Workplace drama....
 

I almost want to name this "Tales From The Nuthouse" but that was taken. Some of you saw my workplace rant in What's upsetting you Today? and I thought maybe we needed a place just for superficial or worrisome work place drama. Mine certainly is the former. ;)

Sometimes I just want to vent and don't really want an answer to a question and I hate ruining anyone's post in other threads with my superficial "Workplace Drama"

After being passed over for full time it really annoyed me and being my own boss for years has not prepared me for "jousting" in the work place but sometimes I think every man for himself, then we can get down to the team work.

Going to work on Monday I made the conscious decision [ effort] to just go to work and not feel anything about this recent 'betrayal'. [ ;) ] My shift boss who had been on vacation the previous week must have thought he needed to have a conversation with me while giving me my check stub from the previous week.

Somehow the conversation came around and he asked me if I liked working there and my almost too quick response was "I did" He appeared genuinely shocked I would say that and was also ignorant of the fact that I had trained the person they hired and that I had been in that department 2 months longer than she, and unlike her, I had no performance points. Number 1 this tells me this was a popularity contest and 2 the right hand has no clue about the left. [nice] It was fun to at least have that to say. I bit my tongue on other things.

My immediate line boss was super super nice to me and let me work virtually unmolested. When she has an issue with someone she micro manages them to the point of being irritating. Something she did to me the last day I worked last week, but I never showed I was irritated did not want her to get the satisfaction or maybe she was seeing if I would get mad? I dunno. She has been telling me I would be full time before the other lady even worked in our department.

I work Mon- Wed on Wed when I came to work immediate line boss tells me I will be hired in full time>deja vu?< she continues by telling me to not tell anyone and keep it quiet. I did not know whether to celebrate or slit my wrists by this time I don't trust anything about that place.

After lunch there is a line boss staff meeting. Lady that was hired full time tells me she knows why there is a staff meeting but can't say to me . I let her comment pass. {whatever :rolleyes: }

At the end of our shift I ask her what she thinks she knows about the staff meeting she says to me oh they are going to be hiring you FT> she is not the only one immediate boss has told and I thought why am I supposed to keep quiet about it if she is telling everyone else? :rolleyes:

So I am off til Mon when I will feel like instead of gong to work I will be attending a funeral. Maybe I am the one that is crazy....

workplaces can get downright bat shit nuts. good news here is i talked to the dept. super today. i have a job monday. ironically, they want to bring me on full time....but i'm supposed to not know about this either. lmao....i totally understand this situation Nirvana

That is awesome PJ may I call you PJ? I can never remember how to spell your handle :blush:

I'd really like to go part time for a while.

kidding, fates!

vana, the cream always rises to the top. you keep performing. keep your chin up, don't sweat the small stuff. you'll get yours.

if it takes too long, do what ferd did. quit. I bet they see you as overqualified.

Or since no one would hire me because I've been out of the workplace too long and they all said I had to retrain, I decided to spend that retraining time starting my own business. I'm not making money yet, but I've ceased to be spending it. My business is self sustaining and starting to grow. All in less time than I would have spent retraining! Sometimes you can turn adversity right around to suit yourself.

PJ works i suppose, lol, ferd, fred, derf

So immediate boss who said they would hire me this week now tells me they 'should' get to me by the end of the month REALLY? :rolleyes:

Corporations don't have the same priorities or respond to the same inputs and pressures and motivations as we people do. This leads to confusion sometimes as the interactions we have with the corporation is by way of a person. It can give us a sense that we're talking to a person, but often, usually, we're not. And having people expectations of a people-faced corporation leads to disconnects like this.

Thinking like a business can help reduce facepalm surprises like this.

None of what you said makes any sense to my situation V. For example while I was off work they had a workplace accident that severely burned a kid [23] whom they hired after being there just 2 months. He was very popular but he was young and inexperienced and should have spent more time learning about this production manufacturing situation. This kid won the popularity contest and it got him airlifted to a burn unit. This IMO was caused by people using their heart instead of their head.

There are 10 people in my dept only 3 have been there longer than I have and one is my boss. My boss was telling me yesterday how I have seniority and should be hired next. I pointed out to her that FT Lady did not have seniority and neither did the kid that got burned. This is a company that does what it wants, there are no business rules they follow. We have an employee hand book, they don't follow their own rules. I suppose they don't expect the people they hire to be smart enough to see their status quo is fubar.

so... *just like* people, inconsistent. Having rules but not following them; saying one thing, doing another; making up reasons after the fact to justify their actions... that kind of thing? I've been in workplaces where that was common and it suuuuucccckkks. good luck.

But not unusual, I've seen it everywhere I worked. No matter what you see in writing it's still people running the show, with all their prejudice, opinions, hunches, etc. Hang in there and the job/money will come eventually, but the feeling of being appreciated is pretty damn elusive in the job world.

Thanks V it is a diversion, all life is drama I suppose its all in how you react to it.

Typically hiring is a Monday concern. On Monday no mention of FT hiring so Tuesday I planted ideas that maybe I would be looking elsewhere for a job, my immediate boss was a bit taken aback and I said I appreciate that you have gone to bat for me but obviously they are not asking. I also said maybe my age was a factor and that was vehemently denied. IB insisted they would get to me. OK ... IB disappeared for awhile.

There are 3 shifts there and I am 'blessed' to see the work of the other shifts because 'made' candy has to have a tag signed with the time made and the initials of it's maker. This kind of candy has to sit and dry for a day then its made shiny by a different process. While doing this process I was consistently seeing candy made by a certain person that was just odd. The shape should be round and these were all different shapes. This was a person who was just passing time at work because they certainly did not care about what they were doing. Every shift has these kind of people, ours had one, a typical "baggy pants off his butt, hider in the warehouse" during cleaning time.

Sometimes I think its just me but people doing a job and doing it poorly to get thru a day annoys [the crap outta] me. Half assed work annoys me. It reminds me of a saying that I never forgot from childhood "Any job worth doing is worth doing well!" I had to look up the actual author. Lord Chesterfield [who?] but I digress....;)

Tuesday I am at work, and no mention of hiring. In our factory we have a bulletin board on an easel that sits outside the main offices. It has a large win lose or draw paper tablet. There is also extensive video surveillance. Anyone can write on this tablet. They can ask questions, post comments as long as they do it in a way that is acceptable in polite society. No curse words etc.

Back in my dept. again I have to process this [half assed] individual's candy. :rolleyes: Awful :eyebrow: I hate doing this because at the end of my process I too have to initial so I feel guilty by association. :neutral: On my way back from lunch break I wrote on the company paper tablet in large letters with a black sharpie "Any Job Worth Doing is Worth Doing Well!

I am back working and less that 20 minutes later my shift boss comes in our dept. usually the only time you see him is when he passes out check stubs or if there is a problem. I see him making a beeline for me and I feel like I am going to be sent to the principal's office! He asks me how its going and is all small talk and I am wondering where this is going? Finally he gets around to his reason for this visit and says I need you to start coming in full time on Monday. :eek: :)

This is an odd occurrence on a Tuesday and because HR is not the one announcing. Even FT lady asked me why the shift boss was there. I told her he asked me out, at this we both broke out laughing. [would not happen] Later I told her and I think she is glad because I am sure the days I am not there are boring for her. :cool:

WTG, Nirv!

Sorry I missed this post! It reminds me that sometimes we live in our own head and have no idea what is going on in others minds. Thanks xoxoxoBruce

Thanks Limey you must be a joy to everyone that knows you IRL.

Good for you, Nirvana!

It was a tough decision for the because on one hand you're a model employee, but on the other you're a trouble maker with an ugly battle scar. :lol2:

Seriously though, congratulations. I hope the job pans out the way you want.

Thanks Glatt

OMG xoxoxoBruce you have me pegged! ;) But I made a list of good and bad...

$8 above other local factory pay
11 paid holidays
10 paid vacation days
a safe clean place
health insurance
2nd shift
I get to make candy :p:
$25 monthly work safe bonus
[we had over 400 days without an OSHA reportable accident prior to scalded kid no bonus this month]

************************
Weird company policies
training lazy types
working 40 hrs :mg:

After the young kid got scalded we can no longer wear shorts capris or any type of pants that will show legs. No one will see my battle scar. ;)

I don't think some people at this place understood that I don't need a career. I've had several. I like to work.

Maybe they had to learn like my husband did if I am hungry you have to feed me. :)

Congrats, Nirvana!

Your comment re age was well done ... they suddenly realized they were staring down the barrel of a federal issue/lawsuit. They looked over your file and took their heads out of their a**es and did the right thing. Way to go!

You are too kind O after hiring what passes for high school graduates nowadays its most likely they decided they needed at least some people there that were capable of making the candy [correctly] ;) Right now I have 8 large boxes of sealed candy that came from 5 skids they gave to employees and you realize how hard it must be for some of them to count to 12 [bags of candy] :rolleyes:

You'll be CEO there in no time. ;)

There is nothing upwardly mobile about me O, plain 'ole candy maker suits me fine :)

and CHOCOLATE!!

WTG Nirvana

Outstanding!

:celebrat:

and by the way, I never knew my Dad's name was Lord Chesterfield!!! Imagine my surprise!

Thanks Monster and V scary to think we had the same dad :lol:

Preach it, sister!

Congrats!

glad they finally hired someone with some sense and a good work ethic. congrats

Well alright

Congratulations, Nirvana!

Thanks!
Irony of ironies!!! My first official full time day was today and I had to leave after 2 hours. Food poisoning :thepain: I have not had that since I was in my 20's and I have not been sick since 2011 when I had the flu.

Wash your blueberries well and if you get FP a double shot of apple cider vinegar usually stops it in its tracks. I feel much better. I will try to work again tomorrow :o

They didn't expect this momentous occasion to be uneventful and ordinary, did they. :haha:

A couple of weeks ago our dept was summoned one at a time to speak with HR and the plant boss. The questions concerned fairness and if there was anything that we wanted to report in our dept.

I knew that some in my dept had issues with out direct boss but I had not seen this in person so I had nothing to report then....

Last week while working [DB direct boss] comes up to me and starts a conversation which includes the accusation that I am the one that caused the HR/Boss meeting to take place. In other words I was accused of being the one that went to HR about them. I was speechless and it kind of hurt my feelings that they would think this of me because I am usually the one that cautions co workers to walk in the other person's shoes.

After a couple days I notice co workers treating me oddly. My assumption is they were told I might go to HR about them. WTF !! I confronted DB and said if you don't want me back here I would appreciate it if you would just transfer me to a line.

Background: I work like a mule there is nothing about how I do my job that can be criticized.

I did ask the other co worker who was all of a sudden 'shunning me' if they would like to have a conversation about why and all I got was averted eyes and a barely coherent grunt of no. I said ok but we do have to work together and I have no problem being civil.

Back to DB confrontation. I was trying not to be angry or threatening and I said you had no right or reason to accuse me of going to HR about you. I am thinking there is nothing I can say to change their mind but DB did apologize over and over.

Question: Do I now need to go to HR to CMA? DB is the type of boss that picks at a person or gives them shit detail if they stand up for themselves. I have never been a doormat so that kind of stuff does not work on me. However I do not want to be in a situation where this is turned against me and I am the one to lose my job. I have done nothing!! I cannot help this person is paranoid but I think accusing me of something I did not do crossed the line.

I have never reported someone to the HR dept anywhere I think most people need their job and if I can look past it I do. I don't want to be tagged a trouble maker. :neutral:

To add to this our dept has a high turnover rate only 2 have been there longer than me. { I think they are the ones that went to HR about DB but I don't know and its their deal}

Face it dear, you're intimidating, you've got them all scared. ;)

No, you had the opportunity to do that when you were summoned to speak with HR and the plant boss. Your coworkers who complained may have been counting on your support; but, you said nothing even though:

and

Going to HR now will make it look like you were OK with these things as long as they affected other people and not you. Speaking up only after being treated unfairly yourself smacks of duplicity. Consider that it may have been the complaining coworkers that put DB on your trail if word got back to them that there was no support for their allegations coming from you.

All HR reports are anon and what I said to HR when summoned was not a secret to my assumed complaining cow orkers I told them what I said.. They are the ones supporting me now. I was directed by HR in the HR meeting to only elaborate on what I had seen personally not what I heard second hand from a cow orker.

I think you are assuming that I want HR to take action and nope nope I just want documentation because HR knows that I am not the one that made the initial complaint.

After doing some internet and employee handbook research I think I will just document this for myself because our workplace has a zero tolerance policy.

I am starting to think my direct boss has early onset dementia. :( The turnover in my dept is big. Sometimes I work with some former cow orkers when more than one said this about DB to me a light bulb went off because I thought I was the only one who had this insight. I wondered though if my opinion was biased. I am not a doctor nor do I play one at work. Now I just feel bad for DB. Understanding may make me compassionate but it sure makes work confusing and annoying at times.

If you insist on being sympathetic, throw some lime over the body before shoveling in the dirt. ;)

The workplace drama continues...
Every work place has slow times of the year no exception here. I was shocked though to receive the call not to come in for the week that the entire production was stopped [all 3 shifts] for the week.

There are two manufacturing plants for this company one in Indiana and the other in California. I looked up the facebook pages which are purely informational for both plants and I was taken aback to see that the page for the California plant had written permanently closed :eek: This was a union plant and ours is non union.

The company picnic is Sat and apparently still happening for those that RSVPed but it was moved away from the plant facilities here in Indiana to a local park. I think I will die of curiosity before Saturday.

a casualty of the war on sugar?

Our plant made over 3million is sales last month. People must still love sweets! ;)

Has anyone even heard of this happening? : My shift boss called today to tell me the back to work date is next Tue. There is mandatory OT for next Sat and Sun and we will be paid for our week off... :eyebrow:

Now THIS is some workplace draaaaaammmmaaaa!
 

Sorry to hijack your thread Nirvana, but your thread title is waaaay too apropos for this news item.

That's strange, but it will save them money because of operation costs, even though you get paid.