Perpetual Ruminations

Stressed Out

Today is my wife's birthday, so first things first, "Happy Birthday to the greatest gal I know."

Of course, the way things work out, she's at work while I write this. It almost seems funny how we have people, some but not all, who insist on taking their birthdays off. Of course, I try and comply with their desires; I understand why they want to take the day off. But, when Rhonda's or my birthday comes around, there is no volunteers stepping up to say, "Hey, you should have the day off, too. I'll fill in for you."

On the same note, if I was to schedule one of us off, we could take the day off, but then I have to listen to the whining because the schedule changed and they have to work. It amazes me how self centered so many people are these days. Not all, but a lot of them. This also showed up in a much more serious situation with work quite recently. One that may still lead me to resign from my job, although I keep trying to convince myself that I should stick it out. Part of it is the stress, another part is, I cannot do my job as a supervisor under these conditions, and finally, there has been a breach of trust and respect that could have me going off on someone outside our company, but is employed by our client.

The situation is having to fire someone. This in itself doesn't bother me, and it has been suspected from the very start of his employment. He was not doing a very good job, and it was looking like I would have to terminate him and hire another. No problem, that's part of the job. But, since we do not all work at the same time, but individual shifts, I relay on the store where we are stationed to inform me of problems with any of the guards.

It has been a constant struggle to get the store we work a, who contracts our company for security services, to work with me and not try and enforce policy on people who do not even work directly for them. Very stressful, but it comes with the job. This summer, it started out with some information being passed on to me about this person having problems and needing to replace him. Then, when we hired another, I asked how this person was doing. The answer was, he's doing pretty good, but still having some problems. So, I talked with the manager and set this person up for a double coverage shift where he would work with another guard. That was all fine.

Then, I had some health issues and had to take some time off from work. My wife, who is also a security guard at this same site, took on the task of supervisor in my absence. Of course, I worked with her and assisted her as needed, and she did a great job. Because of the problems with this one guard, she continued to ask how he was doing through the summer and into the fall. She was told he was doing good, there were no problems.

When double coverage hours ended, she asked, if we need to let someone go, should it be the guard who is mentioned here, or another who seemed t be doing pretty good but had attendance problems. The manager replied, if it's a choice between these two, I would prefer you let the guard with the attendance problems go and keep the other. Of course, in the actual discussions, their first names were used. Even so, the other guard was still not showing by our indicators, that he was doing a very good job. Therefore, I continued to question whether he should be kept on or let go. Rhonda continued to voice this to the manager, who continued to tell us this person was doing alright; there were no problems.

So, on Saturday, when this manager confronted Rhonda and said the guard must be terminated as soon as possible, it came as a shock. Since he is not a general manager, we have to bring this request to his attention, as well. Even the general manager was unaware of any problems, but reviewed the guards file they keep on all of us and by the end of the day yesterday informed us that the guard has not been doing his job all summer and must be let go.

My stress now, is the manager I have to work with, lied to me about this problem. I'm not going to even talk about him keeping the information form his boss, that's not my problem, but it is my problem when he lies to me about the guards I supervise. For one thing, I cannot do my job if I do not know what is going on. Another problem is this situation can be repeated; letting a problem escalate until it means instant termination, instead of having time to try and correct the problem. It also means I am very angry at the manager who caused this to become a serious problem.

My company is behind me, but because we are contracted, we must keep the store happy or we are all out of a job. If the general manager cannot even keep his subordinates in line to know what's going on, I cannot see him being able to enforce the policy of them keeping me informed about my guards. So, nothing will change; except now instead of just being a bit upset and stressed, I'm down right pissed off and want to put this jerk in his place. I do not know if I can restrain myself from not telling him if he confronts me about anything. Finally, I cannot, knowing he ignores me, has no respect for my position, and even lies to me about my guards, work with this man. I refuse to interact with him about anything, and that is a conflict with my company.

I'm giving this a few days; I need to cool down, and I need to think this through. I'm so stressed currently over this breach and disrespect that I cannot even sleep. Now, with a few hours of shut-eye, and not quality sleep for them few hours, I'm tired, stressed, and pissed... not a good combination.

To top it off, I wasn't even scheduled to return until Saturday, but already my week has been hell. I should be writing a story for the challenge, I need to make Rhonda's day special, and I've spent my morning conferring with my boss and the office, filling our paperwork, and sending faxes.