You Cannot Dictate - Day 220 - Haiku - On respect for others in the workplace - or not

You cannot dictate
to me to stop caring for
my own coworkers

So I am back to being self-employed. And I'm fine with that and, quite frankly, relieved.

My workplace has become increasingly stressful over the past three months, I have been increasingly less happy and have found it harder to relax, and following a joke of a permanent job offer, had already made the decision to finish out the year and then jump ship.

But the way in which it came about is more than a little disturbing.

I would up in the local Urgent Care Center one morning, and called my immediate supervisor prior to my shift starting to let her know what was happening. When I did finally come into work, it was complete with doctor's note, confirming that the emergency had in fact happened precisely as I said it did.

She sent me an email two days later, on my birthday no less, to inform me that I'd been written up for an occurrence and had been given half a point off.

Really? For a medical emergency? Especially when it was one that made it literally impossible to do my job?

So when I messaged the primary supervisor, because frankly I thought it was a mistake, he told me that no, that's company policy, that any absence or tardy not approved beforehand would result in an occurrence.

When I mentioned that I had given the maximum possible amount of advanced warning under the circumstances, his comment to me was "You did everything right. Thanks."

But despite doing everything right, the occurrence stood, which struck me as monumental idiocy, considering that there is no way to give advanced notice in a true emergency. The police, as applied, is inherently unfair and ill-thought out.

So, on top of watching helplessly as our company ran roughshod over its own customers, and didn't even do them the courtesy of stocking replacement parts and supplies for machines still on the market, this is when I made the decision to spend the next two months creating income streams to allow Marek and I to leave our jobs behind.

I am a strong believer in treating others as I want to be treated. Those who treat others like crap do not gain my respect.

So fast forward to Thursday afternoon, when during a slow period one of my coworkers brought up the fact that I was given half a point off, when in a similar situation, when she had been unexpectedly ill and brought in a doctors note, she was not written up for an occurrence.

A second coworker chimed in that she too had had similar instances, when she had been unexpectedly ill, and was not written up. So not only is it a stupid rule, but it is not being applied equally.

Finally a third coworker stated that, not only had she been written up for an occurrence under similar circumstances, but that because her illness occurred on a Monday, our busiest day, she was given two full points off, and another full point on another day - despite having handed in doctors' notes. Ridiculous.

At this point the first two ladies suggested that the third lady and myself write emails to the woman who hired us, who was senior to the two supervisors, to rectify the situation.

Still thinking it was a mistake, and that the less-experienced supervisors had misapplied the rules without taking the doctor's notes into consideration, I did exactly that, and wrote a polite but to the point email to the woman who hired us, asking that our cases be reconsidered and our points be reversed.

About half an hour before my shift ended, I received an instant message asking me to come see her, and I messaged back that I would do so as soon as I ended the call I was on.

So I dutifully grabbed a pad and pen, and went to meet her in the conference room as she had requested. And I was struck immediately by her cold demeanor - cold, dismissive, and entirely disrespectful.

According to her, it wasn't bad enough that I made the (to me perfectly reasonable) request that my points be reconsidered in light of my legitimate and documented medical emergency, but I made the egregious mistake of making the same request on behalf of my coworker, which is evidently an unforgivable sin, and made me - and I quote - "disloyal to the brand."

So, according to her, by making a request that my coworker be treated fairly by the company, I was being disloyal to the company, which is evidently a fireable offense.

So whereas virtually every company I've worked for in the past would view going to bat for a fellow employee to be a good thing, and the employee who did so to be an asset to the company, this particular company not only considers it a liability, but this supervisor stated multiple times - and with great emphasis - "We do NOT make requests for coworkers."

I came very close to saying, "No, YOU do not make requests for coworkers, because you clearly don't care enough."

Unreal.

In the end, I said nothing, though I came very close to thanking her for saving me from the bother of quitting.

But seriously, this woman couldn't even approach a relatively minor disagreement while still being respectful of the other party, which boggles the mind.

I left the meeting thinking that she was a classic case of the Peter Principle in action, having reached her own level of incompetence. She was so wrapped up in her own ego, and in allowing her ego to do all the talking, that she coudn't even be polite, and lost what little respect I still had for her.

So in the end I am grateful, as she saved me two solid months of stress and crap, but I'm just amazed that a polite email, which was in no way antagonistic, prompted such a response.

In any case, I'm happy to be away from what I had already come to view as a toxic environment, and it should give me more time to post once again. Onward and upward.

Life is good, and getting better, better and better.

This post, and all those from now until the end of 2018, I am dedicating to the work of #tarc and #yah, aka @rhondak's nonprofit dog rescue and @sircork's charity @youarehope.

Half the liquid proceeds earned from my posts will be evenly split between the two organizations, and more when I can manage it.

The photo above was taken by me a shortly after we moved to Tennessee, using my Canon SX 30 iS camera.

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