Just when I’ve begun to question just how stupid people can be…Jen goes to work for Morrison’s. Honestly, I NEVER imagined that a company could survive under such poor local management. The fact that corporate has to visit this site on a regular basis should have been a red flag to the problems, but….

She needs a job.

That is possibly the only reason that I’ve kept my mouth shut until now.

I will not interfere…I will resist the urge to tell her employers exactly what I think of their shoddy management practices. With great difficulty, I will refrain from writing letters to the home office to give them my opinion…not that they would care, anyway. I will not put myself in a position to jeopardize her job. It is not my place.

What I will do is wait and hope that she can find a better position with a better-managed company than this one that runs the hospital cafeteria. Never have I seen a place where employees have so many supervisors who don’t work together…they don’t talk with one another…they have NO idea what the others are doing or saying to employees. They don’t even give her an actual schedule to work until the last possible minute. She was told to come in today only to find that no hours were posted for her on the schedule.

She had to go to ALL THREE supervisors before one of them finally told her that she would be working every day this week for 11 hours a day. How on earth can anyone be expected to plan a life outside of work when the supervisors won’t even let the employee know their scheduled hours in advance? She would be thrilled to know a week in advance…heck, she’d settle for knowing 2 days in advance…but the day of? That’s nothing but poor management.

When they told the employees that they had to park on the deck and walk completely around the hospital to avoid coming in the front doors….I giggled at their absurdity.

When one of them told my daughter that she was off for the weekend and another turned around less than ten minutes later and told her that she was working….I sighed.

When they offered her three positions that would work with my hours (since I’m the one who has to drive her to and from work) only to turn around and tell her that she would have to work 12 hour shifts because those original positions never actually existed….I grumbled under my breath.

But now….when they are working her 55 hours a week and I am stuck at this hospital for 12 hours a day for the next 5 days straight….I’m flat out mad and chomping at the bit.

Still, I will say nothing. Talking to them will accomplish nothing except to put her job in jeopardy. Instead, I am devoting my time to poking around for other possible jobs for her. It will be up to her to decide which (if any) of the other jobs she will investigate; however, given the fact that she is quickly reaching the end of her rope with Morrisons, I’m fairly certain that she will find something else.

Until then, I will do both her and myself a big favor….I will stay away. I will remind myself that this is her issue and that she has to work it through. In spite of the fact that I secretly consider it grossly unfair that I’m basically held hostage by her hours…I will not grumble to her.

After all….things will work out in time.

arkmomy

             It could be because I’ve been under the weather, but I seem to have become slightly less tolerant these past few days.

             Whatever the reason, it seems a good time for me to stay off of the news boards that I generally haunt.  This illness-induced crankiness generally runs hand-in-hand with the inclination to take things a bit too personally. We all have opinions and none of us could be accused of tempering those opinions overmuch. I generally temper mine better than some, but don’t wish to run the risk of being banned from these boards that I very much enjoy. After all, I am a news junkie. I want to know everything that I possibly can as quickly as it become available, so the news ranks right up there with caffeine and nicotine on my list of addictions.

           One of the perks of living in America is the freedom of expression that we all enjoy and sometimes take for granted. Stories about abuse, the war, and politics usually run into long commentaries because everybody wants their say. Since I am generally a non-confrontational sort of person, I usually type out my comments and count to ten before posting.

          The reason for this is simple. Some stories simply hit too close to home for me to maintain any degree of neutrality. When I see someone post anti-military sentiments, constantly quote scripture in response to an argument,  or rush to the defense of an abuser, it brings out a very protective side of me. Words are powerful…especially in the hands of one such as me who is more inclined to biting sarcasm when offended. It is much harder to temper my sarcasm when I’m not feeling chipper….such is the case today.

          As I worked my way through the boards, I couldn’t help but notice that one of the posters is being his ‘usual self’. He is strongly opinionated and generally makes it a habit to see how much he can rile other posters. Sometimes, he is successful…sometimes not. It would seem from his postings that the only way that he can feel important is to name-drop semi-famous people that he has met and flash his educational merits into his postings in order to promote himself as more intelligent and well-informed than others. Based upon the responses, I am not the only one who finds him mildly annoying, distasteful, and a bit sad.  I generally ignore him because following up on his comments only validates his sense of self-importance.  Today, however, I found myself typing rebuttals only to erase them after counting to ten because it seems pointless to encourage him.  Darn shame, too…because those were some pretty biting rebuttals.

        Oh well, better safe than sorry, I guess. Maybe I’m just tired, but attempting to right the wrongs of the world is simply not within the scope of my desire today. However, being able to post on newsboards is always within the scope of my desire….so at least one goal is served by temperance on this occasion.

        So, until I am better, I’ll be pretty much avoiding the boards. Okay, so I won’t avoid them, but I won’t post. Scratch that….I will post, but I will count to ten before doing so.  Yes, that works. After all, who could expect a news junkie such as me to just go cold turkey and avoid something that she really loves?

arkmomy

Here we go again.

For the benefit of those who might not have gotten the memo, I’m busy.

Please don’t get your feelings hurt if I don’t answer back on IM, call on the phone, go out partying with you, or come running to your house to visit. The fact that I am socially unavailable should in no way indicate my lack of caring…it is just that my priorities have shifted and I find myself with little, if any, time for chatting, playing games, or socializing.

I know that you have busy lives, too, so you must understand where I am coming from on this issue. While I can appreciate your attempts to lighten the mood by making jokes, I really don’t have time for it right now. It is lovely that you offer to help…and I really do appreciate the thought, but honestly, you do need to understand that the job does not pay well. I can offer you tea…or maybe a meal…but that is pretty much it. If there is anything else that you might hope to gain, you might want to withdraw your offer.

Testy as it might sound, I’d rather handle the job alone than deal with crap right now. Every ounce of energy that I have is being used to fix things, paint, tend yards, clean house, and shuttle people back and forth to work. Dating, sex, and romance have taken a backseat to what needs to be done. At the risk of sounding catty, I find chores much more satisfying than dealing with relationship nonsense and lies. If your intended goal when offering your assistance is in the hope that you might get laid….nevermind.

The bottom line is this….I work hard. I’m aware that things could be easier for me if I let you ‘take care of me’…but I’ve never been the sort of woman who wants to be petted and pampered. It is kind of you to presume that you could make things easier for me…but who really wants that?

So thank you…but I must decline.

I do not need assistance, or romance, or even the pleasure of your company when it comes with strings attached. What I need is someone who understands what it is to work hard, isn’t afraid to try new things, and appreciates the value of friendship for the sake of friendship.

If that doesn’t appeal…then nevermind.

arkmomy