Monday - morning late

Well when you get sick, you tend to sleep well enough anyway.  

Definitely not feeling well and have done nothing today besides lay in bed. 

It was no shock to me that work called - I had the ringer off and on purpose - and left a message stating: "We had you working today".  Uh, no and no.  You did not have me working today, I checked the tablet several times.  There was nothing put in there for Monday on Friday, which is when they would normally put it in there and there was nothing put in it Saturday or yesterday. 

As it stands, I barely made it through yesterday work-wise. I was going to go get the tractor today but I'm doubtful. Someone stole my tie down chains - they are expensive now a days - and so I would have to go spend $200 on those and binders before even considering going to get the tractor.  It's not that far, maybe 4 or 5 miles, I just don't have any energy.

Anyway, I was in no mood to talk to them so I waited an hour or longer before calling them back.  The manager clarified after I flatly stated there is nothing in the tablet for work for today that he knew it hadn't been put in there but they were supposed to put it in there yesterday.

No, I thought, they are supposed to put it in there Friday.  Regardless, I wasn't going to work today I don't care what the threats or urgency is.  I doubt he would threaten me but other trucking companies would try and I would quit right then and there. I will not be treated like some sort of machine or slave that is forced to do a company's bidding when they are the ones that screwed it up in the first place. 

If you can't tell, I'm in a mood. That phone message put me in that mood I am trying to claw back out of it.  I can tell ya my immediate thoughts were quitting, just say fine, come get your truck.  I have knee jerk reactions sometimes to stuff like this when it comes to trucking simply because of the way I have been treated in the past.  I don't need their job as much as they need me to drive their truck.  Yes, I need a job but they are more needy. Especially this company with junky equipment and low pay - tho I got out of the low pay bracket pretty quickly. 

Whatever was going through my mind, however, is not what came out of my mouth. I don't really want to quit or be fired and it really wasn't going to go there at all, I'm just not feeling well and a bit grumpy. I stay away from people when I get sick because - I get cranky. I know I get cranky so I just figure it's best to lay low until I get better again.  Getting phone calls from your employer when you shouldn't be getting phone calls from your employer mixed with sickness is a toxic combination, at least for me. 

He had dumped it on another driver who, admittedly, has been working his @$$ off. He is also 30 years younger than me and has lots more energy than I do. I remember the days in my 50's saying I could outwork 20 year olds, that isn't likely true anymore and I don't care that it's not true, it's just a part of growing older that I have accepted and I keep the pace that I can keep and I'm fine with it.  

However...he did not dump the entire load on the other driver, he wanted me to do the other half of the run tomorrow.  I said that isn't going to happen if I don't start feeling better and quickly, I am pretty weak right now.  It is highly likely he's going to have to figure something else out. I hate to put him in a bind but this is a legitimate reason unlike almost all of the other drivers who regularly bow out of work via lame @$$ excuses.  He tolerates them because he doesn't have much of a choice. This company doesn't have people breaking down the doors trying to get in with it for employment....

.......and when they do find people, they either can't do the job correctly or they don't last. I KNEW that driver that kept skipping in front of me until I had to get really pissy about it and put my foot down wasn't going to last. I figured 6 months and I was right on the nose. He found a "better" job somewhere else.  There are a lot of "better" companies that simply won't tolerate the crap he was doing at this company, good luck with that. 

Enough ranting. I have no ambitions to do anything today. I just made myself some breakfast and that's the end of the line for me.  

G'day