:: Dreams and Other Chimera ::

:: 29.6.05 ::

Not much joy on the work front so far, but I have high hopes for the near future.

Aside from that I am looking forward to the long weekend. Lots of space still available, book your james soon.

I highly recommend the new Bif Naked cd for those of you who like the whole post punk agressive female vocalist genre of music.

See Raven? I can make your high tech thingie go with out needing any help. Now I just need to know what the other mouse is for.

James

:: James [+] ::
...

The decline of Xanadu (It would have been Eden but I don't own the right books.)

A little over 10 weeks ago I changed jobs and became employed by a different freight futherance company specializing in oilfield valves. I switched jobs for a bunch of reasons but 3 stand out in the end of things. The first was to get away from my immediate superior at the time. That man was reasonably competent, however I disliked him and he wasn't very good at the manager stuff. Under him most of the time I ended up doing the crap work that no one else wanted to do , because of the fact that I was the most highly crosstrained and competant person. Towards the end they had thrown me into the shipping job that involved late hours and no constant breaks. The second big reason for my leaving was just that. I had gone to the warehouse from the hotel I used to work at so that I could get an 8-5 job and for a while I was working 9-5 which was close enough. But after working too many irregular days I finally got fed up. The final reason for me leaving was money. Money there was better than the hotel, but hardly a living wage. I think that I was making around 12 dollars an hour.

So I get a call from a friend of mine who had hired me into a position at the first warehouse that I went to. He had been run off for being intelligent, competent and a threat to the manager after a management change. Anyway he had gotten himself hired at another freight futherance warehouse and seemed to be doing well there. He was(is) the recieving supervisor. Anyway, they through a regular scheduled day, with overtime, a better ending time, more money (16% or so) another dollar after 3 months (that takes it to 25%) working for him, smaller staff, more machines, more competant staff, similar benifits, and working with professional warehouse workers. I went, took a look, and after thinking about it for a few days, accepted the job.

There were some rough bits at the beginning but mostly it was good. The 20 hours of overtime per paycheck were good. I was working for and with people who liked their job, were happy, and generally were very professional (These are all rarity's in this industry). They had a couple barbeques in the first month, took us all out to dinner to the moose factory, and treated us like family(once again, all raritys). I was a little angry when I found out that I almost had gotten shafted by the general manager and my old manager having a 'don't scalp our employees agreement,' but hey, things all worked out fine. At the end of the first week I was told that that raise I had been promised was going to be $2 instead of $1 and hey, can't beat a 33% raise over 3 months. Things generally went along swimmingly for almost the first 2 months.

Sometime near the end of those 2 months, the warehouse manager put in his notice, and his last day was near week 7. He was a good guy, but not cut out for the management job. Too nice, too scatterbrained. Anyway he leaves. I begin thinking that my supervisor was the old warehouse supervisor from the old place. He knows what he's doing. But the GM comes out and says that there isn't going to be a warehouse manager for a while. Ok thinks I, if they say that they want one later, I'll throw his name in. This goes well until almost 2 weeks ago when they come out and say that on monday the new warehouse manager will start.

This immediately angers me. I generally do anything that I can for my friends and my friend, who got me 2 jobs and was a very competent man just got screwed twice running. He got run off at the old place and now he was unfairly passed over here. But what the heck do I say? I just crossed over 8 weeks there. Thats not so hot and it isn't my place to question a decison that was made 2 managers over my head.

The following monday comes around and the head of sales parades this guy around (who's name is Mike) and introduces him to everyone. Then begins the reign of incompatence. He didn't even call us togeather and say hello and I'm the new kid but cut me a little slack and so on and so forth. I see him maybe a couple times, and he doesn't ask anyone about procedures or anything. He wanders around, does things the wrong way and eventually gets most of the people pissed at him. He's not friendly, he's not personable, he's, to put it in a word, creepy. He doesn't seem to give a damm what opinion of hime is. The end of tuesday he calls a meeting (After work, on our time) to propose changes to the way we do things. He's been there for less than 20 hours and he already knows better. If those changes had all been implimented someone would have come from head office and fired us all by now. I won't get into detail but they involved changing a company wide policy that is enforced by the owner, pissing all over our largest customer, and cutting overtime.

Now the cutting of overtime he was under pressure to change, so I am not going to blame him for that but we will come back to that point.

So now he begins randomly changing things and pissing people off. No one likes him, at all. Even the guy who is too nice for his own good has to streatch to say anything even remotely good about him. I don't even talk to hime and I don't like him. And I will give my supervisor credit, he tried. He went to Mike and asked for some of Mike's time so that he could tell him why you couldn't change these things. Mike said that he'd make time but never did.

Did I mention that Mike is the most unsafe person that I have ever worked with? Mike does things like climb the rack, leave his forklift idling without the parking brake on and stack crates weighing 2-3 tons improperly. He even insists that he is stacking the valves properly. Anytime you make comments that he is being unsafe or that the way he is doing things here doesn't work you get the same awnser, "Well I worked at Newman's valve for 15 years and..." A walking injury/death waiting to happen. Working where I do is safe, if everyone follows the rules, but when people start disregarding them you get people dying, in short order.

This continues till friday and by this point people are talking about quitting, and basicly the fabric of the most well run warehouse that I have ever heard about is ripped and torn.

On monday one of the new hires who just finished his probation goes to the GM (Who is rarely there as he is mostly a salesman) and spends 45 minuites telling the GM why he is dissatisfied. On tuesday, I go and spend 1 hr and 15 min. On wednesday my supervisor tries to go but can't get an appointment. Hopefully they do something soon, but by the time next week is over people will be quitting, and then there is no way to go back.

What started this is today, Mike keeps ordering me to do other peoples work, which is fine, and pulls me off of my actual work to do it (less fine but still tolerable.) Then he gives me som assinine speech about how I should punch in as close to the hour as possible, which is amusing only in that I do that already. Its my supervisor that he needs to have that talk with. And then finally he has a little talk with me, after I've punched out, in the middle of the warehouse where anyone can overher. It goes something like this:

-M "James, wait a second."
I wait for him.
-M "Your 3 month probation is up soon right?"
-J "Yeah, in a week from monday."
-M "Ok, the company is prepared to offer you a dollar."
-J "Two."
-M "The company is offering you a doller after your probation."
-J "The company already offered me two."
-M "Who."
-J "What?"
-M "Who offered you this."
-J ", at the end of my first week here."
-M "Well," he catches the look in my eyes, "I'll take that under advisement."

Please note that advisement is, if not the biggest, the most complex word I have ever heard him use.

So I have some small hope that he may be fired in the next few weeks, but if he isn't and I don't get that raise, I will have to be searching out new employment.

:: James [+] ::
...

You know your karma is all wierd when you walk into your apartment and your computer happens to be playing a line from a song that clearly and loudly proclaims "I need to be whipped!"

James

:: James [+] ::
...

Ola. For all those who might expect to see me this weekend, I won't be around. I will call all of you with whom I have engagements. It's been a crappy couple weeks (with a nice exception in last weekend) but now I need to take some time to relax with my folks.

I am trying to work on a rant for you all but I can't seem to concentrate very well. I think that I either had too much, or not enough sake.

James

:: James [+] ::
...

Haven't been here in a while. Sorry. Busy busy busy. My body seems to be trying to make me thing I'm old. I'm busy trying to make it feel young.

I hate it when the people who say stupid things are canadians.

Stupid back.

Well, time for work.

James

:: James [+] ::
...