Sooooo, I take the little truck up to the mountains. I get there, it's on an Indian reservation - San Carlos to be precise and the name of the town is also San Carlos. I meet up with the contractor, we unload the truck by hand. We check every single item on all 3 orders. That means going through each order, line by line and making sure it's there. I'm there over an hour.
Nice drive, but that's not what I'm writing about here.
I go to our main branch in downtown Phoenix to give them back their truck and get our semi back. Pretty much get everything done quickly and get out of there - I am 5 hours over for the week already. On my way back, I stop at a vendor to pick up some small gas fittings. That's when I get a phone call. It's my manager. He's asking about whether I left any pipe lube at the job site. No, I reply - he knows full well - at least by guessing, that I haven't done any such thing.
It was a small quantity of pipe. We have extremely limited amounts of free pipe lube that is given to us by the manufacturers. They used to give us liberal quantities, but in the current economy, they tightened the belts on that stuff and do not give enough to cover a truckload. They say it's enough, but go talk to any contractor; foreman or construction worker and you will hear a different story.
Regardless, on any amount of pipe sold that does not amount to a full lift of pipe, I do not give out the free stuff unless it is requested. It has been this way for quite a long time now. It is nothing new. Jobsite foremen know this, they usually keep lube in their work vehicles to make sure they don't encounter a problem. The salesmen all know this as well. They have been informed - over and over - that we do not have a lot of the free lube and we will not be giving it out on small quantities of pipe. In other words, sell them the pay stuff, we have plenty of it, it doesn't cost that much, there are no options unless we are just going to give them the pay stuff and write it off.
Well, back to the story, the inside salesman had gone off on him - and me - over the phone. His words for me were this: "What kind of f****** idiot would take a load of pipe all the way up to the mountains and not leave lube?" My manager called me after that phone call and warned me that this guy was going to call me and go off on me. No, I did not leave a quart of lube. It was clearly not on the tickets that we went over painstakingly well, it was not noted to leave a free quart and the tickets themselves did not have any as a line item on them. I have operated this way for quite a long time now. It's nothing new.
If they run out of lube and it's an emergency, they can go buy grease, vaseline, all kinds of stuff to put on those gaskets to cause the pipe to glide into the bells of the pipe they are fitting it into. This is NOT an emergency. Just throwing that in there.
I waited for this phone call, I was ready to ram his s*** right back down his throat. I don't call HIM when he makes mistakes - which are not far or few between. Case in point: He puts into our truck routing system a P.O. to be picked up at a vendor - in west Phoenix. I drive all the way over there to find out it has already been picked up. I get back to the main branch where this guy works and tell him that the order has been picked up already, but it's not here. Meaning, it's not at the main branch either, what's going on? Turns out HE sent the contractor to go pick up the stuff - not bothering to take it out of our TRI or let us know that it has been taken care of. 40 miles each way, in a semi truck, he doesn't even apologize.
That is one out of HUNDREDS of examples on an almost-daily basis. Do I call him up and rip him a new one? No, but if anyone had the right to be calling someone else an idiot.............
I get back to my branch. I write this guy an email - he isn't going to go around calling people idiots without being confronted, at least not with me. I wrote out a 7 point email that encapsules when and when we do not give out the free lube. I then address him on the "idiot" statement.
He writes back and says I need to "tone it down a notch" without acknowledging anything I have stated.
I write him back and inform him he is the one that had a friggin' cow about a quart of lube, not me, perhaps he should tone it down several notches.
He writes back - tells me he talked to my manager, talk to him about it, that he never called me an idiot. In other words, he is blowing me off, treating me like a dumb@$$ and not worth his time.
Hey, I can play this game. I write him back. Thank you for reading the reasons of when we do and when we don't give out free lube and the reasons why. It would be prudent for you, from this point forth, to make sure that the contractor has plenty of it on hand and offer to add it to the ticket. As for the statement you made (I inserted the same quotation here - about him calling me an f'ing idiot), I believe your statement most certainly DOES quantify calling me an idiot. I accept your apology and we can move on from here.
He write back, "Okay, Buddy".
I might have let this go a bit easier, but this guy has started more trouble with me than I care to go into here. I didn't go anywhere NEAR where I wanted to go with it, that might have gotten me into trouble.
Anyway, there are always people that are difficult to get along with at work. I try to be amenable to everyone - but this guy I've had enough of. His uncle? Is the general manager. That's not enough for me to stand by and be a doormat for some infantile's rantings because he, this salesman, is on an ego trip and mouths off, foul language and all, with extremely inciteful language, with seeming impunity, apparently because his uncle IS the general manager. Well, I have never heard his uncle talking that way about or to anyone.
Regardless, let the chips fall where they may. I will not allow myself to be verbally abused in the workplace, period.
I worked out after work, only got 5 hours of sleep last night - I am exhausted. It's 7:15 pm, in about 45 minutes?
Off to bed.
ben
3 comments:
Thursday
5 hours over for this week. I am guessing I will be getting off early today and tomorrow unless, of course, business picks up yet again and I am running around all day long.
Umm, well whatever. Anyway, I find this situation in Wisconsin to be quite entertaining. Walker starts backing down, appears to be willing to talk concessions to get the Democratic lawmakers back to the table.
The next thing you know, there are headlines all over the place about the Senate passing the bill without any democratic senators present. Of course, the opposition to this bill is yelling "cowards" and other such loveliness. I'd have to say that in that kind of political landscape, the term coward hardly comes to mind as a descriptor of the action those senators took or the position that Walker is in.
If anyone is the cowards, it's the democratic senators that fled the state. They had made statements that they were willing to "stay here for 2 years, if necessary", in other words, until the next election, I presume. How does fleeing correct anything? If the people of the state of Wisconsin hate what Walker and the republicans have done enough, then a majority of them can vote them out in the next election and that will be that. If they REALLY think they have enough votes and energy, they can start a recall drive.
I have read that Walker never said anything about stripping unions of collecting bargaining rights during the election, but I heard elsewhere that he did. I dunno. Just a circus, but at least amusing and engaging, lol.
The ops manager is coming over here this morning and then over to Phoenix afterward. I'm rather curious as to whether this has anything to do with what occured with that inside salesman yesterday. Neither of us have made any complaints to management about it, it would have had to have been that salesman saying something - and knowing this guy saying it in a rather tainted light - to management to get any kind of real trouble started.
I can only say that, after having had worked for several "institutions" in my life where management and/or co-workers thought it perfectly acceptable to yell at, demean, berate, belitte and otherwise humiliate other workers, I will not tolerate it and I WILL dish it right back, regardless of the consequences. It's my past that haunts me when it comes to things like that. If a company doesn't like a particular worker, instead of playing mind games with that person and using fear tactics and anger junk, just let that person go.
I don't WANT to lose my job, that's a fact - and frankly, this company I am working for has several policies against abuse of workers.
I might go into that later, work day is here and I must be offa here.
Later.
ben
He is an idiot off even calling anyone names in public or private...When the name calling starts in business you instantly lose.
I'd rip him a new one if I were his boss without calling anyone a "name" either.
Bobby
Hi Bobby:
Yes, the guy acts this way frequently - mostly because his uncle also happens to be the General Manager. His uncle, however, is NOTHING like him. Anyway, I am going to update this situation in my next entry.
ben
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