Things at work changed a little when the store recently
hired a new manager. Since our department works closely with them, their
hirings and firings can affect us. At first I was all for the change. The old
manager, while a nice guy, had little leadership abilities. He was lazy and
never wanted to try to do anything to improve the store despite having the
means to do so. Part of our job since we moved here 18 months ago is to help
boost the store with extra merchandise and product but it often seemed like he
wanted nothing to do with us and boxes of merchandise that we’d give them more
often ended up hidden in a supply room or closet than placed for sale in the
racks. It infuriated me because back
when he got the job 2 years earlier, I interviewed for it as well and I spent
at least 30 minutes supposedly dazzling the executive vice-president of our
company with my passion and ideas for the store. In the end, they decided on
continuity and promoted the store assistant manager than bring me over from a
different building (we were located elsewhere at the time) and teach me
everything from scratch. In the past they did offer me the manager’s job at
other stores. I distinctly remember getting offered the opportunity to run the
Niagara Falls store a few years back but I turned it down because of the
distance and I thought they were going to close that store in a matter of
months anyway. As it turned out, it closed less than a year later. This one job
however I really wanted and was denied.
Fast forward nearly 2 years later and now our department is
in the same building as the store and we are working together with them trying
to get sales up in a time when record stores are becoming as hard to find as
8-tracks. Finally the office decided to make a change at manager when it became
apparent that sales were going nowhere and the relationship between the store
manager and my boss was ice cold at best.
This time I didn’t apply for the position but I never would
have gotten the chance to anyway as they brought over an old employee/friend
from a closing Borders store to assume the job. My boss still took me aside and
gave me a pep talk telling me how valuable I am and yada yada, but I really
didn’t care. Truth is I’ve stopped giving my best to this company a few years
back. I used to work so hard every day and constantly offer ideas and energy to
the cause but as time has worn on this company has eaten away at me. I can and
will still give it everything I’ve got when needed but for the most part I work
pretty half assed now. I don’t offer ideas any longer because they are
pointless over deaf ears. I could go on and on about the antiquated methods,
unpleasant or unbalanced people and poor decisions this company has made but
lately my venom is only concentrated on one issue.
The new manager is either in his 40’s or 50’s and he works
twice as hard as the last guy did so that’s a good thing. At first I really was
excited about a real worker coming in to run the store and things have improved
from a business standpoint. I’m not sure how I feel about the guy on a personal
level though. He appears corny and very phony to me but so do most people these
days. It’s the first time I can remember this store not having someone young,
hip or both as manager. There is a difference. There’s less slacking but more
rules. One of the reasons I still work here is due to the freedom my boss has
given me. I know what my job is, what tasks need to get done, how to go about
doing it and I can come and go as I please. I work 40 hours a week and if it
takes me 4 days or 6 to get there or close to it, so be it. If I want to work
12-8 instead of 9-5, no one says anything. If I want to take a 2 hour
lunch/siesta and then just stay a little later or come in on the weekend to
make up the time, no problem. It’s hard to put a value on being able to come
and go as one pleases but after 8 years and tremendous displays of loyalty and
effort, I should be entitled to some perks, especially in lieu of low pay.
2 weeks ago on the weekend there was an incident. From what
I understand a person came in who a few employees knew as a bit nutty to begin
with. He went into the bathroom and started screaming, kicked the walls and
then came out and told an already frightened employee that he was going to kill
him and then promptly left. This incident also occurred a few weeks after the
theft of hand lotion and soap from the bathroom. The next day when the new
manager got wind of the latest incident, the bathrooms were deemed no longer
available to customers. An overreaction? Maybe, but I didn’t care that much
until I considered that I didn’t have a key to the bathroom. Were the bathrooms
completely off limits? We were told that they were not but our internet retail
crew in the back would have to get a key from someone up front each time we had
to use it. Oh joy!
My first thought was one of disgust. I don’t want someone
knowing every time I had to use the bathroom. I’d rather not discuss it, let
alone announce my intentions when I track down the keymaster. To me this
amounted to having to get permission to go potty which made me very upset. I
remember saying “I’m a grown-ass man who has worked for this company for 8
years; I’m not asking permission to use the bathroom.” The answer was simple;
they needed to give me a key. But nothing is simple in this company.
The first excuse was they couldn’t give out any keys because
the bathroom key also opened up the door to 2 other rooms. I asked what rooms
they were and it turns out one of them is the room I work in and the other is
an adjacent room I can walk into at anytime. So basically the key opens up the
bathroom and 2 rooms I already have access to. Okay, give me a key.
Next came a compromise: they’d still have a key up front and
we would get a key in back that the 4 of us would share. It seemed like a good
idea until I thought about who I worked with. First there’s a lady with 3 kids
who seems to be sick every other week. Next there’s an artist guy who wears the
same clothes every day and I wouldn’t trust to wash his hands and lastly
there’s another guy who often gets colds as well as the gout due to his sloppy
eating habits. I’m not trying to share a key with this crowd and have to deal
with their germs. I don’t trust them and quite frankly they shouldn’t trust me.
The whole thing had gone past ridiculous to absurd.
Meanwhile as this arrangement was being discussed a whole
week goes by where I was trying VERY hard to not go to the bathroom at work. I
always drink 4-5 cups of water from the water cooler each day but now I had to
stop drinking anything so I wouldn’t have to go. One night I was there late and
I actually went home an hour early because I had to go. Another night I finally
broke down and thought, well how bad could it be. I went out and asked for the
key. The place stopped. All 3 people there were looking at me as the one
assistant manager began to look for his keys. I felt mortified. The key was
attached to his personal keychain and he handed it to me and I tentatively took
it. I felt bad that I was taking this guy’s keys with me into the bathroom. I
washed my hands thoroughly and when I returned the keys a few minutes later I
made sure to tell him that. This whole deal has made me very uncomfortable and
I feel like the new manager and our company is treating us like children.
It boils down to this: I don’t want to tell you I’m going to
the bathroom. I don’t want to have to see someone when I do. I don’t want to
talk about it and I don’t want to know about it. I think of a bathroom visit as
a very personal and private thing not something to share publicly and draw
attention to. If you work for a company full time, you should be able to go to
the bathroom without any concern other than worrying about if someone is in
there.
Towards the end of last week and so far during this one I’ve
decided to go home for lunch again. I used to do this during the summer and
have resumed doing so in the wake of this dilemma. Going home for lunch is
awesome and I would love to do it every day but the travel time is about 7-8
minutes each way and I probably like to relax and eat for about 30 minutes
making each day’s lunch break at least 45 minutes long. Well, that’s a little
longer than the 30 minutes I would take if I stayed into the building so that
adds some time I have to make up by staying a little later each night and/or
coming in on the weekend. It’s not the end of the world and I really enjoy
getting out of the building during lunch but a bigger problem is on the
horizon. We are weeks if not days away from seeing regular snowfall and cold
temps. For someone who bikes or walks to and from work, taking lunch at home
will be a longer break and a lot more effort on my part having to deal with the
elements. Something needed to be done.
I again voiced my frustration and displeasure with the
situation. Our company deliveryman who has a bathroom key even though he’s
hardly ever in the building told me he’d make me a copy. I got a little excited
but I tempered that with skepticism. In this company seeing is believing and
until I had that key in my hand I wasn’t going to let myself get too excited.
The deliveryman came in and out several times today and with each pickup and
drop off I became a little bit anxious. Was I about to get my very own bathroom
key? Or was I about to be told otherwise? The suspense was killing me.
Finally at the end of the day he came in and only 2 of us
remained in the back. He said he talked to the company vice-president and he
wants all of us to share 1 key in the back so we don’t have to ask the store up
front for theirs. Despite my complaints, despite my discomfort I now have to
share a bathroom key with 3 people who I do not trust germ-wise. The
deliveryman said that the store manager up front has the extra key and he will
find a place to put it back in our area. Why can’t we choose where we want to
put our key? I only asked this question in my head because I know better than
anyone that asking logical questions is pointless around here.
Shortly after hearing the recent development that took
almost 2 weeks to arrive, the manager guy left for the day without placing the
key for us. So, do we have to ask him to do it? What the hell? Just give up the
key and we’ll put it in a convenient place. Earlier today when one of my
co-workers needed to use the bathroom the manager walked him there and unlocked
the door for him without handing over his key for even a minute. Bathroom
escorts? Is that what we have come to? People who have been here for a few
months are acting like people who have been here for years can’t be trusted. I
am not a monkey. I will not fling my poo about haphazardly. I won’t do it
purposely either (not yet). Pardon the pun and the swearing but this whole
thing feels like a shitty thing to do to long time employees who had nothing to
do with the incidents at the root of this action.
I feel the lowest level of morale I’ve ever felt working
here and maybe that’s why I’m here working late tonight blogging instead of
giving my best. I don’t know how much longer I can put up with this stupid
company. Soon it may be time where I’ll really have to go.
