Let's talk about me!
I was a very mixed bag as an employee.
I am the very best mechanical drafter ever to be hired. My drawings are outstanding.
I have often done more work with fewer errors than the entire rest of the drafting department.
What I am also is late and absent. While I am perfectly willing to work late when I arrive late, bosses don't like waiting for me to roll in an hour late three days a week even if I am willing to stay and work after they go home.
I've been fired a couple of times. OK, a lot of times.
I've also been worked around. I've worked at places that were sorry to see me leave. I've had several bosses who let me set my own hours and were surprised that left to my own devices I'd work 55-60 hours to get the job done.
I've been fired by HR policy about tardiness while my boss begged to keep me.
I hold no animosity to any former employer who tired of my crap and let me go.
I reserve the hate for the employers who played games with my check. Who changed my hours and benefits without warning or agreement. Who changed legal identities in attempts to rob me of things like the 401k money I contributed and became vested in, but they controlled the actual account.
Part of why I'm so bitter about some of the crap that's happened to me in in the job world is because I honestly don't think I deserved it. When TCML fired me off the job I was doing for them here in Iowa (they're a computer tech outfit in Boston and hired me at long-distance) I wasn't angry; the job had turned out to be above my skill level. And they called me in and had me do other work for them later, so no hard feelings.
ReplyDeleteBut Wal-Mart fired me for things like not being where I was supposed to be...when I was either helping a customer as they mandated, or on my required break! Or for things like leaning on a wall, when nobody had told me that that was a no-no! I can do a lot of things, but I draw the line at being expected to read minds. (After all, if I could read minds, would I need a job? I'd have the Mother of All Blackmail Rings going, and be living the life of Riley.)
Wal Mart is looking for people who instinctively do things the way Wal Mart wants it done without being told so. It's not that you can't read minds, you're just not "one of them".
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, acquaintances of mine at the Iowa Falls Wal-Mart tell me that that particular store is notorious for being badly run. I suspect, also, that what they were really down on me for was for being from 50 mi. away. About a month and a half after I came on board, there was a change of guard at the top of the store and I have heard the new guys didn't want anybody who wasn't from Ames itself, or very close by. I can even see why...I missed a day of work due to weather, and another day due to car problems.
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