2003-05-22 - 7:32 p.m.

I Still Don't Know!

It has been over a week and I still have not heard back from that place where I interviewed.  I am taking that as a bad sign.  Surely by now they should know whom they want to hire.  Oh, well.  I sent an email to one of the guys there and asked him and he said he should know by tomorrow.

At work today the president of the company did a little meeting with the guys in my department and told us that we were getting closer and closer to having everything right.  Just a little bit more and we should be in good shape.  He also told us that he would be looking over our daily task list, and we will have to get his approval on every item we ship because we had spent too much money on Next Day delivery charges.

Last week we sent a huge shipment of stuff out Next Day Air so we would meet the deadline.  It cost about $1200.  The president found out about it and now he is getting ready to dick me and Ben over for the cost of the shipping.  I can see he is positioning himself for it.  He asked us what we would do if we were in his place.  That means he is going to leave it up to us to decide how we should be punished.

My suggestion is going to be that he should drop the subject and never mention it again.  I don't think he is going to like that suggestion.  It is more likely he is going to suggest that we pay for it out of our salaries.  I would have to get up and walk out at that moment.  He is pinning me in a corner.  I was very, very close to walking out during the meeting and going home and never coming back. But I decided to just be patient and not make a rash decision.  A decision like that could leave me unable to pay my light bill, or have my truck repossessed.  Still, I'm sure I could come up with something.

Get this, the president of the company literally said this to me today.  He told me I was in charge of making a little sign for all us to put on our computers that said, "Smile!  How may I help you?!"  Because, he reasoned, if you smile when you answer the phone you are happier and our clients can sense it.

I could not help myself.  I put my hands up to my face and said, "Oh my God!"  He backed off and said that he was just picking at me.  So I decided to let it drop. Then, later at the meeting he brought it up again.  I said to him, "You were serious about that?!"  He said he was, then he backed off again and said he was just joking.

But I know he was not joking.  I know deep, deep in his heart he sees that as the answer to all our problems.  A little reminder on our computer screens to smile when we answer the phone.  That's what makes companies great. These are the great ideas they have to make us all successful.

For some reason, the fundamental problem of all of us working 50 hours per week just to keep up with the workload does not seem to be an issue that needs resolution.  The fact that we are completely miserable and suffering from depression does not have a quick fix.  For some reason.  Hmmm.  Best not to talk about that during a meeting.  Best to sidestep that and focus on making the company great!

It is extremely unlikely I will be able to keep my job past next Tuesday.  Even if I don't get the other job I am sure I am going to be forced to quit.  What will happen next?  It will work out, I'm sure.  Maybe I am just deep in denial.  But when I start to get worked about the crappy manor in which our company is run I just realize that everything will be fine.

It has been raining and overcast for a solid week.  It is very unusual for Georgia in May to have so much continual cloud cover.  Everyone is getting very sick of it.  But so far I have been fine with it.  Today on the drive home, as I was getting angry about everything that happened to day, the clouds parted and I saw sunshine for the first time in a week.  That is when I realized everything was going to work out.

Jimmy
 
 

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