Venting about work

I hate my job.

...

Well, not really. I do like my job. I hate the company I work for. Case in point: I was hired on as a part-time employee because I was going to college at the time, and I told my supervisor and the company reps that my eventual goal was to become something along the lines of Area Supervisor (go from site to site and inspect, check things out, supplies, etcetera), and that when possible, I want full time.

Graduated in May. No full time, which was no big deal as there wasn't anything available. sure, there was a fellow employee who I thought would have been fired by then (boy, does he screw things up!). But still, no complaints.

Here comes July. I take on a second part time job within the same company at a different site because I want hours and money, and to show the company I'll do whatever. So, my time is now split between Marinette and Green Bay.

Found out this past Tuesday that a full-time employee here put in his notice the day before; I contacted my supervisor and said I want his shift, as the extra money from the Green Bay job is just going towards gas anyway, and that it'd be better to be at one site, blah blah blah. She tells me that I was nenver considered, and that a different part-time employee here got it (the one that should have been fired long ago).

I was rather pissed.

In, doing some math, I found out I'm getting between 36 to 42 hours a week; the company employee handbook states that 35 hours a week is considered full-time.

So, I contact the main office in Oshkosh and tell them of the situation, and to check on my employment status. They tell me I am still considered part-time, and as such, uneligible for benefits (I could care less about insurance and 401K because really, is any of that reliable anymore?) I want vacation. I want my wife to have insurance (I have VA, and the kids have Badgercare). So sorry, but they will keep me in mind when something becomes available.

*grumble*

Yesterday I go online and check out the Job center of Wisconsin site, because I refuse to work two part-time accounts, getting full-time hours, but only get part-time crap. Lo and behold, the company I work for has the idiot guard's old position posted! I could get out of doing Green Bay, and be strictly at one area! I emailed my supervisor that I am applying for this, emailed the office and told them the same thing, and I applied.

So much for being told about an opening. So much for the company's policy of allowing advancement.

It'll be interesting to see what comes of this on Monday.

So what came of this?????

What came of this?

Nothing. Zero. Zip. Nada. They already had potential candidates before the job posting was even posted!

Apparently, I am too essential as a fill-in at the Green Bay site to lose, so I was not given any full-time status... which in itself is rather funny because I'm doing on average 28 hours in GB and at least 24 in Marinette.

52 hours a week. Heck, if they want to pay out 12 hours of overtime each week, then fine, I'll take it. If they don't want to consider me as a full-time employee (remember, Bush made into law that 32 hours is fulltime, and the company I work for says 35 hours is fulltime), then fine... but they better be prepared for when vacation time is over and I file for partial unemployment.

That'll teach them. That, or I'll get screwed somehow.

Would this be a necro post revival? Ehh, better than creating a new thread...

Whenever I order stuff for people, they always ask for it to be delivered here, to this building. I tell them, I remind them, that that will never happen, that items will never be delivered here, that they will always go to one of the other buildings that handles shipments or deliveries. But, it never fails; when they attempt to order something and put this building down, that item, surprise surprise, still goes to one of the other buildings that is equipped to handle shipments and deliveries.

Last week, I was told by someone that they ordered some stuff, and that they put this location down. "But not to worry, we told them to have the driver call you when it arrives so he knows where to go." I told that person that I can guarantee it'll never come here, that I'll never get a call, but they were very positive that it would happen. Yeah, sure.

Friday comes, along with an email from a rep in the building (I'll refer to her as EG) that handles such shipments and deliveries, saying that there was a pallet in that building for me. I wrote back saying I would inform that person who was expecting it that it had arrived and where it was, and if you (the person I was emailing) could have it brought over here, that'd be great.

This morning... three days after that email exchange... I get another email from EG saying that I had to arrange for the pallet to be brought over.

My thoughts: listen to me you stupid bitch, you work in the warehouse, in the freaking Shipping Department, and you mean to tell me you can't find a single gawd damn forklift to bring one pallet from one building to the next, even though we're right next to each other?! Is that too much effort for you?

My email response, to the guy that delivers mail and parcels to my building: Morning! Apparently I need to arrange for you to bring a pallet from the warehouse to here. Can you do this by my asking, or is there something else I should be doing?

Why the hell is it that the people responsible for shipping and receiving can't ship or deliver something that's been received? That's just as bad as when I tried to FedEx something to South Africa; seems they don't like the standard shipping invoice, they wanted something special... so I contacted a different Shipping Department person (I'll refer to this person as AH), and she told me I had to fill out a particular form first, before I could get the other form. I needed to fill out paperwork in order to get other paperwork?

Ugh. Something's wrong with that entire department, I tell you.

...

Present company excluded, of course.

Now I shouldn't defend that place or the department of which you speak. But don't blame the little people. They are just doing their jobs the way they were trained. If you want to blame anyone, blame the brilliant policy makers.
When I was there I worked for 5 years handling a lot of my own docs and getting certain numbers I needed for over-seas shipments. Well around the last year I was there the policy makers decided "she can't do that, lets make a whole new department that she has to go through to get these numbers."
People in power are just lame and don't know how to simplify things to make life easier! What is the model suppose to be "Work smarter, not harder?" Well policy people don't get that.

Oh yes, those stupid codes... I don't even bother going through that department to get them, I just look them up on FedEx's site myself.  A lot quicker, less hassle.

And yeah, I'm not really yelling at or being frustrated at the person, but rather the action.  I would hope that such things were the result of procedures, but... *grumble grumble*... why over complicate things?  Like this whole thing with them getting rid of the accounts payable / receivable department, and instead contract out through some RAPID agency to pay the bills; how does RAPID sending us the invoices so we can enter them into SAP, and in turn us giving RAPID the goods receipt number so they can pay the bill cost efficient?

Things like this makes me glad that all I really have to do is sit right here.  I don't just sit here, but I'm glad that all I'm getting paid to do is just sit right here.

It isn't in the budget

I've worked factory (ie, "on the floor") for about ten years. Some of you have done the same, or are still doing. How many times have you suggested something, or were in need of something, only to hear that it's not in the budget, that you have to take care of it yourself? How many times have you heard that things are tight as it is, that it wouldn't be feasible to do such a thing?

Bullocks.

I've been working in a building full of non-floor personnel for three years or so now, and what a difference a desk makes.

1. You don't have to buy your own office supplies, you don't have to buy your own desk supplies; and if you quit, you get to take everything the company paid for home with you. I'm not just talking about pencils and mouse pads, I'm talking about bluetooth wireless keyboards and mouse, those stupid ball chairs, leather organizers / planners, memory cards, hands-free phone devices, and so on.

2. Coffee and tea is free, including the new Kurrig systems being put in. This also gives you the right to bitch and complain when you're out of a particular free coffee, sugar, or creamer, to the point where special orders are placed so you can continue having your free coffee, without you going to a local store and buying it your own. I had gotten so frustrated about this, I went to the company's HR, and you know what she told me? The people on the floor get overtime, so they can afford to buy their own. I was pissed, and I even told her that that was screwed up, especially since the personnel here get paid more.

3. The company pays for your lunches if you happen to schedule a meeting during the noon hour, the company provides lunches if your department has done good, the company provides a massive lunch every month for the entire building "to help innovation". You have someone from out of town coming in to meet with a couple people? Let's get lunch for 15-20, so everyone in that department can have something to eat! You have people from out of town coming in to perform some testing? We'll need lunch for 12 people, because it's cheaper to buy lunch for twelve instead of reimbursing the three or four testers. And these aren't the cheap "hey let's get some subs" lunches, oh no; most of them are catered.

4. This might not pertain to this company, but I've worked at places where it does. Want a company product, like a shirt or hat? Sorry, have to buy it, comes out of your paycheck. Here? Here we have an entire storeroom full of products, from shirts to hoodies to jackets, flashlights, calculators, thumb drives, personalized WD40 canisters, leather briefcases (not the rigid kind), and so on. These are given away to visitors and to employees within this building. I have more company shirts than I have socks.

5. Some, not all, but some people here even FedEx personal items. One person returned a swimsuit that didn't quite fit via FedEx. Another shipped Christmas presents out... not company stuff, but Packer merchandise. Another returned some car parts. HR will send out priority overnight letters to people that live within two miles of this building; sometimes they'll overnight letters to people in the neighboring towns / cities. I told them I'd easily deliver these myself, and charge them less than what FedEx does, but they've laughed it off.

6. Want to talk about frivolous spending? Some big shot realized that the orange power light on monitors being on all night or weekends when the system is shutoff costs the company $16 a year, so we should all get power strips to turn everything off. The cost? A few hundred dollars. Only three people grabbed a power strip... and I've been checking, no one's turned off the systems by that. The orange power lights are still on. Everyone also wants a steno pad, but not the cheap ones, oh no, they want these special steno pads that cost $7 a piece. Or they buy graph paper. Notebooks with the plastic covers because "they look nicer".

7. Oh, get this! Bonuses and stock options! Anyone here get bonuses? If you do, they aren't like want the management gets... a bonus here is akin to five times my annual salary. And what about stock options? No, not 401k, but actually be given stock in the company, free of charge. Anyone? And, if you are retiring (forced or otherwise), you get a hefty severance package. Granted, this is for management and not the average desk jockey here, but still... can you imagine?

Keep in mind all of this is going on just in this one building. Can you imagine what's going on in the other office buildings? Is this how all businesses are?

When I see what goes on in here, it bothers me to no end. That's why I try not to think about it, safe happy thoughts. The only reason I mention all of this now is because some manager had me order a catered lunch for today; keep in mind catering needs 24 hour notice, so the order was placed yesterday. When I asked him yesterday what he wanted, he said "just sandwiches and salad" for eight people. This is not coming from Cousins, oh no. You don't want to know what this is costing. He just came up to me with changes, telling me that at half of the lunch needs to be vegetarian and glutton free.

What? Really? I know every year this company gives their employees a boxed chicken lunch... which is laughable when I see what comes in here... do you have the option for vegetarian or glutton free?

You're killing me man! I got as far as the coffee, we get overtime so we can afford our own, and I just wanted to print this bad boy up and hand to certain members of the downtown work force. Thsi information is NOT common knowledge! Alas, if I print this, and it gets out, someone somewhere will know who this person is ordering lunches and talking to HR about coffee, and that's not acceptable. I may share snippets, and just use my "reliable source" routine.

You know what? How does the overtime=coffee thing play out when overtime is about to get axed company wide? Our boss just informed some of maintenance last week, after explaining that this year's raises will be looked at in January of '16, that overtime is the next item to be looked at, and for a while overtime is being canceled...HARD. I wonder who will watch the boilers on the weeks the operators get 48 hours because that's what is scheduled. Once I find out overtime is done company wide, shouldn't I then leave after 40 hours, without telling anyone?

Yeah... I was going to mention not to say anything about this, because people know that there's relations and connections, and it wouldn't take too much to figure stuff out. In the defense of things, the coffee thing has changed a little: the person I had talked to is no longer here (she left a couple months back), and I guess from talking to another connection / member of this forum, they get free coffee too (recently started).

The company did try to reduce the lunch ordering, and things did drop for a while, but have been increasing.

But yeah, play it safe, don't say anything that could jeopardize anyone's employment! I like my cushy job.

...

On a side note, it does seem that there are budget constraints coming: the company is going to be taking away the company supplied cell phones.

Cell phones. Yeah, but when? We got word over a month ago all phones except supervisors were getting axed within 3 days. Over a month and SOME lead people phones have been shut off. But that was another of these "pencil pusher Bob in Kuala Lumpur figured out he can make a name for himself by saving the company thousands every year by shutting down cell phone usage." kinda like your power strips cuz of that little light.

I personally like how we got rid of the accounts payable / receivable department... all invoices now go to an outside contractor who then emails designated contacts to handle the invoice documentation, only for those people to then contact the contractors to tell them it's good to pay; yes, adding a second (or third) party is a great cost saving measure.  Or how, in order to get the IT personnel to do something, we have to first file a work request with an agency that is out of State, who then send that request to the IT Department.  Definitely a cost and time saving measure there, tell you what.  OH!  Even with conference room reservations that involve tele-conferencing... used to be there were a couple people who could go into Outlook and reserve a room, and that was that; people dialed in or people dialed out, no fuss.  That's changed, too... now we have to set up those type of conferences through another third party source, who then organizes the dialing.

If anything, working here is like looking in on how the political system works.  Spend more money to save money, hire outside contractors and third party agencies to streamline production, and then wonder why nothing's improving.

...

There is one thing that is really bothersome, that has taken place / is currently taken place, though I don't know if I should even post it.  Seriously, it'd be grounds for termination, one of those company confidential things, though you guys have probably already heard of it.

*ponders*

Here, I'll just phrase it as a question, and we'll see how things go; if it is enough to entice you, let me know and I'll proceed with the insider information.  But really, this shouldn't go out.  We've been real good at keeping identities unknown and practices generalized to the point where we could be talking about anything, so I'm confident an outsider reading this wouldn't know.  But man, this is sensitive stuff here, it can't be let out, okay?

Spoiler:

From bumping into a fellow board member this afternoon at a local shopping establishment, I realized that there are a few things I need to clarify.

1. The personal FedEx shipments. They don't happen all the time. I've sent these out, oh, no more than four or five a year, top. I take that back, on average it's been about three a year, with the highest being five. Doesn't happen that often.

2. The coffee is bothersome, but I think it is being done because of the number of clients or customers we have coming here. Granted, the employees are abusing it, but what can you do? I'm sure it's like that in all office buildings. Now me, I have a drawer full of tea and water additives... I could take the "free" stuff, but it doesn't sit right with me.

3. Lunches. Ugh. Last year or the year before, a memo went out to all the supervisors that there was too much lunch being bought, and before you knew it, the lunches were cut back dramatically. Seriously, there was a few lunches a week coming here. And though the numbers have started to go back up, they are in no way close to the numbers that they once were. Is this a justification? Heck no. Things are still ridiculous in my opinion. But, as long as the majority of them involve clients or outsiders, what can you do?

4. Office supplies. We have an annual budget for the supplies. I know the limit, but I don't know if I can divulge that information, so I won't. Needless to say, when someone orders something specific, something I normally don't order, I record it. Yes, I've been keeping a log of sorts for "personal" acquisitions. I really can't do that for the bulk specialty items (the plastic covered steno pads or notebooks as an example), but I can do it for the individual. Funny thing though, I've been told that spending has actually dropped since I've taken over... I look for the bargains or cheaper versions if at all possible.

So yeah, I don't want to make it sound as if it's all wild over here, and that profits are all coming to us because they're not. I'm just picturing this company-wide, and was looking at this from someone who's had to work on the floor before.

On a side note, if this sounds bad, you should hear how they do things at the corporate office. We've already been told that the quality here is barbaric.

Parking

I would like to take a moment to introduce to you... the company's parking ticket:



These are tickets that we in the security department are supposed to issue to any parking violation, under order from the client (or company, whichever way you want to call it).  Security, as you know, is only allowed to do what the client wants; we cannot go out of our way to do something without expressed written permission from the client.

So these tickets are their idea, not ours.

Anyway, the parking area over by, umm, well... across town from me... they've supposedly always had these tickets, and were always supposed to issue them.  Me, I didn't get told about my having to issue them until this past spring, and even then, the client did not get any to me until late September.  The reason these were brought to my attention?  People were parking their cars in the designated motorcycle parking lot.

I don't want to issue tickets, as this is such a trivial little thing, and because it is only being enforced in certain areas: the lot just outside my work area and with whatever the guard over across town can see through the windows.  The main office building across town doesn't issue tickets, the production building by me doesn't issue tickets, and so on.  Only two small areas are being "enforced".

That's technically against the law.

To make matters worse, the tickets are apparently not enforceable.  There are no known repercussions should someone receive a ticket.  Case in point, this email exchange I had with my supervisor.

soothsayer wrote:

I was wondering about something regarding the parking tickets this morning; more specifically, vehicle ownership and repercussions.

How does {CLIENT} go about reinforcing their parking policy?  As far as I know, there is no log or database listing all the employees with their vehicle information.  Likewise, and I don’t know about over by you, the vehicles here don’t have parking passes.  Sure, we have our log, but without knowing who the transgressor is, how are the tickets enforced?

And then, out of both a curiosity thing and because some have asked me, what are the repercussions?

Thanks much,

Supervisor wrote:

From what I’ve been able to gather, there are specific places employees are to park.  While there is no parking passes for those and it is first come first serve for those slots , there are other places that are off limits to employees unless they have a specific parking pass.   (I.e. visitor parking spots)

With the new data base that I’ve started, transgressions that accumulate will be dealt with by {CLIENT} admin.  In some cases that will result in vehicles being towed. Their call, not ours.

**For the record, the towing thing is only for those vehicles parked on the street leading to the gatehouse across town, and it does not apply to people parked within the parking lot.  The street is enforceable because vehicles parked there pose a hazard to traffic coming in and out, and because of the military / government contracts and facilities adjacent to the property.  In other words, it isn't the client that is having the vehicles towed, it's the actual city and government.**

And, judging by the supervisor's response, they didn't seem to grasp or understand what I was asking.  How are tickets enforced?  How are client repercussions handled?  Then there is this email exchange from a month earlier:

soothsayer wrote:

Morning!  Just wondering, who should I be sending the physical copies of the parking violation tickets to?  Also, a couple questions / statements.

1. The recipient of ticket 40002 did just move her car, upon seeing her copy of the ticket; I just wanted to make mention of that.  Doesn’t change the fact that they parked there this morning, but she did correct things.
2. When will the motorcycle parking open up for general parking?  I know motorcycle season isn’t quite done yet, but it is getting there.  I figure I’d ask so I don’t issue any tickets when {CLIENT} says it’s okay to park there.
3. Out of curiosity, how is the parking situation being taken care of over at {manufacturing building over by my location}?

As you can see, I want to know the why's to these tickets.  My supervisor's response?

Supervisor wrote:

Enter the tickets on the database in the shared folder.    Start a file and keep the hard copies there.  
I have no idea how the parking violations are handled at {manufacturing building}.  
I’ll find out about the motorcycle parking- I suspect it will be when it snows…. LOL

Umm... how does one keep the physical copy of the ticket on a shared excel database?  And then, if the client does not receive the copy of the ticket, then how is the ticket even being enforced?  "You better watch out, we're writing down and saving your license plate number"?  Again, you can see the inability of my supervisor to answer direct questions.

The last, or rather the first, email exchange with my supervisor went something like this.  This exchange takes place a month prior to the one you just read, so now you know that I've been trying to get some sort of answer for a few months now.

soothsayer wrote:

Many months ago, I believe a month or two prior to your coming on, {safety department} sent out an email explaining how the winter months are over and that we should start ticketing people who are parking inappropriately.  I responded to that initial email, asking for tickets; no response.  Did that a few times, actually.  Got to the point where I just kept a log of violators.

Anyway, {client's on-staff nurse or whatever she is} just approached me, telling me that a {client} employee told her that he purposefully parked in the visitor’s parking for a week straight and nothing happened; {nurse} then asked me if I’ve been issuing tickets… to which I told her the above, that I never received any to issue.  Long story short, I’m supposed to contact you to get some.

So…  have any tickets that I can have?

supervisor wrote:

In fact, I just got some about 2 weeks ago. I didn’t realize you need any.  I’ll send some over via inter office.

**Note: remember when I said the client wanted us to issue tickets from around spring?  And security only got tickets in late August / early September?  And the security supervisor didn't know that security needed the tickets?!  Going back to the email exchange...**

soothsayer wrote:

Apparently so.  I even told {nurse} that I’m away from the desk more often than I’m here, and that unless I physically see the person who parked there, I wouldn’t know if it’s an employee parked in that spot, or a visitor for this building or the other buildings.  Kind of makes me wonder if {receptionist} over at {manufacturing building by me} has to issue tickets for her parking lot or not, or if people question it.  Oh well, at least now they can’t say that we’re not doing anything about it.

Supervisor wrote:

Do they have parking tags over there?

**This is in reference to vehicle parking tags.  Of which employees don't.  If they did, we could know what vehicle belongs to who, and the client would be able to enforce their parking policy.**

So, all told, we have parking tickets being issued under limited conditions and in limited areas, all under the direct order of the client.  However, the client is not aware of these tickets, as the violations are being stored on security's database.  As such, the client is unable to enforce their policy.  And, the person in charge of the people issuing these tickets is unable to answer any questions about the tickets or the related violations or punishments.



I propose a test: as of today, I am giving myself a ticket.  I'm not parked illegally or anything; I'm parked in the furthest corner of the furthest parking lot in my line of site.  However, I am going to issue a ticket under the pretense of "other: vehicle parked in designated visitor parking".  I am then going to see how long it takes for the company, client, or security to get back to me.

And then I am going to write a formal letter of declaration, stating that limited ticket issuance is a violation of the law, which in itself might be null and void since the tickets aren't being enforced anyway.

{EDIT}  Since my car's kind of known, I'm also going to issue a ticket to our Chevy Trailblazer.  Say it's parked in the motorcycle parking.  That way, I'll be testing cars known and unknown.

{SECOND EDIT} Should this ever be questioned, I am conducting this test in order to see how the policy is enforced or acted upon, that this is being done because a few people have asked me what the repercussions are. Instead of giving them a ticket, I am giving it to me. This way, when someone with authority contacts me as to why I parked in violation to policy, I can then tell people what happens.

Bad enough that my deliveries would sometimes land up over by 'crunch... you know, because the person responsible for the company mail can't read or something. Now, to complicate things further, I'm having Vader's stuff delivered to me because, well, the person responsible for delivering the company mail can't read or something.

I have here a three pound envelop addressed to Vader, complete with the proper street address and building number, but for some reason, it's over here, by the other location. Will wonders never cease?

As some of you may already know, I handle and process all maintenance requests for the building I'm in. I go on a company-wide program, enter the relevant information, and that's it. Luckily for me, I also keep a record of when I enter this information, as well as the description and the reference number.

I mention this because quite a few people were complaining that I wasn't submitting the maintenance requests. I'd show them my log book, and right there they could see that not only was the request submitted, but that I've also resubmitted the same request on a couple occasions. I'm a nice guy that way... okay, maybe not, but at least I'm covering my butt.

So anyway, I have a series of requests that have been seemingly ignored: the changing of light bulbs. No one here is able to swap out a bulb, some talk about it being an open circuit and that only an electrician can do them. Pfft, whatever. 12 out of the last 15 work requests involved changing lights, going back to the beginning of June. Of those twelve, 10 of them are repeat requests.

Got to the point that a coupe weeks ago I emailed the head of maintenance, complaining about the work being done (or not, case may be). I even complained that someone must have come here to change bulbs, because they left their ladder within one of the stair wells... it's still there, ever since it was brought in two months ago.

Well, now it seems that this work will be handled by an outside contractor. Yes, that's right, an outside contracted person will be coming in to change light bulbs; why the company just doesn't have their own guys do it, I have no idea; that falls under the same lines as to why pay a contractor X+ amount of dollars to change a bulb, when they can pay their own people X.

Wish I had money like that.

I've been defending the people "on the floor" for quite some time now, having been one for years before attaining my position, and as you all know, with the current job I have, I've been quite vocal about the differences between office personnel and workers.

In addition to the double standard between the two (floor personnel can't get X Y or Z due to costs, but office people have free access to materials and can order whatever they want; floor personnel can't be afforded X Y or Z, but office personnel get lunches and hold events for the company saving money; and so on). Want to know the latest double standard?

Should someone from the floor borrow company property without informing someone, they are terminated right then and there for stealing. No excuses, no tolerance. BUT, should someone from, say, the building I work at do the same, it's no big deal.

About a month or two ago, my building acquired a couple Nesco cookers and three crock pots. One of the Nesco cookers has been missing for a couple weeks now, and finally, after searching and hunting for it, it turns out that someone borrowed it and simply forgot to return it ("I'll bring it back on Monday, I promise"). Really?