Where to Start.........

Well. It has been a quite eventful ride.

The situation at my workplace has finally come to a head, and in a nutshell, I do not work for the power-hungry control freak any longer.

I do need to reread what I wrote to see where I left off regarding the work stuff, but anyway here goes.

I had spoken with the owner of the company a month or so back, and essentially told him how I was being treated. The belittling, the disparaging remarks, the hostile attitude, the controlling nature. The owner was very sympathetic and listened. He is very businesslike and to the point. And so was I. I was all kinds of nervous because I was afraid that by speaking up I would be let go. Companies don't want troublemakers. I have spoken up before in other jobs, and it always seemed to backfire. I may not be tactful, but I am all for communication. I am open to hearing my weaknesses. I may not like what people have to say, but if constructive, I am more than willing to try to change something. Because for the most part I know what my bad behaviors and weaknesses are. I don't like them, and I try to work on them, and I have changed some.

anyway I digress.

I wanted to post a series of events in here that led to my breaking point. But those notes are at work. So I will post them later. Essentially, I had enough. The owner has asked that I be patient, and he had spoken to my supervisor once and it got better. That week, then his old behaviors and comments and attitude slowly reverted back, until I returned from Florida last week. Then, it became intolerable. Several people, including my boyfriend, my parents, a friend or two, had told me to just "grin and bear it", "just do your job and leave". Well. I couldn't. Not any longer. I tolerated enough humiliation and NO ONE puts me on a short leash, not even my Master *wink* With my health issues and family situation, my age and financial state, I just don't need to be unhappy anymore for 9 hours a day 5 days a week.

Things to consider:

• I had to have a biopsy before I went to Florida. I am at high risk apparently for cervical cancer. Peachy
  

• I had received a letter from the Red Cross saying I cannot donate blood because of a serious problem with my blood. Dandy
  

• My father has been going to the hospital at least once a month if not more for heart concerns. Even though I have a brother who lives IN the house, I am the one called to help my parents. Which is fine, don't get me wrong, but understand, my brother is the youngest and is not responsible for anything. I am the oldest.
  

• My mother has not been able to walk since the fall of last year (she has been improving but basically she has been forced to retire)

• My grandmother is moving, and at 86 I suppose dementia is inevitable. She should go into at least independent living but refuses. I'm just so worried because she couldn't remember which new apartment was hers, and whether she locked the door or not.

• My cousin is basically living on life support (he has Lou Gehrig's)

So when I get back to work, basically I am told I need to follow his orders, "do as I am told" because I don't get the job done right and on time because I don't do it "his way". So essentially I humored him and sat there Tues morning and let him show me how to do my job step by step: from 'how' to highlight, to how to sort in numerical order, to how to fax (literally, he said "just take a few sheets of paper, like this, and fan them out just a little like this"). Some days I get between 200 and 300 orders and that amount of paper to fax over. It takes from 45 minutes to over an hour to fax over, I check the reports. I told him standing at the fax machine for an hour is a waste of my time. He said and I quote "I PAY YOU TO STAND HERE AND FAX".

OKAY I said. "I will do it your way from NOW ON. EXACTLY AS YOU HAVE DESCRIBED. TO THE L-E-T-T-E-R"

You see, the orders have to get done before 11am our time so they can invoice (I usually invoice but because of the tripled workload, it's not humanly possible). So. The rest of that day I let him tell me what to do, how long it would take me to do it and let him know when I was done so he could assign me the next duty. I was as disrespectful to him as he was to me. I am not like that in the workplace, but like I said, I had it. I told him I can't guarantee I could get each job done in the time frame he gave me (now, he has not done any of my duties so I am not sure how he knew how long it would take me to do it, but whatEVER).

And the next day, which happened to be the busiest day of the week, I performed my duties exactly as he described to the letter.

The orders did not get there before 11am.

The Senior Ops Manager called and asked if there were orders today. I said there were plenty, but I wasn't finished working on them. She asked why. And I told her. She said things would be taken care of that day.

You see, she and I had discussed the best way to work on the orders to get them there in time. We worked out a system and were starting to implement it, but the asshole found out and didn't like it and basically said that I work for him and only him and I need to do what HE says and no one else. He didn't care what anyone else told me to do. DID I UNDERSTAND?>?>

I looked him right in the eye and said I understood.

So, later that day, there were conference calls. When I came back from lunch, his face was so red, I thought it was going to explode. No. Not just his face, his entire head.

So now, I don't work for him anymore. I work for the sales manager now. When I listed out my job duties, I was told that basically I was doing his job. I was told to send it to the owner and ask him what he did since I was doing his job. I didn't get the chance because then things got taken care of.

You see, I did research. The woman before me, was going to file sexual harrassment charges. I am not attractive, so I don't have to worry about sexual harrasment, but essentially the environment was and is to a point still very hostile, in regards to him and his behavior toward me and the warehouse workers. You just have to hear how he talks to them (and me). Anyone who is hourly apparently is beneath him. Anyway, that woman was not there more than a few months. She never filed the charges because her husband told her to quit. Why I don't know, I heard he worked in HR for a big company or something. And the women before her, all of them, left because of him. They were not there very long either. They have not been able to keep anyone there for longer than several months at a time. The guy who was there before me and after the sexual=harrassment woman lasted almost a year, but I realize why: he did EVERYTHING EXACTLY the way he was told, because that is how I was told to do it and that's how he taught me, but as soon as I learn a job, I tailor it to my needs so that I can get it done more effectively.

Since the workload has tripled, I have asked for help and never get it from him. My other manager has to help and it's a chore to ask either of them to help. You see I'm the only one doing the work for this office. THere are 4 people over on the west coast. Our office consists of two managers and an assistant. I'm getting the work done, but at my expense.

Anyway, this week has been tense to say the least. He does not speak to me now unless he needs to, responds to my questions tersely, finally doesn't put any of my personal items (which are few) in a drawer and off the desk as if I don't work there. He won't look me in the eye. And the last thing he said to me on my way out the door was "Watch out for the buses".\

Now, this job isn't worth it. But I chose to stay because well, I watch the news. Every day there are layoffs layoffs layoffs. Granted, they don't show the people who do find jobs. But I have been looking, granted not as hard now that I have been working temporary, but even a friend of mine, a bookkeeper, has been having a real tough time getting an interview. I know I have a choice, but I chose the lesser of two evils. I figure, if I can just be patient like the owner had requested of me, and make money, I could get through it. I did, but now the tension is there just different. I have not changed my demeanor. I am still cordial and professional and speak to him. I don't chit chat since he walked away the first time I was started to make small talk. That's ok. He is livid! But when my current manager leaves, he makes his move. One sentence, each day, the last one about the buses. I know exactly what he meant.

No one should have to be treated like this. Maybe I am an idiot for tolerating it for so long. I asked and pondered and meditated on what I was supposed to do here. I hope I did the right thing.