So, I've looked at my calendar, and the current plan is that 25 May will be my final day as an employee of the Home Depot. Unless shit, as it sometimes does, happens. Specifically, if I get brought into the office one more time to "talk about my attitude" or my performance, unless I'm being promoted or otherwise rewarded, I will cease to be an employee of the Home Depot.
At this point, I'm pretty much okay with people doing things wrong because it will create more work for me later, because I don't have a later to worry about. I'm okay with people doing things that are stupid because they will affect (effect?) the store's overstock or profit numbers, because... well... that has absolutely no bearing on my job whatsoever. I'm a stock monkey. Other than putting thigns on the shelf where they belong, I have no control over how much money the store makes. So I don't really care.
As long as nobody tells me I'm doing something wrong (which I don't. And I know that sounds arrogant, but it's true. At work, I'm all business. I know what I'm supposed to do, and I do it. Always, with less than one exception in any given three-month period. And even in that uncommon circumstance, the thing I "do" wrong is to not cleanup after some other lazy bastard or to not correct someone else's mistake. If somebody thinks I'm doing it wrong, they don't know how it ought to be done. If I'm not absolutely certain I'm doing it right, I seek advice from my supervisor), I don't care what happens. But pretty much the next argument I get into with the Night Ops Manager will be the end of my career.
As much as I would like to remain here for the next couple of weeks and get paid for my two weeks vacation, it's not worth taking any more crap from incompetent superiors. Next time I say I'm looking for a job, somebody remind me that working for somebody else for a living blows. And by that I mean manual labor, not having a job. Some more interesting blogging later today after I get home from work.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
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Dood, you KNOW I love you...
ReplyDeleteI have printed this entry, I will have it framed, and you and I will discuss it in 10 - 15 years.
Lemme lay down the skinny for you (mixed metaphors! yay!).
You have a job.
"they" pay you to do the job.
You think "my job is to do X" where "X" is your job description. You are wrong. Your job, "X", is to make your boss look good. Period. If you are a stock dood then you know you are doing it right when your boss is happy and you never get called into the office for a talk about your attitude. Look at any job description and it will invariably boil down to "make your boss look good."
So if Jenny drops a pallet of batteries and decides to go home and leave them blocking an aisle, and you see this and say "not my problem", then you are wrong. Your boss will see that pallet, be annoyed, and get her ass chewed by HER boss for it being there. Did you make your boss look good? No. Fail.
Your boss says "Andy, I need you to get a high pressure washer and clean off the loading bay doors overnight." Is that in your job description? Maybe not. Should you do it? Yes. Its a little thing we call "team work" and "making you boss look good."
This is really something that I have never understood. I deal with it ALL the time as a manager and it boggles the mind. When my boss says "Wash my car." I do it. Happily. I am the CTO, I right code, I create technology. You want me to wash your car? You think that its the best use of my time? Cool, don't forget to sign my paycheck this week. This bullshit of "I am too good for that" is just bjorked.
I think you mi-understand what I'm saying. I totally get that my job is to do what I'm told. And I do it. For the most part, happily. What bothers me is that I have to repeat the same task day after day because someone else keeps coming in right after me and f*#%ing it up. In fact, that's still mostly okay. The not okay bit is when the dude that keeps doing it doesn't have a word said to him.
ReplyDeleteI'm all for teamwork. Teamwork means pulling together to get the job done. And when somebody continually drags the team down, you sit them down and say "clean up your act or you're gone." When somebody causes more work than they do, they're not helping the team, and they need to be removed.
That's what doesn't happen at the Home Despot. What does happen is the guy who f&*#s shit up all the time (not my boss or me) gets patted on the back because I fix it, and I get yelled at because if Kevin's getting patted on the back, for fixing something, it must have been Andy that f*#&ed it up in the first place.
Not so.
It's got nothing to do with me thinking I'm too good for anything. I feel quite the opposite. I'll do whatever needs to be done. But when I bust my ass to make my department perfect, and the guy for whom a perfect electrical department (the department head, Kevin) has the most benefit comes through the next day and makes it other, my attitude is "if that's where he wants it, that's where it goes."
This system breaks down at the point where he and I exist on separate command chains. I unequivicably do not work for the head of the electrical department (kevin). I work for the freight supervisor (Rich), the night ops manager (Tim), and the store manager (Craig). Any one of them tells me to do something and it happens.
Okay. This is turning into a huge tangent rant, but the bottom line is you mis-read me. I'm a star employee. I totally agree with the attitude of "you're paying me for my time. Whatever you want me to do with that time is cool." I won't stand to be disrespected, and I won't risk my physical wellbeing or that of my personal property (namely, my car) without promise of recompense. Other than that, this is your time. It just occupies my body.
I'm the guy who nobody else likes because I'm very vocal about "teamwork" and "working smart" and it makes them all look bad because I work hard and they all don't.
Okay. I'm still kind of ranting but I'm just really upset that you read me so wrong (though, re-reading, it does say what you read).