Perpetual Ruminations

Monday

Wow! I'm in here two days in a row. That only happened twice before this month. And, this is my tenth entry for the month, tied now to last month, with four days left to go. I'm sure you already figured out that I reviewed my blog calendar and have done some comparisons. It's pretty saggy, to quote an old friend. Ten days last month, and not much more the month before. In fact, since things got busy at work and we started looking for and hiring people, my logging has gone straight to hell, reaching a new level each month.

So, I guess July is the month to star climbing back up, and out. It's terrible to see how time has cheated me, but then, it's not time really, but the things that use it up. For me, it's been work. Back in May, I had my three year anniversary with the company I'm now with. It wasn't just taking on a new employer, but a whole new career for me. The site I was at, and still am, was a disaster.

The guy who hired me and was supervisor, had filled in earlier that year when the actual supervisor was killed in a house fire. I don't know much about her, or how she ran things, but her successor sure didn't have what it takes. I'll call him Buck, to make this easier to read.

Buck worked part time at another job and was only available weekends, so he worked two days a week. He was a screw-off at both jobs, but put on a good front to those who may not like this fact. Buck was also a very dishonest person, and his general philosophy that he instilled at the job site was, "What the company don't know won't hurt em."

Our company office is in another state, so the site supervisor is the sole authority on site and must take care of all local issues and problems, including interviewing and hiring new guards. Yes, we are a security provider. Now Buck, he wasn't a company man by any means, and actually seemed to be anti-management. So why did he assume the role of supervisor? So he could do things his way without anyone watching, directly. One example of this is Over/Shorts. They are "mistakes" guests make when leaving the lumber yard where we provide loss prevention. Of course, some are honest mistakes, and we find quite a few loads that are short items.

But, we find even more times people have too many items, the incorrect item or items they have not purchased. The store policy is to treat this as a mistake, have them correct the load to match their gate pass, and then let them leave. It is also logged and how we are assessed to see if we are doing our job or not. The store statistics show that one in every forty guests will have a mistake, and we are expected to find that one in forty. If we find more, we get a higher rating, if we find less, we are addressed and it's my job to talk to the guards who are coming up short. If they don't do better, or are missing too many items, it means they won't be working there very long. This also is how my boss evaluates me, as supervisor.

Now Buck, he didn't do much for training anyone, hired a lot of people with the same type personality as he had, and was not getting very good assessments. So, instead of cracking down, he found a way to cheat the system. When I started, he told me to talk to the guests that I know, and have them throw on an extra item, or make an intentional miscount, etc... Since there was no repercussions for them, they would do this and we would get higher ratings.

I, of course, refused to do this, and instead checked loads closely and found actual "mistakes" keeping me in the clear. Also, he wasn't actually fooling anyone, because we are closely monitored on camera, and the store was losing too much product out of the yard. They didn't know it was Buck's doing, he had them fooled, but they did pass their concern on to the home office. They in turn also realized that Buck wasn't doing much of his required duties, and wanted a new person put in as supervisor.

The next person to ask for the position, when it became available about a month after I started, was Mike. He was just as bad as Buck, only lazy, too. In fact, he often conversed with Buck to find out just how to handle things, and most of the other guards ran right to Buck with their problems, who would then tell Mike what to do. In other words, the company removed Buck, Mike assumed the title, but Buck was still running the show. The only thing that changed was the store wasn't fooled by Mike and they wanted him replaced.

This was another month, about mid July. I was a bit different than the rest of the guards that had gotten hired through Buck. They all took short cuts, lied, and cheated in every way. They didn't want to do anymore than what they needed to do to keep their jobs. A couple of them even stole items from both the store and the security company. I was of a different caliper and taught to give an honest days work for an honest days pay. I also liked being a security guard and took my new career quite serious. In all my different jobs, I gave my best, and did my best to do the job right.

This was also noticed by the store and they soon requested I be promoted to supervisor. This took place at the end of July, and two and one half months after starting my new career, I was promoted to site supervisor. I assumed all duties on August first. Because the director of Operations was still recovering from appendicitis, the vise president drove to our site and trained me in. Only, he had problems at another site and was limited on time, so instead of actually being trained, he just spent a half hour going over what my responsibilities were. His final instructions were for me to remove a guard from the site, at the stores request. "Sorry for dumping this on you, for your first day on the job as supervisor."

That was it. The next day I went to work as the new supervisor and confronted the guard. Since no one had done any corrective actions or even really talked to her about what she was doing wrong, it didn't seem right to fire her. So, in accordance with company policy, I wrote her up, giving her one chance to straighten up. I included the fact that if there was any problems, she would be terminated. I went over this with the store managers, who were not happy with this, one last chance, but they really didn't have a choice.

She wasn't happy either, and we discussed it in great detail. I also told her that the store management wanted her fired, but since she had not been written up, I was standing my ground and would provide her one last chance. Of course, this gal had a terrible attitude and did just what I thought she would do. She said screw this and quit. Problem solved for all involved. In the next three years I had to remove seven guards, and only one was actually fired.

It's kind of funny how it worked out. During my first couple months, before being supervisor, I was part time and worked an alternating shift. One week I worked three days, the next four days. I set up my plans for activities on the days I was scheduled off, and planned my weekends for the weekend I would have off, since it also was every other weekend.

But, the other person who worked opposite me wanted every weekend off; she would go to Mike or Buck and make her request, and they would change the schedule, which meant changing my days off. After one month of this I was furious. I talked to Buck about it and he told me it would end. But, he ended as supervisor at the same time, so it did not end. I then talked to Mike, who said he would set the schedule and that was it, if Betty wanted tie off other than what was scheduled, she would have to work it out with me or another guard to fill in for her. But this never happened. In fact, the day after I talked to him she had him change the schedule for a concert she wanted to go see.

It was now into July and Rhonda and I set plans for our anniversary. It fell on the twenty-first and during my four day off cycle. Even so, I put in for time off and told my supervisor, Mike, that I needed to ensure I had these days off. It was over a weekend, and I just knew Bettie would want it off, like usual. He informed me that there was no other request for that weekend off, so I had it. He signed it and that was that. Like Buck, he didn't even know that this also needed to be presented to the company, so they would know I was taking this time off, but that's beside the point.

the time came and the schedule was posted, less than a week until my anniversary. Guess what? Right, I was scheduled to work the weekend. I confronted him and he claimed he had forgotten but would not make any changes to the schedule again without checking with me to make sure it didn't mess up my plans. Too late I told him, I need these days off and I either have them off, as agreed or I quit right here and now. I then proceeded to take a slip of paper to write my resignation on it.

That got his attention, and he told me to hold on, I would have the time off. Of course, it wasn't the entire time off as planned, but the day of our anniversary and the following day. things did get a little better after that, but then he was only supervisor for two more weeks. The last week in July I was presented the position, and knew I was taking on a hornets nest of trouble.

Now, I still find it difficult to get time off, but at least it's my responsibility to cover things now. Even so, it still bogs me down and has left little time for anything else. Now, this wouldn't be so bad if I was paid fifty thousand a year to give up so much of my time and my life. I'd even go down to the thirties and full benefits, but this is not the case at all. I get paid seventy-five cents more per hour than I did as just a guard. There are no benefits except forty hours paid time off a year, but only if I work a full forty hours a week.

See, I get paid during the time I work as a security guard, but the rest of the duties, or at least most, require me to do them when I'm not working. If I need to talk to anyone, I have to make a trip in and do it during their shift, since we work solo most of the time. What I"m saying is, I work a regular security job, and the supervisory part comes in about seventy percent on my time, and is unpaid. That's why they give me seventy-five cents more.

In order to make more time, then, I have to reduce my working hours on site, meaning I work for less money. AT the same time, the supervisory part continues to burn up a lot of my free time and for that I don't get paid. And, so far, no raise based on my work or time with the company. Sure, they upped the base wage one dollar last January, but this was done for everyone, company wide. Not the same thing as getting a raise.

Now my wife, Rhonda, and one other guard who had been there for over a year got raises last year. I did the evaluations and put both of them in for a raise. The company provided them with thirty cents more based on my evaluation and recommendations. Nice. As of August of last year, I had over two years with the company and celebrated two years as supervisor. No raise. Lots of praise for doing a great job, but no increase in pay or vacation time, or anything. This past May, three years with the company--nothing. August first will mark three years as supervisor, but I doubt I'll see anything. Lots of praise yet for being on top of things and keeping things working smoothly. In fact, in the three years I've been supervisor, my boss has not had to come to our site other than for the occasional visit.

Now, I may be out of work for a while, due to a little mishap back in May or early June. It's looking like I'll have to go in for surgery, and will find out more this Wednesday. It's going to give me lots of time to think things over and decide what direction I need to go.

For anyone who traversed through this, thank you for taking the time to read. I know it's long, and for the most part, boring. I had changed the name of this blog and determined to use it to write things other than work, since that was what it had become. Yet here I am, writing about work. Well, it is and it isn't.

Yes, it's about work, but it's more, it's about cleaning out the corners of my mind and getting things back into perspective. I need to clean house in my head, it's plumb full of work problems and bull-shit. The best way for me to clean house is to empty it out, look at it, and decide whether to keep it or throw it out.