All in a day's work...

I know in "real" life I'm very vocal, but in "work" life I tend to be rather quiet (depending on the job and my comfort level). On one of my most recent shifts someone poked me in the side to try to make me jump, and she said she only messed with the quiet ones. Hehe - if she only knew. I'm a good worker - I come to work on time and I do my job. Do I dance across the hall with bells on, no, but who does?

So, the conclusion to my Saturday night shift was a bit unexpected. You've seen me complain here before about my bitchy manager. Well - this didn't involve her, it involved the one who I had thought was rather calm and collected (aside from the cussing out of an employee and manager he had thought were talking about him - but I didn't witness that directly).

I won't get into all of the drawn out tidbits of the "discussion." But - basically it all started after he asked me how I was doing after I was once again being let off much after the schedule said I would be. Mind you, by this point I know they don't let us off on time, but this night was on top of every other night every single employee has had to stay way past scheduled. And the fact that they never ask you if it's okay - they just assume you are their indentured servant for the duration. I said I was fine and he said that now was the time to share anything that was on my mind as he was providing me with the opportunity.

So this seemed like the perfect opportunity to bring up, rationally, that I found it frustrating that we never got off when the schedule said we would. It all went downhill from there. He immediately started blaming the servers - me- the world - you name it, but everybody except for management. I also told him I found it frustrating that when we were understaffed that the managers didn't help - even when people were actually leaving the restaurant because it was literally impossible for us to get to them in the expected time frame. Again - everyone on the planets fault besides management, and in his huff, he even told me that he also would let us run ourselves into the ground (meaning he'd let us bust our asses as we tried to accomplish the impossible) because it was our fault for not reporting the amount of guests accurately on our tickets. Um okay. I never even knew that was a problem.

So things escalated, he accused me of having an attitude and I told him he had asked me a question and I had answered it, I also told him he was having an attitude with me. He told me that I had started "bitching" at him. Believe me - this is not the case, I know I can rant, but I can also be extremely rational and I was trying to present myself carefully so that he didn't take offense. Failed there! You'd think I'd stolen a 2 year-old's teddy bear and started punching it!

So on and on things went and he started threatening to cut my hours and suspend me. He told me he'd cut me down to one day a week and he'd make that one day Thanksgiving. Big deal Ass Hole! He wanted me to call his bluff and tell him not to suspend me or cut my hours, but I just kept huffing back "Fine!" He didn't expect that. Let me tell you - the best "I don't give a damn" tool to have in your arsenal when your immature boss is threatening you is the knowledge that you were planning to quit in a few weeks anyways =-).

Ya, as much as I dislike loads of things about the job, I could still use the money. I want money for my Vegas trip!! But I won't be annihilated if I lose a job I was planning to quit anyways. The ONLY reason I give a crap is because I don't want to have to check that damned "have you ever been fired" box on applications from here into eternity.

And for those of you who still assume I was the instigator, any of you who know my Dad know how calm and collected he is....well, he has been informed of things as they happened and he thinks the manager was way out of line. So as he threatened to suspend me and cut my hours I followed up with my request for the number for the labor board. Homeboy made the mistake of calling my bluff. Angrily told me to go right ahead and that the number was "up there" - so I wrote it down. He kept telling me to go ahead and call them. Alright then - consider it done. Unfortunately for him, he does not realize the cardinal rule of not messing with the Shababbler. Don't doubt me! I had thought about calling the labor board, but probably would have been too lazy to do so, but if you want to holler at me To go right ahead, you can bet your ass I will.

Anyways - that's my joyful little work story =-). As of my departure I was not fired, suspended, or reduced (hours), but who knows what I shall see when I next go into work. It will be interesting to see how the managers treat me because I know they will have been warned. Will it be eggshells or thorns? I'm hoping it will be middle ground....but at the same time, I'm also not concerned because I know he has no grounds for disciplining me and that if I had any desire to waste the time and energy taking them to court I could. I don't feel like wasting that much energy on such a negative and unproductive endeavor, so let's hope my countdown till quitting goes smoothly. It will be like the Christmas chocolate countdown calendar's - each day I work is one less day until freedom - yay!!! Now I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy inside =-)!