I am currently sitting at my sister's computer in ND, sweating my balls off because I can't find a thermostat in the place that actually makes the temperature go down. I swear to god it's at least 80 degrees and I can't open the window to the bedroom I'm in. Trying to rouse my sister was useless, so here I am. So instead of sleeping at 4 am before driving the 8 hours home I guess I'll write a blog.
The blog title could apply to many things. The temperature I am currently at, my anger at my previous employer, my desire to see someone else be held to the same standard of accountability that I was held to when I was fired.
My previous employer failed to pay me correctly on my final paycheck. I didn't receive anything for the PTO hours I was owed, so I had to contact them and get the money back a different way. That was two weeks ago. This last Friday I had a direct deposit from the previous employer, one that was not supposed to make it to me.
If you receive money that you know isn't yours, that you know you can't keep, but it was given to you in error, it fucking SUCKS to give it back to the people that made the mistake in the first place. The level of suckage warrants the use of the F bomb. It was over $1,200 that I had to notify the HR department had been deposited.
Could I have just withdrew all the money and closed the account? Sure, but that's not something I could do. I'm not really built to try to pull something like that off, it isn't in my inherent nature to try to swindle anyone. But does doing the right thing always feel right? No, quite frankly, it doesn't. It feels like I'm the sucker for doing the honest and decent thing.
The person that screwed up the final paycheck, as well as causing me to receive the last deposit, is a very nice lady. I think she's learning her job right now, having only started recently, but she has now twice caused me a lot of grief and anger because of her mistakes. I guess what really gets my goat is the double standard that this employer has shown at addressing certain things. She made a mistake two weeks ago, and another mistake, and although it isn't my place to find out if she received any type of warning, payroll mistakes are just deemed "par for the course", where the mistake that I made that led to my termination was apparently a horse of a different color all together.
The other thing that really gets my goat about the entire thing was that I was told by the HR coordinator and the big head honcho that heard my appeal that I would be contacted early this week regarding the decision in my appeal. When I emailed HR on Friday I told the coordinator that I had still not heard anything back. When I was in that office they had both said someone would call me. She wrote me back and told me I'd be receiving a letter. So I assume I already know what the letter will say, but i wasn't even given the courtesy of a phone call. I had to REMIND THEM that they hadn't even contacted me almost two weeks after I went in.
I'd like now to also illustrate how accountability isn't as important at this previous employer as covering your ass: there was another supervisor at this previous employer, who I will not name but will use the pseudonym "Betty", who went on a final written warning last year as well. It was related to things she wasn't doing, such as administering the attendance policy, meeting with her agents, scoring calls (basically, she wasn't doing her job). This supervisor's customer care team was disseminated amongst the other supervisors so that she could start work on a "super secret project", and one of her agents came to my team with 4 occurrences and no warning. Now, when you are going to give an agent to another supervisor the least you could do is ensure that any warning the person should be on is administered so the next supervisor isn't stuck doing that work. GUESS WHAT WASN'T DONE WHEN THAT AGENT CAME TO MY TEAM?! So I got that warning administered and really didn't think much of it, because at the time it seemed small and I was going to just have to do it anyways.
This supervisor, Betty, has been reported to her manager several times for various issues. Attendance is far and away the biggest ball drop, but then there are also issues like: long lunches, leaving her department understaffed by approving same day PTO and then not helping with coverage, long personal conversations with her family while at work, etc. Her manager "investigates", but so far there really hasn't been any action in addressing those issues.
Betty was on the same warning I was, and was continuing to exhibit the same, if not worse, behavior and hasn't been fired for it. Why, one might ask? I don't honestly know. But it is a huge morale buster to have my fellow supervisors see me be fired for an honest mistake, but see someone put so little effort into their job and not only keep their job, but be rewarded for incompetence by being assigned a new project that meant that she didn't have to do what everyone else was doing. So, that is my beef with that situation. I'm still feeling very lucky and fortunate that I get to start something new and I'm going to work on getting this bitter taste out of my mouth. It's just very difficult to watch this ridiculousness from a distance and not feel bitter, but such is life.
On the job front, I have had a couple interviews, and I'd really like to be employed at either place. I haven't received even a drop of unemployment yet, as my claim is still pending and apparently will be for some time given the current unemployment level in Montana right now. Man, it would be just great to be able to take some of the social security money that I have not choice but to pay each pay check and use that to live on until I get a job or get unemployment, but that is just crazy talk!
On a lighter and much happier note, April 14th marked the birthday of two very special ladies in my life. Amareese Joy and Avery Lark Violett made into this world late that night, and are just gorgeous little ladies. Link over to Adrienne's blog on the side bar (Violettville) for news and updates on these miracle babies.
I'm sweating like I'm actually working out right now, and it is going to be a super effing long day driving with kids and my family back to Montana. I can't get a window open in this place, either, or I'd open the window in my niece's room so that I could lay down and get some rest. It's been nice to have my family together, but I'm pretty irritated and hostile at the moment so I call shenanigans on the entire weekend. I'm just glad that my kids can sleep in this sweltering heat so I don't have a cranky munchkin to be wrangling when I'm already so irritated.
I'm off to use this time to search for some job opportunities online. Might as well be productive with this bitterness and use it as fuel to find something I can figuratively rub in their faces.
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