you're so fucked up. Not necessarily to the point of your violent beliefs though. A blind man can see plenty of things that would rob the male species of your culture of any brains and hope for any semblance of a normal life.
One example is the turban, or whatever that thing you wear on your head is actually called. Smothering a brain that is clearly as deficient as yours is never a good idea. Plus you guys seem to wear this on blazing hot days, trudging through the desert, planning your next act of terrorism. I guess no one has told you that hats hold heat in. Your brains have to be fried.
You also dress like a girl. Those robes can't do much for the male psych I'd imagine. Grow a pair of balls and put on some pants. Maybe if you'd quit dressing like a girl you wouldn't have the overwhelming urge to perform violent acts to prove your manhood.
And your intelligence? Simply laughably sad. Who really thinks becoming a suicide bomber is a good career enhancer? You die, killing innocent people, you morons. Who in their right mind straps a bomb to their chest and thinks that's a wise move?
And you know what?
Let me fill you in on a little secret.
There aren't any virgins waiting for you, much less forty of them, when you die. Your inability to get laid on Earth isn't going to make a difference in death. You know, take off the dress, and maybe you would get laid while you're alive and the promise of sex with another corpse, or forty of them, for that matter, wouldn't seem so appealing to you. If you need laid that bad I'll give you a few bucks for a prostitute, or a camel.
Stupid bastards anyway.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
A Journey Down Memory Lane
You know, now that the time is nearing that the Worthless Co-Worker will no longer be with us, I've been thinking about the number of "worthless co-workers" we've had here the past eight years. She's not the first by any means, just the most bizarre one to date.
We'll get to that in a minute or so though.
As I was off on Monday and Tuesday a few more details have emerged about the current Worthless Co-Worker. Yesterday I worked all day be myself with no contact from the Worthless Co-Worker. The boss on the other hand called in, I think to make sure I was awake, and to let me in on a few more details.
1) Her resignation has been accepted, and there's no going back on it. He stated she's now having second thoughts though, but too little too late. Once it's in writing, and accepted, it's at the company discretion and they've decided she's done on November 27th, or possibly sooner. A job opening at our location is already posted on our internal intranet as well.
2) Apparently Tuesday was quite interesting. She resigned on Monday, wavered on Tuesday, and thought she could just simply withdraw her resignation. (The boss stated he warned her on Monday if she had any doubts, she shouldn't formally resign. She apparently couldn't be talked out of it then.) So on Tuesday she's pissed and throws the boss under the bus. (No surprise there, I had repeatedly warned him this would some day happen.)
3) A conference call was held involving her, Personal Dept., the boss, and his boss.
PET PEEVE ALERT: As with any other hip personal department, in their own mind anyway, they are now to be referred to as the "Human Capital Department." Those words will never be uttered by me. I find this new name offensive. Every time I see or hear those words I get a mental picture of a fucking cattle yard. I don't "moo" for anybody.
(Unless she's a hot, young, (but legal) nubile babe. Gotta keep it legal you know. I have no interest in jail time.
Who am I kidding.
At my age just that thought, if dwelt upon too long, would give me a stroke or heart attack. Better keep them hot babes away I guess, for health reasons if nothing else. I'm sure they're relieved as well. I'm quite certain the thought of an old wrinkly dude like me isn't very appealing to them anyway.)
Anyway, back to the conference call.
Since the Worthless Co-Worker is essentially unemployed in about four weeks or less she decided to bring up every imaginable offense or wrong doing of the boss over the past year. So he's in some hot water now as well. Not the firing type of hot water, but some formal discipline to be named later, type of hot water. I'm pretty sure it also involves no pay raise for him at the beginning of the year, and stuff.
4) I received a phone call from the bosses boss yesterday. One of those "hush, hush, what the hell has been going on there" calls. I've known this guy for eight years, which is five years longer than my boss has. He knows I won't "bullshit" him, which I didn't, but definitely cleared up a few things about this crap. The bottom line is my boss is too nice of a guy, and his boss needs to make him meaner. We'll see how that goes.
I think we're up to date now on this latest bit of Worthless Co-Worker news. As stated, eons ago in this post, we've had other less than stellar people here. When we're fully staffed, we're a three person store operation. It seems that the 3rd person is never quite up to par.
(Although we did go through most of 2007, and part of 2008 with a solid crew. Maureen, if you ever find this blog please consider coming back.
That will never happen though, she transferred to another store due to being promoted to store manager there.)
So, other less than stellar people we've had in the past:
1) Alison aka obnoxious bitch.
This woman was in her mid fifties, about 5'3" tall, and every bit as wide as she was tall. Always broke, but a compulsive shopper. Always dieting, but would eat bags and bags of candy daily bragging how well her diet was going because she always skipped lunch. (Honey you didn't skip lunch, you ate all damn day long and you chewed with your mouth open depositing food on your ample chest for all to see and be sickened by.) It's safe to say I detested her.
And while some of you may consider this mean of me, she shopped at Victoria's Secret about once a month, or more, and always insisted I needed to see what she bought to surprise her husband with. Um, no I didn't. While I applaud the fact that your husband and you wanted to keep the "sexy" in your life, I had no desire to entertain the thought of you in skimpy underwear. (And no, not just based entirely on her weight, but I'm an honest person, for the most part, and 325 pounds and skimpy underwear don't compute. No one needs to show me that regardless of their weight though. It's tacky, especially at her age.)
She was a thief. Not the conventional kind though. As part of our salary is based on sales commissions she stole sales. Never from me, because I was on to her. She altered information in the computer to do this. While I knew she was doing this it took months to actually prove it. It was quite a process and too involved to go into details here. (I have a tendency to write long enough posts as it is.) But caught she was, and fired.
2) Lisa aka wannabe teeny bopper
This woman was 60 years old and no man, regardless of age was safe in the mall. She had had so much plastic surgery her face didn't move. Her attire was totally inappropriate and she shopped at teeny bopper stores exclusively.
I remember coming to work one day and finding her pissed off. When I asked her what her problem was she stated "Some guy was in here earlier and said I was probably hot when I was younger, I'm still hot and he was an asshole." We didn't get along very well after that day. I told her I never pictured her as hot, no matter the age, just ridiculous.
She actually broke up a marriage due to having an affair with some guy in the mall. We also had two different wives come into the store and confront her because of her crazy crap with their husbands. While I never got to witness this we had other stores report to us her "actions" with numerous guys in the store when she worked alone. Apparently she put on quite a show.
Oddly she lasted six months due to a very naive boss (not the current one) who just couldn't believe all these nasty rumors about her. This woman was always on her best behavior around the boss and no matter how many people told her about this crap she didn't believe it. Finally, a relative of the boss who was shopping one day witnessed Lisa in action and reported it. Then the shit finally hit the fan and she was fired.
There's been a few others, but I'm already bored with this myself now. Plus I'm getting tired and bleary eyed.
So time with the Worthless Co-Worker is winding down. I'm sure I'll be getting her side of the story later today when I work with her. Should be bizarre and comical. (And yes, I'm going to take full advantage of the time left of her employment for blog filler during the duration of her time with us.)
We'll get to that in a minute or so though.
As I was off on Monday and Tuesday a few more details have emerged about the current Worthless Co-Worker. Yesterday I worked all day be myself with no contact from the Worthless Co-Worker. The boss on the other hand called in, I think to make sure I was awake, and to let me in on a few more details.
1) Her resignation has been accepted, and there's no going back on it. He stated she's now having second thoughts though, but too little too late. Once it's in writing, and accepted, it's at the company discretion and they've decided she's done on November 27th, or possibly sooner. A job opening at our location is already posted on our internal intranet as well.
2) Apparently Tuesday was quite interesting. She resigned on Monday, wavered on Tuesday, and thought she could just simply withdraw her resignation. (The boss stated he warned her on Monday if she had any doubts, she shouldn't formally resign. She apparently couldn't be talked out of it then.) So on Tuesday she's pissed and throws the boss under the bus. (No surprise there, I had repeatedly warned him this would some day happen.)
3) A conference call was held involving her, Personal Dept., the boss, and his boss.
PET PEEVE ALERT: As with any other hip personal department, in their own mind anyway, they are now to be referred to as the "Human Capital Department." Those words will never be uttered by me. I find this new name offensive. Every time I see or hear those words I get a mental picture of a fucking cattle yard. I don't "moo" for anybody.
(Unless she's a hot, young, (but legal) nubile babe. Gotta keep it legal you know. I have no interest in jail time.
Who am I kidding.
At my age just that thought, if dwelt upon too long, would give me a stroke or heart attack. Better keep them hot babes away I guess, for health reasons if nothing else. I'm sure they're relieved as well. I'm quite certain the thought of an old wrinkly dude like me isn't very appealing to them anyway.)
Anyway, back to the conference call.
Since the Worthless Co-Worker is essentially unemployed in about four weeks or less she decided to bring up every imaginable offense or wrong doing of the boss over the past year. So he's in some hot water now as well. Not the firing type of hot water, but some formal discipline to be named later, type of hot water. I'm pretty sure it also involves no pay raise for him at the beginning of the year, and stuff.
4) I received a phone call from the bosses boss yesterday. One of those "hush, hush, what the hell has been going on there" calls. I've known this guy for eight years, which is five years longer than my boss has. He knows I won't "bullshit" him, which I didn't, but definitely cleared up a few things about this crap. The bottom line is my boss is too nice of a guy, and his boss needs to make him meaner. We'll see how that goes.
I think we're up to date now on this latest bit of Worthless Co-Worker news. As stated, eons ago in this post, we've had other less than stellar people here. When we're fully staffed, we're a three person store operation. It seems that the 3rd person is never quite up to par.
(Although we did go through most of 2007, and part of 2008 with a solid crew. Maureen, if you ever find this blog please consider coming back.
That will never happen though, she transferred to another store due to being promoted to store manager there.)
So, other less than stellar people we've had in the past:
1) Alison aka obnoxious bitch.
This woman was in her mid fifties, about 5'3" tall, and every bit as wide as she was tall. Always broke, but a compulsive shopper. Always dieting, but would eat bags and bags of candy daily bragging how well her diet was going because she always skipped lunch. (Honey you didn't skip lunch, you ate all damn day long and you chewed with your mouth open depositing food on your ample chest for all to see and be sickened by.) It's safe to say I detested her.
And while some of you may consider this mean of me, she shopped at Victoria's Secret about once a month, or more, and always insisted I needed to see what she bought to surprise her husband with. Um, no I didn't. While I applaud the fact that your husband and you wanted to keep the "sexy" in your life, I had no desire to entertain the thought of you in skimpy underwear. (And no, not just based entirely on her weight, but I'm an honest person, for the most part, and 325 pounds and skimpy underwear don't compute. No one needs to show me that regardless of their weight though. It's tacky, especially at her age.)
She was a thief. Not the conventional kind though. As part of our salary is based on sales commissions she stole sales. Never from me, because I was on to her. She altered information in the computer to do this. While I knew she was doing this it took months to actually prove it. It was quite a process and too involved to go into details here. (I have a tendency to write long enough posts as it is.) But caught she was, and fired.
2) Lisa aka wannabe teeny bopper
This woman was 60 years old and no man, regardless of age was safe in the mall. She had had so much plastic surgery her face didn't move. Her attire was totally inappropriate and she shopped at teeny bopper stores exclusively.
I remember coming to work one day and finding her pissed off. When I asked her what her problem was she stated "Some guy was in here earlier and said I was probably hot when I was younger, I'm still hot and he was an asshole." We didn't get along very well after that day. I told her I never pictured her as hot, no matter the age, just ridiculous.
She actually broke up a marriage due to having an affair with some guy in the mall. We also had two different wives come into the store and confront her because of her crazy crap with their husbands. While I never got to witness this we had other stores report to us her "actions" with numerous guys in the store when she worked alone. Apparently she put on quite a show.
Oddly she lasted six months due to a very naive boss (not the current one) who just couldn't believe all these nasty rumors about her. This woman was always on her best behavior around the boss and no matter how many people told her about this crap she didn't believe it. Finally, a relative of the boss who was shopping one day witnessed Lisa in action and reported it. Then the shit finally hit the fan and she was fired.
There's been a few others, but I'm already bored with this myself now. Plus I'm getting tired and bleary eyed.
So time with the Worthless Co-Worker is winding down. I'm sure I'll be getting her side of the story later today when I work with her. Should be bizarre and comical. (And yes, I'm going to take full advantage of the time left of her employment for blog filler during the duration of her time with us.)
Thursday, October 21, 2010
The Worthless Co-Worker's Short Day
After having Monday and Tuesday off from work I was looking forward to returning to work yesterday. Not necessarily because I love my job by any means though. (Although I do like my job, just can't drum up some love for it.)
The reason for looking forward to returning to work was a bit evil I must confess. The boss was out of town attending some important type work meeting, probablyenhancing his career getting his ass chewed for some performance issue or another. I knew I had the pleasure of working with the Worthless Co-Worker.
This girl loves purple in an insane, unhealthy way. Her living room furniture is purple, or so she says. Special ordered as a matter of fact, because most furniture show rooms don't show purple, much to her consternation.
(I have a feeling some of you know where this is heading. You're evil people too, which gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. At least when it comes to the Worthless Co-Worker.)
For those not sure where this is heading, yesterday was a day reserved to "Combat Anti-LGBT Cyberbullying" due to the recent suicides and harassment of gay people. Wearing purple was a sign of support for this issue.
The Worthless Co-Worker was decked out in purple, because that's all she wears. As she's aphony holy roller it definitely wasn't in support of this issue. She was clueless as a matter of fact to what significance wearing purple meant yesterday. (As I'm sure many people were.) Had she known, she wouldn't have worn purple. Her righteousness and homophobic traits would have kicked in. I'm not even sure she owns any other colored clothes. But had she known about this day, and the significance of purple, she would have called in sick if her wardrobe had no other colors.
When I arrived at work the Worthless Co-Worker was giddy. She couldn't wait to see me. Surprisingly, to me anyway, she had noted a lot of people were wearing purple in the mall yesterday. As I'm known for teasing heroccasionally relentlessly about her obsession with purple she wanted me to see the large number of people in purple. This somehow validated her obsession with this color seeing the unusually large number of purple clad people.
I asked her a couple ofinnocent sly questions to ascertain her ignorance of the significance of the day and she was clueless. No surprise there. I then complimented her on her purple attire and waited to spring a little surprise on her.
Lately she likes to take lunch break outside for "fresh air." When she asked me how nice it was outside I dutifully told her she'd probably like it, but I recommended she wear her jacket if she was heading outdoors to eat. (Naturally, her purple jacket.)
So she heads to the back room to get her jacket and announces she's heading out for lunch. While she's back there I'm making a sign to tape to the back of her jacket that simply states "STOP THE ABUSE." As she comes strolling out of the back room I casually mention to her not to forget to punch out (she's notorious for not punching out) and while she's at the computer punching out the sign gets placed on her back.
And out she goes.
Shortest. Lunch. Break. Ever. (for her anyway)
She's back in the store within 10 minutes, seriously pissed off. Oh. The. Horror. She was accosted and hugged by a lesbian, and profusely thanked for her support.
She was totally berserk. (My laughter wasn't going over well apparently.) After screaming and stomping around the store for a few minutes she announces she's going home.
When I asked if she was coming back her answer was no. Not only does she not have another set of clothes to change into, or she's willing to change in to, she has to take a shower and get the "creepy lesbian aura" washed off. After telling me how hateful I was, and I returning that compliment to her, with that concept completely going over her head, she left.
It's funny how the "more Christian" a person professes to be, the more hateful they really seem to be. She has no comprehension whatsoever.
The reason for looking forward to returning to work was a bit evil I must confess. The boss was out of town attending some important type work meeting, probably
This girl loves purple in an insane, unhealthy way. Her living room furniture is purple, or so she says. Special ordered as a matter of fact, because most furniture show rooms don't show purple, much to her consternation.
(I have a feeling some of you know where this is heading. You're evil people too, which gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. At least when it comes to the Worthless Co-Worker.)
For those not sure where this is heading, yesterday was a day reserved to "Combat Anti-LGBT Cyberbullying" due to the recent suicides and harassment of gay people. Wearing purple was a sign of support for this issue.
The Worthless Co-Worker was decked out in purple, because that's all she wears. As she's a
When I arrived at work the Worthless Co-Worker was giddy. She couldn't wait to see me. Surprisingly, to me anyway, she had noted a lot of people were wearing purple in the mall yesterday. As I'm known for teasing her
I asked her a couple of
Lately she likes to take lunch break outside for "fresh air." When she asked me how nice it was outside I dutifully told her she'd probably like it, but I recommended she wear her jacket if she was heading outdoors to eat. (Naturally, her purple jacket.)
So she heads to the back room to get her jacket and announces she's heading out for lunch. While she's back there I'm making a sign to tape to the back of her jacket that simply states "STOP THE ABUSE." As she comes strolling out of the back room I casually mention to her not to forget to punch out (she's notorious for not punching out) and while she's at the computer punching out the sign gets placed on her back.
And out she goes.
Shortest. Lunch. Break. Ever. (for her anyway)
She's back in the store within 10 minutes, seriously pissed off. Oh. The. Horror. She was accosted and hugged by a lesbian, and profusely thanked for her support.
She was totally berserk. (My laughter wasn't going over well apparently.) After screaming and stomping around the store for a few minutes she announces she's going home.
When I asked if she was coming back her answer was no. Not only does she not have another set of clothes to change into, or she's willing to change in to, she has to take a shower and get the "creepy lesbian aura" washed off. After telling me how hateful I was, and I returning that compliment to her, with that concept completely going over her head, she left.
It's funny how the "more Christian" a person professes to be, the more hateful they really seem to be. She has no comprehension whatsoever.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
I Can't Even Escape From The Worthless Co-Worker On A Day Off
I was off yesterday. It turned out to be a beautiful Fall day here. The type of weather you could do almost anything in. I chose to get some much needed crap done around the homestead.
I even defrosted the refrigerator here. Apparently it's been a long time since I've done that. I have a chest freezer I use for my freezing needs and basically ignore the freezer compartment in the fridge. But it couldn't be ignored any longer as it was getting hard to close the refrigerator due to the expansion of an Arctic Ice Shelf that had formed in this compartment. So we commenced a thawing out process here, with much success I might add.
(And yes, you can now add my name to the list of people responsible for playing a role in global warming with the loss of this ice shelf.
And no ladies, even I don't wonder any more why I'm single.)
In the midst of the domestic crap I was taking care of the phone rang. Since I can multi-task I had no problem answering it. Much to my chagrin it was the voice of the Worthless Co-Worker. Naturally it's a conversation to be shared as follows:
Worthless Co-Worker: What are you doing?
Me: Why are you calling?
Worthless Co-Worker: I was just wondering what you're doing today. I'll bet you're golfing. You're golfing, right?
Me: No.
Worthless Co-Worker: No really, you're golfing right?
Me: No, I'm busy around home trying to get some stuff done.
Worthless Co-Worker: So when you're done you're going golfing, right?
Me: No.
Worthless Co-Worker: Seriously?
Me: Seriously. Now what do you really want?
Worthless Co-Worker: I can't believe you're not golfing. You always go golfing on your days off.
Me: Uh, no I don't and focus here Alicia, what do you want?
Worthless Co-Worker: I can't believe this.
Me: Even Tiger Woods doesn't golf every day Alicia. If he did he probably wouldn't have been banging half the women he did over the last couple of years causing his marriage to crumble.
Worthless Co-Worker: That's gross.
Me: By all accounts, some of them were. Now exactly why are you calling me?
Worthless Co-Worker: I just lost ten dollars is all. I can't believe you're not golfing.
Me: Bummer.
Worthless Co-Worker: I bet (store manager) that you'd be golfing today. He took me up on the bet. So now I'm out ten dollars.
Me: That changes things. Because there's ten dollars at stake I'm going golfing.
Worthless Co-Worker: Sure you are, now you're just teasing me.
Me: Nope, not even a little bit. I'm going golfing. I'll provide pictures if needed.
Worthless Co-Worker: You just made my day!!!!
Me: I'm happy to hear that. Can you put (store manager) on the phone?
Worthless Co-Worker: Are you going to rub this in?
Me: Oh yeah, there will be some definite rubbing in when this little shindig wraps up.
(Passing of phone occurs.)
Me: Hey, sorry to ruin your bet but I'm going golfing.
Store Manager: Aw, c'mon, do you really want her to win this bet?
Me: Just this one time yes.
Store Manager: I thought we were friends?
Me: We are. And since I know you pay your debts I had to do this. That silly little girl has owed me ten dollars for months. So let her know she won, but no money for her, because she owes me that money. We'll settle up tomorrow.
Store Manager: You should see her right now. She's dancing around the store, laughing, sticking her tongue out at me even.
Me: I'll let you decide how long you want to let her carry on before you drop this bomb on her.
Store Manager: You want to talk to her again?
Me: Nope.
Store Manager: You know, even though I'm losing out here, this is going to be worth it. I can't wait to tell her this.
Me: I knew you'd come around and see the benefit of this. See you tomorrow afternoon.
So, how many of you made ten dollars on your day off by simply putting in nine holes of golf?
I even defrosted the refrigerator here. Apparently it's been a long time since I've done that. I have a chest freezer I use for my freezing needs and basically ignore the freezer compartment in the fridge. But it couldn't be ignored any longer as it was getting hard to close the refrigerator due to the expansion of an Arctic Ice Shelf that had formed in this compartment. So we commenced a thawing out process here, with much success I might add.
(And yes, you can now add my name to the list of people responsible for playing a role in global warming with the loss of this ice shelf.
And no ladies, even I don't wonder any more why I'm single.)
In the midst of the domestic crap I was taking care of the phone rang. Since I can multi-task I had no problem answering it. Much to my chagrin it was the voice of the Worthless Co-Worker. Naturally it's a conversation to be shared as follows:
Worthless Co-Worker: What are you doing?
Me: Why are you calling?
Worthless Co-Worker: I was just wondering what you're doing today. I'll bet you're golfing. You're golfing, right?
Me: No.
Worthless Co-Worker: No really, you're golfing right?
Me: No, I'm busy around home trying to get some stuff done.
Worthless Co-Worker: So when you're done you're going golfing, right?
Me: No.
Worthless Co-Worker: Seriously?
Me: Seriously. Now what do you really want?
Worthless Co-Worker: I can't believe you're not golfing. You always go golfing on your days off.
Me: Uh, no I don't and focus here Alicia, what do you want?
Worthless Co-Worker: I can't believe this.
Me: Even Tiger Woods doesn't golf every day Alicia. If he did he probably wouldn't have been banging half the women he did over the last couple of years causing his marriage to crumble.
Worthless Co-Worker: That's gross.
Me: By all accounts, some of them were. Now exactly why are you calling me?
Worthless Co-Worker: I just lost ten dollars is all. I can't believe you're not golfing.
Me: Bummer.
Worthless Co-Worker: I bet (store manager) that you'd be golfing today. He took me up on the bet. So now I'm out ten dollars.
Me: That changes things. Because there's ten dollars at stake I'm going golfing.
Worthless Co-Worker: Sure you are, now you're just teasing me.
Me: Nope, not even a little bit. I'm going golfing. I'll provide pictures if needed.
Worthless Co-Worker: You just made my day!!!!
Me: I'm happy to hear that. Can you put (store manager) on the phone?
Worthless Co-Worker: Are you going to rub this in?
Me: Oh yeah, there will be some definite rubbing in when this little shindig wraps up.
(Passing of phone occurs.)
Me: Hey, sorry to ruin your bet but I'm going golfing.
Store Manager: Aw, c'mon, do you really want her to win this bet?
Me: Just this one time yes.
Store Manager: I thought we were friends?
Me: We are. And since I know you pay your debts I had to do this. That silly little girl has owed me ten dollars for months. So let her know she won, but no money for her, because she owes me that money. We'll settle up tomorrow.
Store Manager: You should see her right now. She's dancing around the store, laughing, sticking her tongue out at me even.
Me: I'll let you decide how long you want to let her carry on before you drop this bomb on her.
Store Manager: You want to talk to her again?
Me: Nope.
Store Manager: You know, even though I'm losing out here, this is going to be worth it. I can't wait to tell her this.
Me: I knew you'd come around and see the benefit of this. See you tomorrow afternoon.
So, how many of you made ten dollars on your day off by simply putting in nine holes of golf?
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