2003-05-12 - 8:45 p.m.

Dicked Over

Ok.  I've decided I am going to skip work on Wednesday and go to my job interview.  There is no good way to do it, so I am just going to call in sick or something and take the entire day to make a good impression.  When I get back on Thursday I am sure I will be called into my bosses office and given a taking to.  Go ahead and let them talk.  They only drive another nail in their own coffins.

My brother from another mother, Viarum, came back to work today. His uncle died last week and he had to arrange the funeral and take care of his aunt and help his cousin.  He is Indian and there are many rituals to be followed.  His family is extremely close so when he his uncle died he had to go.  There was no way around it.

So he left work on Thursday and was out on Friday, then he spent the weekend dealing with his family and their sudden loss. Our weasel boss called him and asked him if he was going to be ready for the trip out of town they were taking on Monday.  They are making a pitch to a new client and Viarum was supposed to create a presentation and put together some information.   Well, he couldn't do it.  He was out of the office.  He told our boss that he was not going on the trip.  He was not prepared, he did not have time to prepare and he still had things to attend to at home.

Our boss told him that he had plenty of time to prepare, all he had to do was show how the product works.  Viarum told him that he does not know how the product works, he has not had time to prepare.  He was not going to go and that was all there was to it.  His presence was not required, our boss could handle it.

Today when Viarum got to work our boss called in to the office and told him that since he reneged on the trip they were going to deduct the price of the plane ticket from his salary.  Viarum told him that he was being cheap and petty.  The boss told him the next time he called him cheap and petty he had better be prepared to back it up with his resignation.  Viarum told him that he definitely would.

Can you believe that?  They are going to charge him $300.  I don't think that is legal. I told him I don't think legally they can garnish his wages just because they feel like it.  I think he should ask the Georgia Labor Commission.  Besides, it is just plain wrong.  His uncle died.  Does that not mean anything?  Charge him for the plane ticket?  Our company has about half a million dollars in cash in the bank right now and they are going to dick him over for $300.  By the way, thanks, Viarum, for putting in 50 hours a week since the day you got here.

So far everyone has been dicked over one way or another.  It is usually in the cheapest way possible.  It is getting harder and harder for me to reconcile giving two weeks notice when I quit.

There was about half an hour this morning when I thought I was going to have to walk out with Viarum.  It would have been a good chance to get away clean. But the thing is I really need my paycheck on the 15th.   If I don't get it I will be in a big fix money-wise.  I had to pay my taxes in April and I am still feeling the effects.

So I will call in sick on Wednesday.  I will say I am going to the doctor.  I will get dressed and go to my interview.  It will take a few hours.  I will have lunch with the stalker girl afterwards.

On Thursday I will go into work and face the buzzsaw that is waiting for me.  I will be called into someone's office and told that I have to let him know if I am going to be sick.  Or they will ask me if I went on an interview.  Or they will ask me to produce a doctor's note or some other petty nonsense.   I will either stay placidly calm completely immune to their words or I will become enraged and go off on the deep end and say all kinds of things I can't take back.

Either way I something is going to change soon.

Jimmy
 

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