I would like to say that things are going better at work. They are not.  Not that I made any claims that it was going to. But today?

Lol.

The manager believes that I should be responsible for someone else's pulling errors, of which I have balked it from the first day he tried to introduce it.  How am I responsible for someone else's mistakes?  Because you put it on the truck, you should have checked.  I should have checked something that had at least 2 people check the order and verify that it was there and then told me that it was good to go?  LMAO!

Today. Lol. I have to laugh, because I could get very angry at this point. This manager, who always singles me out for someone else's bullshit - seriously that is the way it goes - started to do the same thing today.  3 fire hydrants were missing, I know because I was pulling the order and looking for them this morning.  Good Lord, to go through all of what occurred today would take a lot of writing.  Going to try to narrow it down.  Skipping a lot of stuff, because I don't have a lot of time, it came down to the manager sending people out all over the place looking for these hydrants at job sites.  Everywhere.  I mean, 3 different people.  Anyway, it came up to a jobsite where I had delivered the material.

But, the paperwork showed that I did not pull the order.  Of course not, I'm not going to make those kinds of mistakes.  I may make a small mistake very infrequently, but not 3 fire hydrants. That's 2 grand a piece error.  Anyway, I got out my phone and started recording He looked at me and asked me what I was doing with my phone? And demanded to look at it.  Whether it's right or wrong, what the hell  business does this guy have asking me to look at my phone. But, I thought hey, this guy is going to know and there won't be any statements of how he didn't know and in those thoughts, I knew this would go to hell.  So I showed him. Well what is that?  I'm recording this meeting.  Why?  Because you are going to get angry, obviously, and I'm going to get it recorded.

Of course, he blew up. Shut the meeting down, told me we were going to his office. Sure, why not? We get outside, he gets on the phone and calls the GM. He is having a literal cow about this. He takes a snipe at me, I started to reply, though not in kind. NO, we are doing this in MY office. Oh really? I replied. YOU started this out HERE.  The GM is on the phone with him, hearing whatever he could.  I would love to go into the details, but I don't have time.  The most important one, though, was when the manager was telling the GM that I had made a pulling error on a ticket.  No, I loudly interrupted, I did NOT.  He said yes you did, and I said no, I'm not just going to stand here listening to you telling lies to the GM.  Yes, I know what the implications of calling your manager a liar is, that doesn't matter to me anymore.

He put the phone down and became infuriated. YOU don't call ME a liar, I can put up with a lot of stuff, but I will not tolerate you calling me a liar. Well, I replied, if you are going to state something that isn't true that you know isn't true, then yes, I'm going to call it a lie.  He went storming off.  I was amused at his childishness.

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So now it's the next day.  Didn't get to finish that. But today was exactly as I expected it to be.  And I don't care anymore.  So there is that.  I was put out of all trucks and worked the yard all day long.  I had a smile on my face and a tune on my lips whistling.  It was a beautiful day.  I pulled out a large amount of pipe that took 2/3rds of the day to do for an order going to somewhere near Little Rock tomorrow.  Of course, all that work and I don't get to take the load, but guess what? I don't care.

Instead, I get into the truck that that driver normally drives - which I have been wanting in for quite a while anyway.  I haven't bothered to tell anyone that, most certainly not the manager.  I drive the big truck, fine. That little truck gets runs all over the place.  He's working all day long, gets more hours because of it and this is the driver that got fired for having TCP in his system.  So it's whatever.  The manager didn't want anything to do with me today, he is butt hurt that I called him a liar. Well, don't lie to your boss and I won't call you one.  Tried to lecture me yesterday on respect. Respect given is respect earned, you have anger problems.

He would have fired me long ago if he had that power.  But he doesn't.  That's the GM's purview.  So, these big wigs are coming up Monday I think they said, not for this situation but now they are going to include it.  I'm going to play it totally cool.  Low tones, no excited responses to outrageous statements from my manager.  I'm going to make myself look like the cool customer and this dude the buffoon that he is.  I may very well get let go, though.  This "manager" has been here for 30 years.  He has a bad reptuation, but apparently alot of hat has been hidden. The GM knew nothing about his history, of which I informed him since he asked.  Like bending one of the salesman over backwards on his truck and threatening to beat the s*** out of him.

Hmm, re-reading what I wrote yesterday, I left out the fact that I spoke with the GM on the phone for about an hour.  I can read the writing on the wall.  I have no problem standing up for myself, regardless of whether anyone else in that place is too afraid to lose their jobs. Is a job that valuable to lose your inner peace over? Or to allow a mortal to inflict such abuse through foul verbiage that you should just sit there and take it? Is there not more to life?  We went back and forth on the phone. Bypassing a whole lot of conversation, Well, if one of us has to go, he's been here 30 years and you aren't going to fire a manager.  He actually gave me a compliment.  You're a great worker, you add a lot to the company I wouldn't want to lose you either.  But I dunno if he just felt obliged to say that or what.

Anyway, today was a long day working out there but, it was worth it to show that I would just keep a good spirit about me, deal with multiple customers, pull orders, sweep concrete, all kinds of stuff.

And, my next paycheck is going to suck badly since it's going to be short many OT hours.  All because of this man's anger, leading to vindictiveness, leading to retaliation. But if you say that to the GM, no way is he doing that.  Lolol.  Okay then.

I'm preparing myself for them telling me to get in line whenever this occurs next week instead of him.  But, I'm going to prepare myself for this, this weekend. Go through every conceivable thing that could happen, issue that is brought up, "button pushing" that may be brought against me and think through how I'm going to respond.  Yes, I have something to prove here whether I stay at that place or not (and most likely not by my own choosing regardless of what they do).

Anyway, I actually have to be at work by around 6:45 am tomorrow, to have the truck leaving the yard at 7:00 am. OT? In this manager's current state of mind? Heck no.  Lol, he'll just make me leave earlier.  It's juvenile, pathetic and telling of his nature.  His is god of that place and you best bow down and worship him. Must be quite humiliating for him not to have firing power.  He may get his final revenge next week, who knows. I'm not fretting it at all. If that happens, it means to me it was time to leave.

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Okay well this post has been days in the making. It's now Thursday, was sent home from work at 3:00 pm.  Verification that his ire and anger against me about calling him a liar - completely justified since he was, indeed, lying, right in front of me, to his boss on the phone so I heard with my own ears what he was saying - coming from other drivers who are saying he is spouting off at the mouth behind my back about all of this.  Which I could care less about, let his pathetic little self spout off.  I decided a while ago to start selectively looking for a new job.  Meaning, only places I think would be a good fit for me and will provide excellent pay.

If I'm going to switch jobs, might as well bust this up to 70k range. I'm specifically looking for local chemical or gas/fuel hauling.  No experience, whatsoever, in that field, but I know it pays well and I am a fast learner.  Mostly, I am preparing myself for come what may next week.  The regional director is supposedly a laid back man, I'll find out next week I guess. Didn't really ask for a meeting with any of them, but that is forced due to the situation going on here. Remember that my immediate manager does not have firing power.

I got let off early because I started early, btw, but at 8 hours a day with the money I'm making and eliminating OT?  No can do.  But, the main thing here isn't pay, it's the manager.  It's an insufferable situation that needs to be rectified.  When the GM starts asking if I would be willing to relocate - well, that isn't really a good sign. It means he knows I do an excellent job but also means that this situation has to have a change.  It can't go on like this.  I understand that, agree to it completely.  I didn't want to admit this with him, but I don't see this situation getting any better.  The reason I didn't is because I am hopeful that some artificial band aid will be applied that I can still there a little while long where i can take time off, get paid for it and spend that time devoted to finding a new job and also getting away from that place.  It is a toxic environment there.

Well that's enough for this one.