Do I trust you? let me count the ways.

My working philosophy has never been particularly hard to figure out.

I work. I work hard. I do the best job I possibly can, and it is almost always better than the job done by the guy next to me.

I am a team player, I do what is best for the company and my co-workers on the philosophies that I work more for the people than the company; not just my bosses, but also my co-workers.

It is my firm belief that if i treat them right, they will do right by me.

It was with those things in mind that my current predicament arose.

Precisely because I am such a good worker and so willing to do what is best for those around me, when our company was cutting back employees, I was approached by the GM and my immediate supervisor.

Essentially, the situation was our branch had to cut one more person, and at the moment, it looked like it would be someone from our sales department. That person would not, by the way, be me. There were at least three people who would go before I did.

However, since sales is harder to train than warehouse people, and they believed we had a good sales force, just not available sales, they asked if I would temporarily work in the warehouse. As soon as they could, they would bring me back inside whether because sales improved to where we needed the sales help or because someone was leaving.

They stressed I did not have to do it and I was definitely not in danger of losing my job, but it would help them out tremendously if I did this.

Being a team guy, I unhesitatingly agreed to do it.

Now, later I agreed to temporarily take the worst available shift until they could figure out what to do, and started loading trucks.

It really, really caused my health to degenerate. My fasciitis made literally every step pure torture, a situation only exacerbated by A0 constantly being on it and B0 repeated impact as I got off and on forklifts, in and out of trucks, etc.

Even worse, the repetitive lifting of heavy objects caused the torn rotator cuff in my shoulder to get worse and worse and worse.

On top of that, the people who were supposed to make sure as much as possible was ready for we loaders did a frankly terrible job. They regularly got little to nothing done, which meant we were often there until 4, 5, 6, or later in the morning.

Then, to make it suck even more, we kept getting more crap the day people should have been doing thrown on us and, even worse, on Fridays had to come in at noon which meant I basically never slept Thursday night, got off work somewhere between 8 and 11 on Friday night, slept all day Saturday and ended up with no weekend.

Between the medical issues and horrible working conditions, I was breaking down physically and mentally. I went to talk to people about it and was basically told, "We do not care, and not only that, the short-term position you accepted as a courtesy is now permanent, you are permanently loading on nights."

I started sending out resumes.

I went to the doctor to see if he could help with my foot issues. While there he casually asked about any other issues. I told him about my shoulder pain, he diagnosed the torn rotator cuff, I told work, and found myself not working for over a month.

Whatever.

Get back and have a better shift at least, as they at least did not shaft me with the loading job again.

And then I found out one of our sales people is retiring.

This is great news for me. This is exactly why I was asked to go to the warehouse, so we would be prepared for just such an eventuality. As soon as I heard about the retirement, I got excited knowing I would be back in my proper job shortly, the physical issues were about over, and I would, if not rewarded for being a team player, at least end the time of being punished for it.

Problem is, the general manager is not the same one that was there and the person retiring is the other one involved in the situation.

And the general manager essentially said he does not feel bound by the agreement, that I may get the spot, but it "is by no means a slam dunk".

What?

How can it not be? I went to the warehouse because I am an outstanding employee, not because I was not doing the job. As a matter of fact, I was doing some very specialist stuff which only the person retiring and I know how to do. None of the other sales people want to even touch it because they consider it exceedingly difficult and complicated.

I still may get what is, as far as I am concerned, my rightful position.

But the very possibility that I might not, that i am now thought of so lowly that there is a need to look at other options is, as all the other sales people agree, a complete slap in the face.

It is a bold statement that being a team player, doing what is best for the company, helping out, going above and beyond what anyone else is doing will be punished rather than rewarded.

It is a clear statement that the work ethic I have held and demonstrated all my life is the wrong one.

It raises an interesting question.

If promises and agreements mean nothing to them, why should they mean anything to me?

Sadly, I still cannot stop being who I am. I continue to work hard and productively...so productively that I am doing a job they previously had as many as three people doing partially and doing it so well that I am now the only one doing it and I still finish before the multiple people were getting it done.

Somewhere out there is a company who needs people like me. Some day I will find it. Meanwhile I will just keep being better than the next guy at my job...and probably his. And hope they do the right thing and honor the agreement.

It would be even better if they honored the worker I have been...or if they choose to screw me over, that instead of just screwing me, they fire or lay me off. I would much rather have them do that than give someone else the position that is mine by agreement and proven performance.

For now...I am just struggling with my attitude. There are only so many times a company can punish someone for doing "the right thing' before it gets to you...know what I am saying?

4 comments:

Riot Kitty said...

Hang in there. I think corporations tend to screw everyone, unfortunately. I'd keep sending out resumes.

G. B. Miller said...

State government can be much the same way as well.

You can make yourself as invaluable as possible and still not be appreciated for you what you do and what you bring to the table.

Just keep hanging in there and keep sending out those resumes. There is a company out there who will appreciate what you do and what you bring to the table.

Anonymous said...

unfortunately it's not about people, it's about:
-bottom dollar
-the whims of those in charge

personally, though it's awkward, i like to get every business "agreement" in writing. if a verbal agreement is enough, then by all means a written one is too. but if a written agreement ISN'T enough... well, then neither is a verbal one.

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