Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Why I was fired
I don't know why I was fired ... When I asked John why, he looked surprised and said "I'm tired of your attitude of always moping around, and I'm not going to pay you to *expletive* draw on things".
Well gee, nobody has ever accused me of being mopey on the job. As for drawing on things? I drew an electrical meter on the side of the new garage to let the homeowner know exactly where to install a new one, and I drew a sun on a rafter after one of the foremen doodled a sun on his portion of the rafter while we were both holding it. Uh oh, better watch out!
A while back, I wrote on my timesheet to let John know I'd be taking a week off to travel out of state and work for smoothies. More than a week went by, and I hadn't heard anything. The next week one of the foremen told me that John had been talking about letting me go because he didn't want me to take time off. He said that if I wanted to keep my job, I should show up for work the next Monday instead of taking it off like I had said I would. So I showed up on Monday. John didn't say anything. I showed up on Tuesday. Still nothing. I worked 2 hours on Wednesday, then John showed up and promptly fired me, giving me his lame excuse. Bastard! How rude to fire me even after I came in the week I wasn't supposed to be there.
It's one thing to be a jerk. It's another to be so vindictive that he decided to fire me, without warning, after coming into work for 3 straight days after the date I wasn't originally going to be there.
His actions speak loudly of his character. (Or lack thereof.)
Well gee, nobody has ever accused me of being mopey on the job. As for drawing on things? I drew an electrical meter on the side of the new garage to let the homeowner know exactly where to install a new one, and I drew a sun on a rafter after one of the foremen doodled a sun on his portion of the rafter while we were both holding it. Uh oh, better watch out!
A while back, I wrote on my timesheet to let John know I'd be taking a week off to travel out of state and work for smoothies. More than a week went by, and I hadn't heard anything. The next week one of the foremen told me that John had been talking about letting me go because he didn't want me to take time off. He said that if I wanted to keep my job, I should show up for work the next Monday instead of taking it off like I had said I would. So I showed up on Monday. John didn't say anything. I showed up on Tuesday. Still nothing. I worked 2 hours on Wednesday, then John showed up and promptly fired me, giving me his lame excuse. Bastard! How rude to fire me even after I came in the week I wasn't supposed to be there.
It's one thing to be a jerk. It's another to be so vindictive that he decided to fire me, without warning, after coming into work for 3 straight days after the date I wasn't originally going to be there.
His actions speak loudly of his character. (Or lack thereof.)
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
John Christman Construction
It has been 1 hour and 30 minutes since I was fired from my job as a carpenter at John Christman Construction. I burst into tears on the way home, but now I'm coming to terms with it. I've never been fired from a job before...it's a wierd feeling.
I'm actually glad it happened, because I've been thinking of quitting for a while now. I was getting really uncomfortable with being associated with John Christman. The work was getting shoddier by the job, the tools we worked with were defective and dangerous, and John didn't treat his employees very well.
John's brother Bob runs one of the crews. Bob made so many mistakes it was embarassing to work with him. The garage I was working on this morning when I was fired is a good example. For starters, Bob didn't make sure the garage foundation was square before he poured it. It came out so unsquare that the walls aren't even fully on the foundation, and the bolts that go through the wall to attach it to the foundation are too close to the edge, causing a multitude of problems.
It just goes on from there.... door openings too small for the doors, walls not lining up with the existing building, etc, etc. Not something I want my reputation to be associated with.
When I started working for John Christman, I would ask people I knew what they had heard of him. It wasn't good. I should have known...
I'm actually glad it happened, because I've been thinking of quitting for a while now. I was getting really uncomfortable with being associated with John Christman. The work was getting shoddier by the job, the tools we worked with were defective and dangerous, and John didn't treat his employees very well.
John's brother Bob runs one of the crews. Bob made so many mistakes it was embarassing to work with him. The garage I was working on this morning when I was fired is a good example. For starters, Bob didn't make sure the garage foundation was square before he poured it. It came out so unsquare that the walls aren't even fully on the foundation, and the bolts that go through the wall to attach it to the foundation are too close to the edge, causing a multitude of problems.
It just goes on from there.... door openings too small for the doors, walls not lining up with the existing building, etc, etc. Not something I want my reputation to be associated with.
When I started working for John Christman, I would ask people I knew what they had heard of him. It wasn't good. I should have known...
Sunday, August 07, 2005
What's new
Time flies!
My last post mentioned I went in for a job interview. Well, I got the job and have been working there full-time since, as carpenter. I'll refer to my boss as John Doe, the company as John Doe Construction, Inc. The pay isn't great, but it's been fairly steady work. Myself and the rest of the crew have become increasingly restless and irritated at our rate of pay and how the company is run.
John Doe owns a shiny new Hummer, a Toyota 4x4 truck with a massive lift kit and all sorts of optional accessories like off-road lights, another lifted 4x4 jeep, a brand new sports car with Hemi for his wife, a new tractor, a backhoe, a powerboat, big travel trailer, a big house and new garage/workshop across the street, several different properties, etc etc.
Our construction crew works with dilapidated and non-OSHA approved tools such as a chop saw with no safety blade quard, a table saw you have to turn on with a nail (Even worse, you have to prod the internal switch with this nail to get it to stop...not something you can do very quickly in case of an emergency), etc etc. We have a couple of cordless drills, but never seem to have the batteries that go with them.
Last week the boss bought yet another new truck. It's a quad cab, but is just for John's use. We get to use his wife's old truck as the company rig...enough room for two plus a midget in the back. Some of us found the invoice for the new truck - $35,000. That amount of money would buy an awful lot of working, safe construction tools, ladders that aren't duct-taped together, or even a little raise for his workers.
I started at $9 an hour. I'm up to $11, which is still less than my very first construction job with a company 3 years ago. Everybody else is paid within a few dollars of what I'm getting .... even one of the foremen, whom is worth oodles more. All of us peons are just bankrolling John's lifestyle. John has been through a lot of people just while I've been there. He can't hold on to people because of the crappy wages and inefficient way he runs the company.
Monday should be interesting. The rumbling of discontent is getting stronger every day.
My last post mentioned I went in for a job interview. Well, I got the job and have been working there full-time since, as carpenter. I'll refer to my boss as John Doe, the company as John Doe Construction, Inc. The pay isn't great, but it's been fairly steady work. Myself and the rest of the crew have become increasingly restless and irritated at our rate of pay and how the company is run.
John Doe owns a shiny new Hummer, a Toyota 4x4 truck with a massive lift kit and all sorts of optional accessories like off-road lights, another lifted 4x4 jeep, a brand new sports car with Hemi for his wife, a new tractor, a backhoe, a powerboat, big travel trailer, a big house and new garage/workshop across the street, several different properties, etc etc.
Our construction crew works with dilapidated and non-OSHA approved tools such as a chop saw with no safety blade quard, a table saw you have to turn on with a nail (Even worse, you have to prod the internal switch with this nail to get it to stop...not something you can do very quickly in case of an emergency), etc etc. We have a couple of cordless drills, but never seem to have the batteries that go with them.
Last week the boss bought yet another new truck. It's a quad cab, but is just for John's use. We get to use his wife's old truck as the company rig...enough room for two plus a midget in the back. Some of us found the invoice for the new truck - $35,000. That amount of money would buy an awful lot of working, safe construction tools, ladders that aren't duct-taped together, or even a little raise for his workers.
I started at $9 an hour. I'm up to $11, which is still less than my very first construction job with a company 3 years ago. Everybody else is paid within a few dollars of what I'm getting .... even one of the foremen, whom is worth oodles more. All of us peons are just bankrolling John's lifestyle. John has been through a lot of people just while I've been there. He can't hold on to people because of the crappy wages and inefficient way he runs the company.
Monday should be interesting. The rumbling of discontent is getting stronger every day.
Friday, August 05, 2005
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