Being young, single, and in search of love in Somalia recently took a hit. Somali Islamists have banned unrelated men and women from shaking hands. They've also banned them from speaking to each other and walking together as well. Courtship isn't a high priority in this society.
But there is some good news to report. Somalians are still free to hi-jack oil tankers and demand ransoms, thus stimulating their economy. They still have the freedom to kill, kidnap, and torture foreign aid workers delivering food to the poor of their country. After all, who wants to keep people from starving to death?
I think I could get on board and support this handshaking ban though. After all it is the flu season and the less handshaking the better as far as spreading the flu goes. Hungry and starving people are especially prone to illness as well. So there's no sense in encouraging handshakes. Rumor also has it crazy Islamists don't wash their hands after potty breaks. Who wants to shake their hands anyway?
Naturally I may have to rethink this if Somalia doesn't have a flu season. The whole not washing your hands after taking a piss though should be sufficient enough reason not to shake hands if that were the case.
These extreme Islamists take this ban seriously though. When they're not cruising the high seas in search of oil tankers to hi-jack the punishments rendered have ranged from public whippings, imprisonment, and even executions. They actually stop traffic and search buses and cars looking for these violations. Now that's dedication, huh?
Prior to this latest ban they also have banned women from working in public, thus ensuring an ever increasing population shoved deeper into poverty and going ever more hungry. This has been a smashing success as more foreign aid workers are needed to supply food to an increasingly starving population, thus ensuring they have an adequate supply of foreign aid workers to kill and torture.
Another thought just occurred to me about this latest ban. Maybe, just maybe, these Islamic terrorists aren't the homophobic assholes we've always thought they are. By banning men and women from shaking hands, walking together, and speaking to one another they're actually developing an alternative life style for their population. If they were to develop more homosexual relationships among their population the birth rate would drop and less people would be starving to death. Maybe there's a method to their madness after all.
Or....
they're just simply power hungry terrorists bent on keeping women considered as 2nd, or even 3rd class citizens. They could simply be insecure and crazy men, taking from some accounts, a peaceful religion, and obscenely turning it upside down and perverting it to suit their own hateful way of life. Smart money would in all probability go with this theory.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Why?
I have yet to experience writer's block when it comes to blogging. I do experience a blockage of sorts though, especially this time of the year. It's called depression I suspect.
Once the holidays pass and winter sets in firmly I gear down. I detest January and February. Too little sun and too much cold for my liking. It seems to worsen as I age. There are very few winter activities I want to participate in. There are outdoor activities I like, such as (warm weather) fishing, golfing, and biking, to name a few. None of these mesh well with winter weather though.
I consider myself a simplistic person. Not simple by any means, nor overly complex either. My mind never ceases to ponder things. This time of year my mind tends to force out the goofy though. I think about serious topics not as heavily thought about during the other ten months of the year I favor over January and February. This doesn't bode well for a blog which has generally been kept lighthearted. The rants about work and idiot customers, while an annoyance to some degree, always have an element of amusement to me, and hopefully for you poor souls as well, who take the time to read the nonsense I fling around in here.
I seem to see life differently this time of year. Although the life I see now probably isn't much different than it is during other parts of the year, I dwell on the negatives much more. My view of society, politics, religion(s), justice, and other worldly matters turn darker. I alternate between anger and sadness at what occurs in the world much more often this time of year than over the rest of the year.
Crimes seem more senseless and heinous this time of year. Politicians incur my wrath more readily this time of year. Religion(s) appear more sinister this time of year. Justice makes little to no sense as it's rendered this time of the year.
I wonder why much more. Why do we sweep certain problems under the rug? Why do we accept that we can't change things for the better? I wonder why we don't get more involved in real problem solving? I wonder why we don't acknowledge that by allowing certain things to happen why we don't accept responsibility for it ourselves? What prevents us from shedding apathy? When do we say enough is enough? What's the balance to showing empathy and telling someone to get their act together when too much empathy is shown, thus becoming an enabler to problems not getting solved?
As an example I see and know people whose tolerance for gay rights is nonexistent. They'll shout from the mountain tops about how bad it is. They'll attend anti-gay rallies. They'll discriminate against this segment of the population. But why do they do this? What is it they fear? What exactly is this segment of the population doing that interferes with their life in any way? Why is it they show no tolerance for this segment of the population, but tolerate so many other issues and problems we face in society. Why don't they devote the same energy in solving other problems? Why do people worry about what's happening between the sheets between two consenting adults and not show the same level of concern for starving children, homeless people, genocide occurring around the world, crazy countries developing nuclear weapons, etc?
In short, why are we willing to accept less as a society, of society in itself? How far does society need to sink before we're willing to step in and fix it? Most people know right from wrong. Most people do the right thing day after day. But is that enough?
We're without a doubt the most intelligent species on the planet. Why can't we direct this intelligence in finding real solutions? As the most intelligent species why do we tolerate so much that is wrong in the world? The good in society outweighs the bad in society. Why won't we step up? Why don't I step up for that matter?
My apologies for those expecting the usual nonsense they see in here. As I stated before my mind works a little differently this time of the year. There's an over abundance of thoughts tumbling through my head to write about, just not the normal drivel you're accustomed to seeing. I'll do my best to limit it though.
Thanks for your tolerance, if you've gotten this far.
Once the holidays pass and winter sets in firmly I gear down. I detest January and February. Too little sun and too much cold for my liking. It seems to worsen as I age. There are very few winter activities I want to participate in. There are outdoor activities I like, such as (warm weather) fishing, golfing, and biking, to name a few. None of these mesh well with winter weather though.
I consider myself a simplistic person. Not simple by any means, nor overly complex either. My mind never ceases to ponder things. This time of year my mind tends to force out the goofy though. I think about serious topics not as heavily thought about during the other ten months of the year I favor over January and February. This doesn't bode well for a blog which has generally been kept lighthearted. The rants about work and idiot customers, while an annoyance to some degree, always have an element of amusement to me, and hopefully for you poor souls as well, who take the time to read the nonsense I fling around in here.
I seem to see life differently this time of year. Although the life I see now probably isn't much different than it is during other parts of the year, I dwell on the negatives much more. My view of society, politics, religion(s), justice, and other worldly matters turn darker. I alternate between anger and sadness at what occurs in the world much more often this time of year than over the rest of the year.
Crimes seem more senseless and heinous this time of year. Politicians incur my wrath more readily this time of year. Religion(s) appear more sinister this time of year. Justice makes little to no sense as it's rendered this time of the year.
I wonder why much more. Why do we sweep certain problems under the rug? Why do we accept that we can't change things for the better? I wonder why we don't get more involved in real problem solving? I wonder why we don't acknowledge that by allowing certain things to happen why we don't accept responsibility for it ourselves? What prevents us from shedding apathy? When do we say enough is enough? What's the balance to showing empathy and telling someone to get their act together when too much empathy is shown, thus becoming an enabler to problems not getting solved?
As an example I see and know people whose tolerance for gay rights is nonexistent. They'll shout from the mountain tops about how bad it is. They'll attend anti-gay rallies. They'll discriminate against this segment of the population. But why do they do this? What is it they fear? What exactly is this segment of the population doing that interferes with their life in any way? Why is it they show no tolerance for this segment of the population, but tolerate so many other issues and problems we face in society. Why don't they devote the same energy in solving other problems? Why do people worry about what's happening between the sheets between two consenting adults and not show the same level of concern for starving children, homeless people, genocide occurring around the world, crazy countries developing nuclear weapons, etc?
In short, why are we willing to accept less as a society, of society in itself? How far does society need to sink before we're willing to step in and fix it? Most people know right from wrong. Most people do the right thing day after day. But is that enough?
We're without a doubt the most intelligent species on the planet. Why can't we direct this intelligence in finding real solutions? As the most intelligent species why do we tolerate so much that is wrong in the world? The good in society outweighs the bad in society. Why won't we step up? Why don't I step up for that matter?
My apologies for those expecting the usual nonsense they see in here. As I stated before my mind works a little differently this time of the year. There's an over abundance of thoughts tumbling through my head to write about, just not the normal drivel you're accustomed to seeing. I'll do my best to limit it though.
Thanks for your tolerance, if you've gotten this far.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
I Can't Decide If People Piss Me Off Or Sadden Me
People bother me lately. I'm totally confused with the stupidity, rudeness, and self entitlement exhibited by people I've run into the last week or so.
Example One:
The entrance to the mall where I work has three receptacles for cigarette butts. Three receptacles which see very little use. One on each side of the doors entering the mall and one located next to a bench people use while waiting for the city bus to come. They're not hidden and they're strategically placed for ease of use.
When I'm outside I'll see people walking up to enter the mall glance around looking for a place to put out their cigarettes and despite the fact that there are three receptacles in sight they still throw them down at their feet as they enter the mall. I've even pointed them out as I see people looking for a place to put out their butts and they still throw them down on the ground. They can't seem to be bothered with veering to their left, or right, a couple of steps to properly dispose them. 'Effin pigs.
Example Two:
Handicapped parking has become a joke. We have ample handicapped parking and quite frankly most of the people using it have no business using it. They deny the spaces for people who genuinely need it. Mall walkers are the biggest abusers of these parking spaces. Many of them make 5 "laps" around the mall which encompasses walking approximately 3 miles and they have to park in a handicapped space? Sorry, in my opinion if you can walk 3 miles daily you don't need to park in a handicapped spot.
I've seen people park in these spots and get out of their cars and literally run into the mall as well. I told one person a few days ago that I wished I was as handicapped as she was. She could outrun me. This went totally over her head. My guess is she was simply driving someone else's car with the handicapped plates and took advantage of the parking space, thus denying the space to someone who truly needs it.
I know there are people who are truly disabled and need these parking spaces. My guess is that 50% of people who have a handicapped plate/sticker don't deserve it. It's too easy to go to a doctor and whine about a "disability" and get approved for a handicap plate/sticker. We've become a nation of wimps, self entitled wimps at that.
Example Three:
We had an idiot customer enter the store on Wednesday. (C'mon people, you had to know an idiot customer was going to appear here, right?)
While I say idiot customer he didn't buy anything in our store. He had to stop in and complain about our company because he bought one of our products at another store approximately 75 miles from us. In his opinion we are a shifty and deceptive retail store and have ripped him off.
His complaint?
We have a referral program that if you buy our product and recommend our product to someone else, and they buy as well, (and keep product), you earn gift certificates. There's no limit to the program. We've had numerous people use this program and I've had people come in the store with $200 worth of gift certificates to use for referring people to our products. Quite frankly it's a nice program.
This mental giant of course didn't think so. He told me he had personally sent a dozen people into our store in the last month alone and had never gotten credit for a gift certificate. When I asked him for names he provided me with 4 names. At this point I was taking him relatively seriously, so I looked up the four names in our system and they weren't there.
I then asked him what they bought here. His reply, "Nothing."
Well, Mr. Rocket Scientist Customer, they have to buy something. This was explained to him and he went off the deep end. It was an incredible moment of stupidity on display. I asked him if he really believed that just by sending someone into the store that he was going to get something, for nothing? Apparently so. When I asked him if he read the terms of the policy he said yes, and that he fully understood them, and we were out to "screw" him over. I couldn't even get mad at this guy. I just simply told him to leave, and maybe reread the policy, that he actually signed as a part of his receipt.
So he leaves the store and sits on a bench in front of our store and every 1 or 2 minutes starts shouting to people walking by not to enter our store because we're evil, the devil, shysters, etc.... We were honestly amused by this as were most people walking by it appeared. Mall security finally walked by and asked the guy to leave the mall.
The only thing I can come up with is that Darwin's Theory has in itself become obsolete. Modern science/medicine has kept dumb people alive much longer than they should have survived with the stupidity they possess.
Example One:
The entrance to the mall where I work has three receptacles for cigarette butts. Three receptacles which see very little use. One on each side of the doors entering the mall and one located next to a bench people use while waiting for the city bus to come. They're not hidden and they're strategically placed for ease of use.
When I'm outside I'll see people walking up to enter the mall glance around looking for a place to put out their cigarettes and despite the fact that there are three receptacles in sight they still throw them down at their feet as they enter the mall. I've even pointed them out as I see people looking for a place to put out their butts and they still throw them down on the ground. They can't seem to be bothered with veering to their left, or right, a couple of steps to properly dispose them. 'Effin pigs.
Example Two:
Handicapped parking has become a joke. We have ample handicapped parking and quite frankly most of the people using it have no business using it. They deny the spaces for people who genuinely need it. Mall walkers are the biggest abusers of these parking spaces. Many of them make 5 "laps" around the mall which encompasses walking approximately 3 miles and they have to park in a handicapped space? Sorry, in my opinion if you can walk 3 miles daily you don't need to park in a handicapped spot.
I've seen people park in these spots and get out of their cars and literally run into the mall as well. I told one person a few days ago that I wished I was as handicapped as she was. She could outrun me. This went totally over her head. My guess is she was simply driving someone else's car with the handicapped plates and took advantage of the parking space, thus denying the space to someone who truly needs it.
I know there are people who are truly disabled and need these parking spaces. My guess is that 50% of people who have a handicapped plate/sticker don't deserve it. It's too easy to go to a doctor and whine about a "disability" and get approved for a handicap plate/sticker. We've become a nation of wimps, self entitled wimps at that.
Example Three:
We had an idiot customer enter the store on Wednesday. (C'mon people, you had to know an idiot customer was going to appear here, right?)
While I say idiot customer he didn't buy anything in our store. He had to stop in and complain about our company because he bought one of our products at another store approximately 75 miles from us. In his opinion we are a shifty and deceptive retail store and have ripped him off.
His complaint?
We have a referral program that if you buy our product and recommend our product to someone else, and they buy as well, (and keep product), you earn gift certificates. There's no limit to the program. We've had numerous people use this program and I've had people come in the store with $200 worth of gift certificates to use for referring people to our products. Quite frankly it's a nice program.
This mental giant of course didn't think so. He told me he had personally sent a dozen people into our store in the last month alone and had never gotten credit for a gift certificate. When I asked him for names he provided me with 4 names. At this point I was taking him relatively seriously, so I looked up the four names in our system and they weren't there.
I then asked him what they bought here. His reply, "Nothing."
Well, Mr. Rocket Scientist Customer, they have to buy something. This was explained to him and he went off the deep end. It was an incredible moment of stupidity on display. I asked him if he really believed that just by sending someone into the store that he was going to get something, for nothing? Apparently so. When I asked him if he read the terms of the policy he said yes, and that he fully understood them, and we were out to "screw" him over. I couldn't even get mad at this guy. I just simply told him to leave, and maybe reread the policy, that he actually signed as a part of his receipt.
So he leaves the store and sits on a bench in front of our store and every 1 or 2 minutes starts shouting to people walking by not to enter our store because we're evil, the devil, shysters, etc.... We were honestly amused by this as were most people walking by it appeared. Mall security finally walked by and asked the guy to leave the mall.
The only thing I can come up with is that Darwin's Theory has in itself become obsolete. Modern science/medicine has kept dumb people alive much longer than they should have survived with the stupidity they possess.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Things At Work Are Looking Up
After yesterday's post this update will seem anti-climatic, at least in my opinion.
The payroll situation was actually resolved before I went to work. The boss once again surprised me and impressed me. After he got off the phone with me he called his boss about the situation, who then called his boss in the corporate office to get to the bottom of the 10 day old missing paycheck.
This regional vice-president then investigated, in stealth mode apparently. She checked the outgoing mail from the payroll department for the day and lo and behold there was a paycheck located in the stack with my home address in it. (The very same paycheck that the payroll clerk told me and my boss was mailed December 23rd.)
She then pulled the payroll check from the stack, took it to her assistant with orders to have it sent overnight by UPS to our store location to ensure that I'd have my now 11 day old paycheck in hand later today.
She then proceeded to confront the payroll clerk about the situation and the payroll clerk lied to her as well stating that the paycheck had been mailed December 23rd. Apparently this didn't go over well and the payroll clerk is in hot water now. (I'm assuming she may have been fired, but as the boss and I are low on the totem pole we were just simply told the problem has been fixed.)
I received a call from the regional vice-president yesterday afternoon at work and she apologized to me for the oversight and ensured me that this wouldn't happen again. She was very nice, and seemed genuinely distraught about this situation.
When I got off the phone with her, and the boss and I were talking, his boss called and talked to me. I like this guy and I've known him for about 5 years longer than my boss has. We've always gotten along well. He let me in a something I wasn't even aware of, nor something I'd never even thought about.
In the approximately nine years I've worked for the company I've never missed a yearly sales goal. This I knew naturally. I've missed an occasional monthly sales goal though over the years. What I didn't know was that in 2009, the worst year in retail in recent history, I was in the top 15 in sales company wide. Out of approximately 3500 salespeople nationwide there were less than 40 salespeople who exceeded their yearly sales goal. I pretty much thought 2009 sucked myself and I barely made goal that year coming in at 107% to goal. (I had to look that up after the call.) Apparently they want to keep me around for awhile, which is nice, because I really do like my job.
So this problem is resolved, unless I don't receive the check today.
The other reason things are looking up at work is that we've finally hired someone contingent on them passing a background check, which should happen. He'll be starting on January 24th so I'm thinking by early February he'll be fully trained and work hours will get back to normal.
So overall, not a bad day after all.
The payroll situation was actually resolved before I went to work. The boss once again surprised me and impressed me. After he got off the phone with me he called his boss about the situation, who then called his boss in the corporate office to get to the bottom of the 10 day old missing paycheck.
This regional vice-president then investigated, in stealth mode apparently. She checked the outgoing mail from the payroll department for the day and lo and behold there was a paycheck located in the stack with my home address in it. (The very same paycheck that the payroll clerk told me and my boss was mailed December 23rd.)
She then pulled the payroll check from the stack, took it to her assistant with orders to have it sent overnight by UPS to our store location to ensure that I'd have my now 11 day old paycheck in hand later today.
She then proceeded to confront the payroll clerk about the situation and the payroll clerk lied to her as well stating that the paycheck had been mailed December 23rd. Apparently this didn't go over well and the payroll clerk is in hot water now. (I'm assuming she may have been fired, but as the boss and I are low on the totem pole we were just simply told the problem has been fixed.)
I received a call from the regional vice-president yesterday afternoon at work and she apologized to me for the oversight and ensured me that this wouldn't happen again. She was very nice, and seemed genuinely distraught about this situation.
When I got off the phone with her, and the boss and I were talking, his boss called and talked to me. I like this guy and I've known him for about 5 years longer than my boss has. We've always gotten along well. He let me in a something I wasn't even aware of, nor something I'd never even thought about.
In the approximately nine years I've worked for the company I've never missed a yearly sales goal. This I knew naturally. I've missed an occasional monthly sales goal though over the years. What I didn't know was that in 2009, the worst year in retail in recent history, I was in the top 15 in sales company wide. Out of approximately 3500 salespeople nationwide there were less than 40 salespeople who exceeded their yearly sales goal. I pretty much thought 2009 sucked myself and I barely made goal that year coming in at 107% to goal. (I had to look that up after the call.) Apparently they want to keep me around for awhile, which is nice, because I really do like my job.
So this problem is resolved, unless I don't receive the check today.
The other reason things are looking up at work is that we've finally hired someone contingent on them passing a background check, which should happen. He'll be starting on January 24th so I'm thinking by early February he'll be fully trained and work hours will get back to normal.
So overall, not a bad day after all.
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.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Maybe Being Shorthanded At Work Isn't So Bad
We've been without the (ex)Worthless Co-Worker for a little over two months now. The first month wasn't so hard to deal with, but the month of December sucked. Now that the Christmas shopping season is over this shorthanded gig is much more tolerable. While we still work two 12 hour days per week we at least get two days off per week. I think I only had two days off total in December.
The boss actually interviewed two people last week and seemed impressed with one of them. The first guy didn't stand a chance though and he was the only one I actually saw. Two things seemed to sink his chances. One being his age, he is older than the boss, which for some reason bothers the boss. The other is that the boss feels he'd be too much like me. I actually found that amusing. Apparently I'm not very "bossable" and the boss needs someone he can boss around.
The 2nd guy he liked. A young guy fresh out of college who is apparently very "bossable." I believe this guy will go through a phone interview with the district manager tomorrow and if he impresses him he'll get a job offer. It sounds like he can start mid January, so hopefully when February rolls around he'll be fully trained and we'll be back to a normal work schedule.
But as far as January goes, being shorthanded isn't necessarily a bad thing.
For you see January is a cold month.
My son and I like to fish. Actually I like to fish, my son is a fishing fanatic. A few years ago he embraced ice fishing, me, not so much. I resisted any and all attempts he made into talking me into ice fishing until last January. I only gave in then because the prior Christmas his gifts to me were all ice fishing equipment and his persistence had to be rewarded.
Now the kid had everything you could possibly need for ice fishing. A two-man shanty, a heater, more than enough fishing equipment, etc. My thought, at the time, was a heated shanty would probably be tolerable so we went fishing on a Saturday last January that I had off of work. Our work schedules don't mesh well for things like this. He has weekends off all the time, I usually have one weekend off a month.
But he was excited. He finally had talked the "old man" into ice fishing.
So the day we went ice fishing was cold. Cold as in 22 'effin degrees below zero. Needless to say dressing warmly was in order. And dressed warmly I was. We hauled all this crap out to this great fishing spot he had found.
Have I mentioned it was cold out?
I was freezing by the time we got to this hot fishing spot. I was still on board though and pretending to be a good trooper. I just knew once we got the shanty set up and the heater working I'd be warming up in no time at all. Yeah, not so much. That heater might have raised the temperature inside the shanty to 5 degrees below zero. I was miserable. That heater was basically useless.
By the time I got home I couldn't feel my toes, nor my hands. I literally cried with pain as I ran my hands under warm water to get what I suspect were frozen blood vessels flowing again.
The next day I went out and bought another heater for the kid for his igloo on sled rails. I did go one other time with him in February last year as well. The only difference was the temperature outside was almost 30 degrees above zero and we now had two heaters for the ice shanty. Much better experience, but ice fishing still isn't something I'm crazy about.
So now we're into January again, as in the coldest month of the year. And as you've probably guessed the kid wants to drag my ass out ice fishing again. He has compelling arguments, at least in his own mind. A new ice fishing shanty and a new heater which he guarantees will drive us out into the cold to cool off it works so well.
My reply to him was "It's a shame we're still shorthanded at work son. I don't foresee a weekend off until mid February." As I uttered those words I tried my best to look extremely sad. I'm not sure he bought into my act though. But I know I'm going to stay warm this January.
The boss actually interviewed two people last week and seemed impressed with one of them. The first guy didn't stand a chance though and he was the only one I actually saw. Two things seemed to sink his chances. One being his age, he is older than the boss, which for some reason bothers the boss. The other is that the boss feels he'd be too much like me. I actually found that amusing. Apparently I'm not very "bossable" and the boss needs someone he can boss around.
The 2nd guy he liked. A young guy fresh out of college who is apparently very "bossable." I believe this guy will go through a phone interview with the district manager tomorrow and if he impresses him he'll get a job offer. It sounds like he can start mid January, so hopefully when February rolls around he'll be fully trained and we'll be back to a normal work schedule.
But as far as January goes, being shorthanded isn't necessarily a bad thing.
For you see January is a cold month.
My son and I like to fish. Actually I like to fish, my son is a fishing fanatic. A few years ago he embraced ice fishing, me, not so much. I resisted any and all attempts he made into talking me into ice fishing until last January. I only gave in then because the prior Christmas his gifts to me were all ice fishing equipment and his persistence had to be rewarded.
Now the kid had everything you could possibly need for ice fishing. A two-man shanty, a heater, more than enough fishing equipment, etc. My thought, at the time, was a heated shanty would probably be tolerable so we went fishing on a Saturday last January that I had off of work. Our work schedules don't mesh well for things like this. He has weekends off all the time, I usually have one weekend off a month.
But he was excited. He finally had talked the "old man" into ice fishing.
So the day we went ice fishing was cold. Cold as in 22 'effin degrees below zero. Needless to say dressing warmly was in order. And dressed warmly I was. We hauled all this crap out to this great fishing spot he had found.
Have I mentioned it was cold out?
I was freezing by the time we got to this hot fishing spot. I was still on board though and pretending to be a good trooper. I just knew once we got the shanty set up and the heater working I'd be warming up in no time at all. Yeah, not so much. That heater might have raised the temperature inside the shanty to 5 degrees below zero. I was miserable. That heater was basically useless.
By the time I got home I couldn't feel my toes, nor my hands. I literally cried with pain as I ran my hands under warm water to get what I suspect were frozen blood vessels flowing again.
The next day I went out and bought another heater for the kid for his igloo on sled rails. I did go one other time with him in February last year as well. The only difference was the temperature outside was almost 30 degrees above zero and we now had two heaters for the ice shanty. Much better experience, but ice fishing still isn't something I'm crazy about.
So now we're into January again, as in the coldest month of the year. And as you've probably guessed the kid wants to drag my ass out ice fishing again. He has compelling arguments, at least in his own mind. A new ice fishing shanty and a new heater which he guarantees will drive us out into the cold to cool off it works so well.
My reply to him was "It's a shame we're still shorthanded at work son. I don't foresee a weekend off until mid February." As I uttered those words I tried my best to look extremely sad. I'm not sure he bought into my act though. But I know I'm going to stay warm this January.
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