Perpetual Ruminations

Wednesday

And again, I'm here with so little time. I even thought about writing a short article on time, or the lack of it, but I just don't have time. Now, if that's not ironic, I don't know what ironic is.

Despite this fact, it is better. I'm talking about work, but it also encompasses my home life since I do not just have a job I go to, but one that I take with me every place I go. I work for a company that provides security services to other companies. I was promoted last year to security manager at our location, and represent the company to our customer as well as provide management services to the security guards employed here. Finally, I am also a security guard.

This requires me to perform as a security guard during my working shift, and most other aspects of my job take place before or after my shift. I work from home, my vehicle, and wherever I may be, as needed. Under normal circumstances, there really isn't much to do, make a few corrections to the schedule if someone wants time off, approve a few requests and fax them to the corporate office, and just watch over everyone to make sure they are doing their jobs satisfactory.

That is when things are normal, which around here, is seldom to never. When I started, there was no training, other than the six hours the company I was assigned to provided to orient me to their procedures and policies. My supervisor did not even show up to do the interview or any of the paperwork, but left it on the counter for me to complete when I should have been training.

He also informed me of the wrong clothing items, how to do things incorrectly, and basically how to keep a low profile when I broke the above mentioned policies and procedures. His work philosophy was, "What they don't know, won't hurt them."

Well, to keep this a bit shorter, I just did not like that outlook. I am a hard worker who believes in giving an honest days work for an honest days pay. I talked to the management of the store I worked at and learned a bit more and also found our own company handbook (I should add that the supervisor did not even know it existed) and pretty well taught myself how to do the job right.

The supervisor did not last long, and soon enough we had a temporary supervisor who was hoping to get the position. But he was trained in the same as the previous supervisor and did not do much more than post a new, and different, schedule every two weeks. he changed it to meet the requirements of a couple of guards who had started right before me. So, both the previous supervisors pretty much let everyone do what they wanted, as long as it did not cause them any extra work.

The company was aware of this, and the location was also not happy with the situation. two and a half months after I started working, I was presented the position of supervisor. I accepted and have been trying to get things working the right way since then. I met instant opposition to any change, and to try and get any of them to comply with company policy or site policy was next to impossible.

My first duty was to get rid of a guard. Nothing had been said or done, no corrective action, no reports, nothing. We are suppose to give three warnings unless it is a serious infraction, so it was a mess. The company needed to protect themselves from any costs and liabilities, and the site wanted her gone now. I had no choice except to get rid of her, so I compromised the two and wrote her up with a corrective action that stated she would comply with all policy and procedure from this point on and any infraction would result in instant termination. I also informed her that the site management wanted her gone, but I would give her one chance to correct her behavior.

She read it just right and new, if they wanted her gone, if she even looked at them wrong, they would say it was an attitude problem or find something to get her fired, so she quite right there and the problem was solved.

One down, but there were more to go. Over the period of nine months, I have been playing tug-o-war with some of these people. There has been corrective actions, lots of warnings, and an almost daily confrontation to try and hold them to doing the job right. Many little things just got slipped right by, they were not worth the trouble, but anything serious, I would warn, and if they did not heed the warning, I would right them up. I gave them every opportunity to comply, but by this spring, they still resisted doing things right.

One of them liked to take time off, without giving ample notice. She finally found her request turned down. She would make a mess of the request form, scribble things out and write over them, slop food and beverage on them, even tear holes and rip them as she incorrectly filled them out. So, I turned her down again, for not filling the form out right.

I also talked to her, with our summer coverage needs, she would not be able to take time off anytime she wanted. So, she came up with an elaborate idea, she would go into the hospital for the weekend, and get out of working Saturday and Sunday. Also, since the policy states if you miss three days or more you must have something from your doctor stating why, she was good to go with only two days in the hospital.

She had her daughter call me and tell me she went in on a Friday night. She was home by Sunday when I got another call from the daughter. I told the daughter I needed something from the doctor stating that her mom could return to work. Of course, they did not get this, since it was only two days, they could work around it. Wrong, since she passed out and had to go into the hospital, I was in my right to request something from her doctor that said she could work without complications or problems.

Well that messed everything up, since she had not been to the doctor at all, and had just made it all up. I talked to her directly on Monday, told her what I needed for her to return to work, and told her to call me right back after she talked to the hospital to get the needed form. She did not call back at all, and she did not get anything until I was off work and she could pin it to the bulletin board for me to pick up on Saturday when i was scheduled to work again. Then, she called me on Friday, knowing I would be short on help since she was still out, and wanted to know, since she had her doctors information for me, if she could return to work now. Clever isn't she?

But, I had gotten the note, and it was not what I needed. In fact, it wasn't anything official at all. It was hand written on a prescription paper, and it was in the guards own handwriting. It was very vague, did not say anything really about the nature or reason she was hospitalized, and as far as return to work, it stated, and this is not an exact quote but very close, "... may return to work if she feels up to it.:

Huh? If she feels like it? What is wrong with her, what restrictions are there?

It was at this point that I determined it was all fraud, and I turned it over to my boss, the director of operations. He conferred with the office staff and they agreed, we needed something more, a regular return to work form with all the needed information. He also said he also thought the note was forged. He did not think it was all made up, but thought she had actually been in the hospital, was unable to work, and had done this so she could return to work. Of course, he did not know this person or her history.

The next day, this person shows up and asks about her check and when she can return to work. I explain again, that the note was not what was needed, and since she was going to see a specialist/neurologist in a few days, to get the right form from him. She went bonkers!

Luckily, she was already back in the vehicle, on the passenger side, because she went into full, uncontrolled hysterics. She flung about wildly, screamed and swore incoherently, and as I stepped back away, was driven away by the driver. I think it was her daughter. Since this person had just gotten out of the hospital less than a week before, had suffered a minor stroke, had gone into seizure, and was scheduled to see a neurologist, I would have thought the daughter would have tried desperately to calm her and sooth her. Nope, she did not do anything, she just looked bored and eager to be back home.

This confirmed my thoughts of it all being faked. But, I still did not have any proof.

I called my boss, reported the incident, and I wrote it up accordingly. I found out later, she had also called my boss, the day after I talked to him about the incident. She went off on him, too. She was accusing me of not letting her return to work and wanting all this information that was none of my business, and so on.

He told her if she calmed down and talked to him, he would help. She did, of course. But instead of helping her, he supported me and told her it was not me, individually who wanted this information, I needed it to let her return to work, and it was actually the office that required it. He told her to get the information I requested, and now she would have to deal directly with him.

He never got anything else, either. In fact, we never heard from her again except for her inquiring about her paycheck. She had not given me or the office her correct address. I did find out that she had given it to the store we are assigned to, because they send us gift certificates for our work performance from time to time. Funny, she gave them a right address, and me a wrong address. Then when the company needed her address to send her check, she gave them one that was different from the rest, too.

I finally had the company send her last paycheck to the store, after they said it was ok to do so, and they called her to come get it after it came in. End of employee number two.

All this time I also had to work with another person who, excuse the phrase, was a real bitch. She came right out and said she likes to do things wrong and get in trouble. She wasn't lying, well about that. For nine months of the BS with the other person, this person just did her best to keep things messed up, resist doing anything right, and questioning everything I did. It was complete resistance all the way.

But, when she didn't show up for work one day and didn't call in, I requested she be terminated on the spot. Unfortunately, my boss would not, and wanted to hear her reason. She had sent a text to the wrong number. I knew this was a problem, she had been calling and sending text to the wrong number for a while. But, she had sent them to another guard, the one I just spoke of, and she would relay the information to me. Technically the information was given and I couldn't do anything about it except talk to the person.

I did, I explained it was not a good idea to miss work with a text, and to make sure she had both my numbers. I also told her if I did not approve her missing, directly to her, and she missed again, I would take corrective action. Well, she did miss, she sent a text, again, and this time, she messed up and sent it to my home phone, which is just one digit different than the person she usually pulled this with.

She had transposed two numbers and sent the text to my land-line which does not accept text messaging. So, no-show, no-call. This is grounds for termination, but I was held back. She was able to show proof of the attempt to text and I was directed to just give her a written warning. One more problem, though, and she was gone.

This kept her in line pretty well, but she still resisted on little things, she questioned everything I said, and she became much more sneaky. When I was around, she would do the job right, and when I talked to her, she would say, "You know I changed, I do it right now."

Of course, I did know. I knew she was still the same and still doing the same crap, just not when I was around. I always heard, give someone enough rope, they'll hang themself with it. She did.

She recently got busted for not counting items correctly. She was also reported for having a bad attitude. I would have loved to write her up for it, the second and last chance she would have and then gone. But the store management did not want me to take it that far, just talk to her and make it informal. I did just that and she denied it all. She also tried using the crying technique to get me to back off and not confront her with her screw ups. It did not work.

In fact it must have seemed to work, but then, I may have been a bit misleading to her. Kind of, what goes around comes around, type of situation. Anyway, a few days later, I find out she has accepted a gift from a guest, something we are not allowed to do. It's nothing big, a rose. But, she has been warned twice about this before. Even so, I heard about it, I did not see it.

The next time I work, it's to right after her shift. I come into the guardhouse and sign in. She had not correctly entered her information on the log, again. I point this out, and she says, "Oh, I forgot." She had not forgot up to the time we did her evaluation, and prior to that, she refused to fill it out right. Now, her evaluation is over, and she is now forgetting to do it right.

Next, I see the rose, still sitting there. I ask, "Did you get that for me?" This is meant to be sarcasm, and should also be viewed as humorous. She does not catch any of it. Instead, she tells me she got it from a guest. A male guest who stops by, and she cannot take it home, her boyfriend will get jealous and it will turn into a fight.

Now, I have the proof I need, the flower and her admission to taking a gift at work. I could have written her up. I wanted to write her up, but being a nice guy, I give her one last chance and tell her, "We cannot accept gifts at work. If this happens again, I will write it up."

She gets up and starts in with her attitude and tells me she is leaving. This, is a threat. She knows we are short on help and unable to cover the shifts if she is not there. She also knows the company does not like to pay overtime, and if I let her leave, I will have to put someone on overtime hours to cover for her. So, she assumes I will plead and apologize so she will not walk off and leave me working alone on a day we are required to provide double coverage, make me work overtime, and get me in a lot of trouble. She assumed wrong.

I told her if she left, not to return. She said that's it, I'll quit. I asked if she was sure she wanted to do this and she mumbled something and stormed off. After she was gone, I called the front office and informed them of the situation, and I would call in another guard to cover the needed hours. They said it was slow and we could get by with single coverage. After work, I informed my boss and he confirmed my request, she was done.

Two days later, I sent her a text. I knew she was waiting for me to call her and ask her to come back to work so we would not be short, but instead she got a text that stated her private property could be picked up at the front of the store. She wasn't too happy buy the text she sent back.

That was three down, and we would be working some overtime. No days off, doing interviews, and lots of work from home. Even so, it's still better now than when they were working. I have one person training and a couple of prospects to interview. I have no time for much of anything, but I did get in here and write this; I needed to get it all off my mind and this is how I do it.

My headache is almost gone, just one left to go. Maybe he will take a hint, since the rest have vanished, but then again, maybe not. Of course, he is also having some major medical problems. I don't know if they are real or imagined, but time will tell the truth and if he is being deceptive, it won't be long and he will join the ranks of losers who have walked off.

Less than a year as supervisor, and so far my track record looks pretty good. Problems solved, issues corrected, and three problem employees gone and I didn't have to fire a single one and the company didn't have any liabilities as a result.

Now, it's off to work.

"Reading soothes the soul, writing sets it free."