Tuesday
Trouble at work.
My manager - for whatever reason the source of which I have no clue - has been getting increasingly curt and short with me. Yesterday there were several indications that something is not right - although WHAT - again, I don't know.
But, the culmination of yesterday's angst towards me was with this drip irrigation stuff I have been selling on Craigslist. He called me 4 times after I got home from work, a man had shown up to buy some of the stuff and clearly, my manager was not happy. I had informed him this guy was coming.
The problem was this guy didn't know what he needed and it took up a lot of my manager's time. Well, I don't know what to say, that's the nature of selling things, people need information they are definitely going to ask the people that are selling the stuff. The kicker, though, was when he called me and told me that this guy had told him that we had "everything he needed" to expand his existent system and that I had told him we had the tubing as well.
I had, of course, said no such thing. Not even close. So my manager, getting extremely cranky on the phone with me, told me he sold the tubing I had brought in - tubing that I had bought and paid for - to give to a manager that needed some for a project he was going to do. So, he sold my personally owned tubing to a man that was clearly not telling the truth about what I had told him, and then, on top of that, put the tubing on a ticket and the money that is owed me is going to go to the company's coffers instead.
Further, he is getting increasingly agitated, he tells me it's not his problem about the tubing and that "you are going to have to explain to ... ...... about why the tubing is going for yourself".
If I do that, it is going to make HIM look pretty bad. He sold 400 feet of my pipe for the price of 100 feet and then took that money and gave it to the company? Does anyone else see anything wrong with this picture? My manager then declared that we are going to have a meeting tomorrow morning - which will be this morning of course.
May 3, 2011 5:56 AM
Anonymous said...
Yes, indeed, and let's do. And, let's get beyond irrigation junk and all the rest of it and find out what the source root of the problem is. Let's deal with THAT and get that out of the way, because if, for whatever reason, he doesn't like me, my work or WHATEVER, then perhaps it's time that we go to higher management and perhaps it's time that I ask for a transfer to the main store downtown.
I'm actually not opposed to the idea, either. It's half the distance to the main branch as it is to the store I am working at now - meaning cutting my fuel costs in half getting to and from work. Now, I really don't want it to go that far, I somehow doubt it will look good on either one of us if this has to be forced into going before upper management, but I will say one thing that's for sure: I will not work under abusive management. I have quit more places than I can remember because of that very issue alone. If a manager cannot contain himself and keep his feelings to himself - in constantly expressing some sort of discontent against an employee - then it's time for that manager to find something else to do with their career, cause managing? Ain't exactly in their realm of things that they are good at.
I went through months and months of this guy's daily drama with his divorce and him ending up in severe depression to the point that he would be practically slumped over his desk all day long, listless, non-responsive, I was basically doing all of the work around here. He did his paperwork and that was IT. I gave him an open ear to dump on, and I finally suggested he see a doc to get some "happy pills", cause he definitely needed them.
I do believe I have gone FAR beyond my "normal" job duties in dealing with his personal stuff on a daily basis. In reality, I COULD have brought it before upper management and informed them of the situation going on over here and please do something about it. I didn't do that and I didn't even think to do that. So, receiving this "bad" side on a near daily basis now is starting to get old - and quickly.
I am hopeful that we can just work this out and move on. Really, I am.
I don't know, but the work day is here and he will be in in about 40 minutes. What this day holds, where it is going, I don't know, but I find the texture of it unappealing at best.
ben
4 comments:
Sympathies and good luck. Have just been reading old diary accounts of a job where I had a very bad boss. It colored my entire perception of life, time off included. Not good. I finally took a leave of absence and ultimately retired.
f
Hope all goes well for you today and you can get it sorted, Ben.
Cheers
Lynne
Western Australia
Fin, that's interesting that the man had that much of a negative impact on your life. But, work can do that, I know that for a fact. The word retire isn't even in my vocabulary - for now. I'll be working, I guess, until I am phyiscally unable to.
Thanks, Lynne!
ben
Wednesday
Between the time I had last talked to my manager on Monday to the time in seeing him on Tuesdsay morning, my manager apparently had calmed down at least a bit. He was angry, really, at this customer that had come in - off of one of my craiglist ads and a person I had spoken with on the phone at length - the customer had no clue what he was doing. The customer was also mad because "ben told me you have tubing". The man lied through his teeth. The discussion about what we had never included tubing and in fact, if the man would have known what he was doing at all, I would have been able to figure out that he needed more tubing and would have told him to head to Home Depot.
I'm not saying all is hunky dory in the manager/employee relation world, the meeting never materialized. But I did speak my peace about the situation regardless. He is uptight about something - I'm guessing it's his personal life that is still raising it's ugly head in the situation with a fresh divorce and his now ex wife saying she may be getting let go at work. My manager is stressing that she will, in turn, ask for even more money in child support.
Changing the subject, the "polls" showing more Americans driving less. Do we really need a poll to tell us that when the cost of gasoline hits $4 per gallon, people that aren't exactly rich are going to cut back on driving to bare bones minimum? Here's another one the polls aren't even asking yet: driving habits will change substantially. Gunning it from being stopped at a intersection will start to resemble more like a turtle with it's legs cut off - people are going to change their driving habits as well. I've already started doing that, I'm certainly not immune to the effects of expensive gasoline. Last time it got this high, I wanted to get a motorcycle, still wish I could!
I'm still waiting for some kind of bombshell to land from the IRS. It's only been 20 days and I'm hearing it's a lot longer than that before they are getting to returns after receiving them - I am preparing myself for the worst is all I can say about that. If it turns out any better than that, then I can and will be elated. I could certainly use 5 grand right now.
But, especially with the IRS, don't be countin' your chickins' before they be hatchin'.
With that, I am offa here, work day is almost here and there appears to be plenty to do in the truck routing system to keep me busy today.
ben
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