D R A M A
I thought girls were the worst for drama . Apparently men can be equally or or even more dramatic than women.
Let me tell you a little story.
I had finished enjoying my three days off last week and on Sunday morning I was up and at'em around 5:30 in the morning, at the shop by 6. I rolled in ready to rock-n-roll, eager to make sure sure everyone got their bubbles. I unlocked the door, crossed the expanse of the shop to the little makeshift plywood office.
As I approached the office I noticed that someone has defaced a sign the boss had posted a few weeks ago. The sign was a reminder that if you remove a full cylinder and replace it with an empty one while out and about, that at the end of your shift you needed to replace the empty one with a full one.
Under this vibrant red ink laser printed information was a new addition, scribbled in standard ink pen and highlighted with bright yellow highlighter ink. It said (and I quote, bad grammar and all) "Gos for everyone Ang not just men".
Appalled and instantly pissed I opened the door and went about the task of clocking in and beginning my day. All while fuming of course.
My instant assumption was that it was one of the other route drivers who had recently been reprimanded for behaving badly out in the field. I figured he was just lashing out at any and everyone. So for the better part of the day I stayed pissed off at him.
But it wasn't until I arrived for work the next morning that I realized, it wasn't him after all. It was the other new guy.
You see, that first morning when I found the note, I also found that the truck I typically drive was devoid of CO2 cylinders... of course my brain didn't put two and two together until the next morning when I decided it would be a good idea to reload the truck with full fresh cylinders for my route.
After I got the cylinders up onto the platform on the side of the truck (which is a difficult task) I found that a strap was missing. I remembered seeing one in the passenger side floorboard of the truck so I opened the door and grabbed it. And that's when it all came together.
The strap had been cut with a knife, rendering it useless. So it couldn't be used to hold cylinders in place on the truck. Regulations require two straps for the taller cylinders to be secured to the truck. If one was cut, the cylinders would have to be removed until a new strap could be made available.
I didn't cut the strap. But here's what I think prompted its occurrence:
1) New guy got to work and decided he needed to add a cylinder to the truck
2) New guy had trouble getting a strap loose and became angry at the strap
3) New guy fought with strap for a few minutes before rage took over
4) New guy took out his rage on the strap with his pocket knife
5) New guy couldn't find a replacement strap and then had to unload all the cylinders
6) New guy found a way to make the whole incident look like it was my fault
I can take a small, albeit very small, part of the blame because on my last day last week, the day that I went in, went home and went back for two out of gas calls in KY (see previous post) I did take off a small 20 lb cylinder and had forgotten to replace it at the end of the day.
I didn't remember that I'd forgotten to replace it until the day I arrived to find the note mentioned above on the door to the office of course. So my not having replaced the 20 pounder was apparently the motivation for the other new guys actions.
On day three of my work week this week I arrived at the shop to find a depot manager from out of town sitting in the office. My boss had called him in to help him figure out some stuff on the computer. When I walked in, he pointed at the sign on the door and asked me what that was all about. I explained my theory on the situation and showed him a note I'd written for my managers' information and file on the situation, in which I laid out everything I just wrote here. From my thoughts, theories and feelings on the whole ordeal.
The sign was gone when I came back to the shop that evening at the end of my shift.
Apparently if I had chosen to press the issue, it would have cost the other new guy his job. I'm still not sure what they would have called it, destruction of company property, harassment, whatever... but apparently his actions were a terminable offense should I have taken it a step higher.
But honestly, I don't want to be "that girl" and I simply made a statement stating that so long as nothing similar or related occurs again, the issue could be dropped. New guy will get a written warning which will go in his employee file and count as a first offense.
The whole thing was dramatic, and I can only imagine how dramatic the new guy was the day that he cut the strap. My boss has remarked that he is like a "bull in a china shop" which really is a pretty accurate description. So I have to laugh now as I visualize him bucking around the shop like a Brahma bull, cylinders a'flying and little yellow fibers filling the air as he hacks his way through the ratchet straps.
Let me tell you a little story.
I had finished enjoying my three days off last week and on Sunday morning I was up and at'em around 5:30 in the morning, at the shop by 6. I rolled in ready to rock-n-roll, eager to make sure sure everyone got their bubbles. I unlocked the door, crossed the expanse of the shop to the little makeshift plywood office.
As I approached the office I noticed that someone has defaced a sign the boss had posted a few weeks ago. The sign was a reminder that if you remove a full cylinder and replace it with an empty one while out and about, that at the end of your shift you needed to replace the empty one with a full one.
Under this vibrant red ink laser printed information was a new addition, scribbled in standard ink pen and highlighted with bright yellow highlighter ink. It said (and I quote, bad grammar and all) "Gos for everyone Ang not just men".
Appalled and instantly pissed I opened the door and went about the task of clocking in and beginning my day. All while fuming of course.
My instant assumption was that it was one of the other route drivers who had recently been reprimanded for behaving badly out in the field. I figured he was just lashing out at any and everyone. So for the better part of the day I stayed pissed off at him.
But it wasn't until I arrived for work the next morning that I realized, it wasn't him after all. It was the other new guy.
You see, that first morning when I found the note, I also found that the truck I typically drive was devoid of CO2 cylinders... of course my brain didn't put two and two together until the next morning when I decided it would be a good idea to reload the truck with full fresh cylinders for my route.
After I got the cylinders up onto the platform on the side of the truck (which is a difficult task) I found that a strap was missing. I remembered seeing one in the passenger side floorboard of the truck so I opened the door and grabbed it. And that's when it all came together.
The strap had been cut with a knife, rendering it useless. So it couldn't be used to hold cylinders in place on the truck. Regulations require two straps for the taller cylinders to be secured to the truck. If one was cut, the cylinders would have to be removed until a new strap could be made available.
I didn't cut the strap. But here's what I think prompted its occurrence:
1) New guy got to work and decided he needed to add a cylinder to the truck
2) New guy had trouble getting a strap loose and became angry at the strap
3) New guy fought with strap for a few minutes before rage took over
4) New guy took out his rage on the strap with his pocket knife
5) New guy couldn't find a replacement strap and then had to unload all the cylinders
6) New guy found a way to make the whole incident look like it was my fault
I can take a small, albeit very small, part of the blame because on my last day last week, the day that I went in, went home and went back for two out of gas calls in KY (see previous post) I did take off a small 20 lb cylinder and had forgotten to replace it at the end of the day.
I didn't remember that I'd forgotten to replace it until the day I arrived to find the note mentioned above on the door to the office of course. So my not having replaced the 20 pounder was apparently the motivation for the other new guys actions.
On day three of my work week this week I arrived at the shop to find a depot manager from out of town sitting in the office. My boss had called him in to help him figure out some stuff on the computer. When I walked in, he pointed at the sign on the door and asked me what that was all about. I explained my theory on the situation and showed him a note I'd written for my managers' information and file on the situation, in which I laid out everything I just wrote here. From my thoughts, theories and feelings on the whole ordeal.
The sign was gone when I came back to the shop that evening at the end of my shift.
Apparently if I had chosen to press the issue, it would have cost the other new guy his job. I'm still not sure what they would have called it, destruction of company property, harassment, whatever... but apparently his actions were a terminable offense should I have taken it a step higher.
But honestly, I don't want to be "that girl" and I simply made a statement stating that so long as nothing similar or related occurs again, the issue could be dropped. New guy will get a written warning which will go in his employee file and count as a first offense.
The whole thing was dramatic, and I can only imagine how dramatic the new guy was the day that he cut the strap. My boss has remarked that he is like a "bull in a china shop" which really is a pretty accurate description. So I have to laugh now as I visualize him bucking around the shop like a Brahma bull, cylinders a'flying and little yellow fibers filling the air as he hacks his way through the ratchet straps.
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