More Stuff

[GlytchMeister]

So I had to call in yesterday and today because I think I fucked up my back. I’ve got an appointment with a doctor later today.

I had thought I was on good terms with my supervisor and the company, but this morning I was told my supervisor is going to cut my overtime and go to his boss to have me transferred to a more difficult job on third shift because “he needs more reliable workers.” I’ve been willing to work 70 hours a week because these assholes won’t hire a fourth worker - I’ve been dealing with old, run-down, unmaintained equipment, whose mechanical failures he’s now going to pin on me, and he’s going to say I’ve been performing poorly.

And, last time I was at work, we had a discussion about how I was on good terms with the company and with him, and that I’ve beem doing really well and that there’s nothing I could have done about the mechanical problems. I even had a semi run into one of my trailers and it was determined to not be my fault, because it was on camera.

So yeah, that’s my situation right now.

I guess I’m back to job hunting.

Here’s a question: how do I find a company that won’t try to screw me? How do I find a company that will actually be good to work for?

Or how about this, how do I find a company with a strong, non-busted union keeping them in check? As in, how do I determine whether or not a union is actually capable of protecting me?

[TazManiac]

I'm not sure I can answer all of those but a good saying to have in mind is 'to Cover yer Ass in Paper'. (As in document stuff as it goes along; even if it's in the form of a Diary/Journal type thing so as to have facts and dates to fall back on.) Even a manila folder with stuff in it will likely help down the road.)

(edit)- Just as I hit the 'Enter' key, the 'Hole in the Darkness' feline walked over from his bowl of kittie-crunchies to reach up and sink his claws right through my dungarees.
I heard to whole thing, from "crunch, crunch, crunch..." to step-step-step, to "Aaagh!!!" just as I hit the 'send button'. <sigh>

As I'm typing this from the light of the screen/lit-keyboard I must attest- I never saw a damn thing, not the whole time. As of right now I can hear him, invisible & just inches away, cleaning himself atop the inkjet printer.

[Catawampus]

Here’s a question: how do I find a company that won’t try to screw me? How do I find a company that will actually be good to work for?

It's been my experience and observation that most of the time it's the individual managers who matter, not so much the company as a whole. You can go to one branch of the company under one manager, and morale will be terrible and everybody will be stabbing everybody else in the back. Then you go to another branch of the same company that is doing the exact same work but has a different manager, and everybody will be working together as a team and looking out for each other and love their job. Looking at the basic policies of the company can help you avoid the ones which are blatantly exploitative on an institutional basis, but even a company that is founded on the most worker-friendly principles can be a bad place to work for if you get the wrong sort of manager.

And to find out if you'll have one of those, all you can do is to try to talk to the people who you will be working with and find out how they feel about their job. And unless you're signing up with a really small workplace, good luck figuring out who those people will be and getting in touch with them. You can also try finding out how well the people several steps further up the totem pole react to people at your level sending in complaints about bad managers, but again good luck getting any useful information on that.

Basically, if it's not blatantly obvious beforehand that you're going to work for Exploit The Workers For All That We Can, Inc., then the most likely way to find out if it's a good place to work is to work there. Check out company policies as thoroughly as you can beforehand, talk to as many people as you can beforehand, try to see as much of the workplace in action as you can beforehand, but in the end you'll probably have to work there to find out.

And when you do find a place that's great to work at, then there's the danger that your manager will get replaced by some idiot. . .

There are a few warning signs that you can try to look for:

A disproportionate amount of part-time workers, with only a small scattering of full-time.

A high turnover rate. If the company is eighty years old, and the facilities were built forty years ago, and yet nobody below middle-management has been working for the company longer than six months, then there's likely a problem.

Lots of workers just standing around talking or goofing off every time you visit the place, even when they're on the clock.

A bad attitude of the workers, both to each other and to customers (if they interact with customers).

The place is in an unreasonable state of disrepair. Not just looking well-worn, but actually neglected.

Burly, black-clad overseers wearing dehumanising masks and brandishing whips and scourges (this one may not apply if you are looking into certain more interesting and esoteric jobs, however).

[TazManiac]

(What He Said...)

PS- Found my funky electrical connection and Civilization has returned. It didn't matter too much cause I like operating in the dark anyway, but at least now the Fridge is back up & running...

[GlytchMeister]

Thanks for the advice.

*deep breath*

As it turns out... My supervisor was joking.

Joking.

I am simultaneously relieved that my employment is not in jeopardy... and infuriated at the astounding, stunning, gobsmacking level of unprofessional behavior.

I had my hands full trying to not panic, jobhunt, and figure out how to survive without pay for the up to a year it can take someone with my qualifications to get a job around here while also paying the several medical bills that have stacked up on me.

So yeah... not very funny from where I’m standing. Ugh.

[lake_wrangler]

Some people only think they're funny...

Glad it worked out, though.

[Dave]

So yeah... not very funny from where I’m standing. Ugh.

Oi. The proverbial "About as funny as a rubber crutch" comes to mind.

That really was staggeringly unprofessional, and cruel to boot.

[GlytchMeister]

I’m gonna keep jobhunting. Apparently, I really am the best worker here, so I’m gonna try and leverage that to get me into a schedule that will fit with the local community college’s schedule for a certificate in mechatronics. Because I’m really rather fed up with this.

[Alkarii]

Hell yeah, man. I'd never heard of mechatronics before, but I'd say go for it. And, if you happen to get a job with someone else, I'd send in a letter of resignation, and mention just about everything you mentioned here (including the "joke") as a way to stick your thumb in the eye of the "comedian."

[TazManiac]

"You're Going to Miss Me when I'm Gone..."


(Even better is the clip, either from the film (2) or from [I think D. Letterman (1)] where she preforms this song while doing some accompaniment with a plastic cup for percussion)...

1)

2)

[TazManiac]

btw- and partly because yer not getting any Sub Woofer goodness from this thread as it (edit- sorry: 'it' reff'ing to another thread found here:) goes through an unscheduled holding pattern over the airport, I submit some non-sequitur Anna Kendrick goodness in it's place:

All unrequited and apropos of nothing whatsoever...

Excerpt from her recent autobiography 'Scrappy Little Nobody'...

[Catawampus]

I’m gonna keep jobhunting. Apparently, I really am the best worker here, so I’m gonna try and leverage that to get me into a schedule that will fit with the local community college’s schedule for a certificate in mechatronics. Because I’m really rather fed up with this.

I did that myself one time, and it worked out. You just want to be careful that the alternate job really is a good one that you are sure to be hired for, in case your current employer doesn't appreciate being pressured.

Did you tell your supervisor that you didn't like his joke?

Hell yeah, man. I'd never heard of mechatronics before, but I'd say go for it.

It involves building and piloting giant mechas. Yep.

[Alkarii]

If I had known such a field existed, I'd have gone to college for it immediately after high school.

[GlytchMeister]

Cat: nah. I don’t know how he’d react if I told him what I really thought of his... “joke”, or even if I only told him a little of what I thought.

Just gave him the ol’ Retail Fake Smile and Laugh, and the patented “Don’t invite more hazing” Boring Response of “You got me.”

I doubt he caught any of the subtext of

...
Warning - Lots of R-Rated Language Below. Pucker up.
...


“god fucking damn it you shitwank asshat, I have medical bills and car bills on top of regular bills, and people depending on me, You monumental pile of testicles, I was thinking of what lawyers to get free consultations from, when I can go to the Blood Plasma Center, what jobs I could try for in a hurry and where to camp once I scrape together my last month’s rent, you gibbering mayonnaise-brained dumbfuck with a slow sixth-grader’s sense of humor.”

Ok I’m done.

Anyway - I doubt he caught any of that subtext, plentiful though it may have been. He’s a bit oblivious, and any weirdness he might have detected would probably have been covered up by my croaking, hoarse voice due to my cough.

——————————

Mechatronics, I think, is just mechanics and electronics. So... stuff like elevators, wind turbines, industrial equipment. This certification is supposed to let me land jobs repairing stuff like that. Funnily enough, it might land me a job repairing the various compactorsI currently use. That’d be funny.

[TazManiac]

"You can dooo-eeeeet!"

[lake_wrangler]

"You're Going to Miss Me when I'm Gone..."

GASP! What? No hairnet?!? That's a health and safety regulation infraction, right there!

And what's that? Don't anybody drink, at that restaurant? Or are the cups handed to the customers just so they can play with them?
They sure don't seem to eat, much, in there, that's for sure...

That's one thing I always found amusing, to see all the people singing and dancing in musicals... so unrealistic, yet so entertaining and (usually) well done...
Of course, leave it to the Muppets to hang a lampshade, on that... When they made their first movie in years, with the human and the muppet character going on a trip to see the muppets, and everyone is dancing behind them, one of them exclaims "finally, they're gone", while out of breath, after stopping the dance once the characters boarded the bus...

(Even better is the clip, either from the film (2) or from [I think D. Letterman (1)] where she preforms this song while doing some accompaniment with a plastic cup for percussion)...

1)

Methinks Letterman is overplaying the amazement factor, just a bit...

[TazManiac]

Two things:

- The desired Musical Successful Execution has the characters not break into Song and/or Dance, not until they Can't Do Anything Else.

"I'm singin' in the Rain, just singin' in the Rain..."

- Letterman is a Hooser, or a Corn Husker, or some kind of Mid-Westerner. I'm never surprised when he gushes(ed) effusively.

[AnotherFairportfan]

Two things:

- The desired Musical Successful Execution has the characters not break into Song and/or Dance, not until they Can't Do Anything Else.

"I'm singin' in the Rain, just singin' in the Rain..."

- Letterman is a Hooser, or a Corn Husker, or some kind of Mid-Westerner. I'm never surprised when he gushes(ed) effusively.

"Letterman is a hoser."

FTFY

[AnotherFairportfan]

vav_ava.png (113.78 KiB) Viewed 7671 times

[Alkarii]

Not only is there a blue moon tonight, but there was an eclipse as I drove home this morning.