Serious Spewing Ahead
Although nothing seriously insane, life-threatening, or dangerous really happened the last few weeks, they were; nonetheless; very, very annoying. I have run the gamut of emotions from hurt and practically in tears, to extremely angry and wanting to hit someone.
I'll start with the fact that we fired an employee in the beginning of February. That in itself is not such a big deal. People get fired from jobs. It happens. They get fired, it sucks, they move on. What has made this so annoying is that this person actually should have been fired about two years ago. In fact, he never actually should have been hired four years ago. In fact, I remember clear as yesterday, my boss slapping this particular person's application on my desk and saying "This person shall not cross the threshold of this facility". I looked at the name and said, "Yes, I agree". This is a very small town you see and this gentleman is quite well know, but not particularly in a good way. YET, AND YET, two weeks later I get to work and one of the secretaries hands me a copy of this gentleman's driver's license and social security card and says, "He started today, you need to do a personnel file". Well, blow me over!! "I say, who approved that?" My boss, says "I did." Blow me over again. Here, our farm manager needed a field truck driver for harvest season and hired the dude. So, I was like, fine. It's temporary for harvest season. But not so much. After harvest, he hung on, got moved around, got put here and there; finally ending up in our packing facility as a forklift operator, supplying product to a packing line. He proceed to complain about other employees, make trouble, gossip, and generally make a nuisance of himself. He complained constantly and was always blatting on about how this wasn't fair and that wasn't fair and whine, whine, whine, Good lord, dude, you hate it that much, then quit. But he didn't. It finally all came to a head in the end of January, beginning of February when he had a string of days when he was late for work. He was given warnings and the disciplinary process was followed, but he continued to be late. So, we fired him.
End of story, right? Not so much.
This guy then proceeds to go about our small town, lambasting the company to anyone that will listen. Rumor are flying that he is going to the Department of Labor, to OSHA, to any government agency he can. Word got back to us that he is "going to OWN Sterman Masser Inc." OK, whatever. However, the rumor has gotten back to us that he has gone to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (aka ICE - the new name of the INS, now that it's under the Department of Homeland Security), to blow the whistle that we hire illegal immigrants. Which, to the best of our knowledge, based on the documentation they give us, we don't.
Yes, we do hire Hispanic workers. Yup. It's done. Here is the reality. We are a farm. We produce a food product. The production is labor intensive. The work is hard and physical. The hours are long. The work is repetitive. It can be unpleasant. We have tried our hardest to hire locally, but most people just don't want to work that much. The reality nationwide is, if we deported all the immigrants as some say we should do, the U.S. food system WOULD SHUT DOWN. Seriously. I kid you not.
So we hire Hispanics. We don't pay lower wages to our Hispanic workers. We offer the same benefits opportunities to them as we do everyone else. They earn overtime, just like everyone else. We are not doing anything unfairly. However, it is a bit nerve-wracking to hear a rumor that the ICE may be descending on us with black vans, helicopters and officers with handcuff and tazers. So, my boss is riding my ass to make sure all our documentation is in order, which it is, and there have been numerous meetings and endless discussions about how we're going to handle all this if it happens.
The other fallout from this is that now, my boss is kicking all our asses about our hiring practices. So, ok now wait a minute. In over 40 years of doing business, you have never had any repercussions from firing someone. Ok, maybe you've had to pay unemployment benefits, but you pay into that pool anyway. And maybe some folks have bad-mouthed SMI. Oh well. That's a cost of doing business in a small town. But you've never had anything serious happen. Now, for the first time, there could be a semi-serious threat from a disgruntled ex-employee and you're getting your knickers in a twist?? My opinion? You've been damn lucky to this point. Plus, it's been well over a month since this guy was fired and we still haven't had anything happen, everything is hearsay. Nontheless, my boss now wants to micromanage every person that we consider hiring. He wants to avoid this EVER happening again. What a pipe dream. I don't care how wonderful a person comes across in an interview, you don't know how they really are until they start the job and start interacting with others.
My main vent is, I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS BULLSHIT!!! HR is ONE of the hats I wear. I had a food safety audit this week. Not a big one, but an audit just the same. I wasn't prepared due to all the bullshit and I had issues come up during the audit. I NEVER have issues. But I wasn't ready because I am doing two jobs. It has come to the point where they need to hire a full-time HR Manager. It has also come to the point where the food safety program has become unwieldy enough that I need to spend 100% of my time on it. I am letting things slip through the cracks and that upsets me. I guess I could do both if I wanted to work 70+ hours a week, but I have a real life too, and my days of being gung ho and working 70+ hour weeks are over. If I suck because of that, so be it. I learned what little stuff about HR that I know, just from doing it. I have no training in HR. I have no interest in HR. It is not a strength. I don't have the personality to be a warm, fuzzy HR Manager. I'm really not very nice. It just isn't what I want to do. I got thrown into it and I need to get out. I will be resigning from that role very soon. If it means a decrease in my pay, oh well, but I don't think they can do that because I think they will understand that now I can throw myself totally into food safety and make it better than it already is.
Shew! So in other news, I'm still talking to M. We got together a few Sundays ago and had a nice long talk (and two VERY nice hugs *giggles*). And we're still texting and doing phone calls. He's still reeling a bit from the divorce. I believe he's still having a tough time believing she just up and left after all he did to try and make it work. But I also think he understands that she has problems that he will never be able to help her with. So, we're "talking". The important thing is, he's back in my life and I'm glad. I really missed him.
Oh, and my Sweetie. He's just the bestest ever!! We managed a nice lunch today. Hadn't seen him since February. There is a portion of my heart he just...fills.
Oh, and alas, I can never forget my lovely hubby. I do my best to not bring work home. I try to leave the stress there. But C. knows what I've been going through the last few weeks and every night, all he's done when he comes home is open his arms to me and lets me stand in his circle as long as I need to. We don't talk. We just absorb. The comfort is beyond words.
In the rest of my real life, things are exciting. Hopefully, on April 1, we'll start work on our patio and deck. It will be so nice to have an outdoor space to entertain. Oh and I might also mention that there's gonna be a hottub!!! Squeeeeeeeee!!
So, all in all, life is grand. Huh. Guess this post wasn't nearly as ugly as I thought it was gonna be. Sorry terriaminute and wumples . =D
I'll start with the fact that we fired an employee in the beginning of February. That in itself is not such a big deal. People get fired from jobs. It happens. They get fired, it sucks, they move on. What has made this so annoying is that this person actually should have been fired about two years ago. In fact, he never actually should have been hired four years ago. In fact, I remember clear as yesterday, my boss slapping this particular person's application on my desk and saying "This person shall not cross the threshold of this facility". I looked at the name and said, "Yes, I agree". This is a very small town you see and this gentleman is quite well know, but not particularly in a good way. YET, AND YET, two weeks later I get to work and one of the secretaries hands me a copy of this gentleman's driver's license and social security card and says, "He started today, you need to do a personnel file". Well, blow me over!! "I say, who approved that?" My boss, says "I did." Blow me over again. Here, our farm manager needed a field truck driver for harvest season and hired the dude. So, I was like, fine. It's temporary for harvest season. But not so much. After harvest, he hung on, got moved around, got put here and there; finally ending up in our packing facility as a forklift operator, supplying product to a packing line. He proceed to complain about other employees, make trouble, gossip, and generally make a nuisance of himself. He complained constantly and was always blatting on about how this wasn't fair and that wasn't fair and whine, whine, whine, Good lord, dude, you hate it that much, then quit. But he didn't. It finally all came to a head in the end of January, beginning of February when he had a string of days when he was late for work. He was given warnings and the disciplinary process was followed, but he continued to be late. So, we fired him.
End of story, right? Not so much.
This guy then proceeds to go about our small town, lambasting the company to anyone that will listen. Rumor are flying that he is going to the Department of Labor, to OSHA, to any government agency he can. Word got back to us that he is "going to OWN Sterman Masser Inc." OK, whatever. However, the rumor has gotten back to us that he has gone to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (aka ICE - the new name of the INS, now that it's under the Department of Homeland Security), to blow the whistle that we hire illegal immigrants. Which, to the best of our knowledge, based on the documentation they give us, we don't.
Yes, we do hire Hispanic workers. Yup. It's done. Here is the reality. We are a farm. We produce a food product. The production is labor intensive. The work is hard and physical. The hours are long. The work is repetitive. It can be unpleasant. We have tried our hardest to hire locally, but most people just don't want to work that much. The reality nationwide is, if we deported all the immigrants as some say we should do, the U.S. food system WOULD SHUT DOWN. Seriously. I kid you not.
So we hire Hispanics. We don't pay lower wages to our Hispanic workers. We offer the same benefits opportunities to them as we do everyone else. They earn overtime, just like everyone else. We are not doing anything unfairly. However, it is a bit nerve-wracking to hear a rumor that the ICE may be descending on us with black vans, helicopters and officers with handcuff and tazers. So, my boss is riding my ass to make sure all our documentation is in order, which it is, and there have been numerous meetings and endless discussions about how we're going to handle all this if it happens.
The other fallout from this is that now, my boss is kicking all our asses about our hiring practices. So, ok now wait a minute. In over 40 years of doing business, you have never had any repercussions from firing someone. Ok, maybe you've had to pay unemployment benefits, but you pay into that pool anyway. And maybe some folks have bad-mouthed SMI. Oh well. That's a cost of doing business in a small town. But you've never had anything serious happen. Now, for the first time, there could be a semi-serious threat from a disgruntled ex-employee and you're getting your knickers in a twist?? My opinion? You've been damn lucky to this point. Plus, it's been well over a month since this guy was fired and we still haven't had anything happen, everything is hearsay. Nontheless, my boss now wants to micromanage every person that we consider hiring. He wants to avoid this EVER happening again. What a pipe dream. I don't care how wonderful a person comes across in an interview, you don't know how they really are until they start the job and start interacting with others.
My main vent is, I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS BULLSHIT!!! HR is ONE of the hats I wear. I had a food safety audit this week. Not a big one, but an audit just the same. I wasn't prepared due to all the bullshit and I had issues come up during the audit. I NEVER have issues. But I wasn't ready because I am doing two jobs. It has come to the point where they need to hire a full-time HR Manager. It has also come to the point where the food safety program has become unwieldy enough that I need to spend 100% of my time on it. I am letting things slip through the cracks and that upsets me. I guess I could do both if I wanted to work 70+ hours a week, but I have a real life too, and my days of being gung ho and working 70+ hour weeks are over. If I suck because of that, so be it. I learned what little stuff about HR that I know, just from doing it. I have no training in HR. I have no interest in HR. It is not a strength. I don't have the personality to be a warm, fuzzy HR Manager. I'm really not very nice. It just isn't what I want to do. I got thrown into it and I need to get out. I will be resigning from that role very soon. If it means a decrease in my pay, oh well, but I don't think they can do that because I think they will understand that now I can throw myself totally into food safety and make it better than it already is.
Shew! So in other news, I'm still talking to M. We got together a few Sundays ago and had a nice long talk (and two VERY nice hugs *giggles*). And we're still texting and doing phone calls. He's still reeling a bit from the divorce. I believe he's still having a tough time believing she just up and left after all he did to try and make it work. But I also think he understands that she has problems that he will never be able to help her with. So, we're "talking". The important thing is, he's back in my life and I'm glad. I really missed him.
Oh, and my Sweetie. He's just the bestest ever!! We managed a nice lunch today. Hadn't seen him since February. There is a portion of my heart he just...fills.
Oh, and alas, I can never forget my lovely hubby. I do my best to not bring work home. I try to leave the stress there. But C. knows what I've been going through the last few weeks and every night, all he's done when he comes home is open his arms to me and lets me stand in his circle as long as I need to. We don't talk. We just absorb. The comfort is beyond words.
In the rest of my real life, things are exciting. Hopefully, on April 1, we'll start work on our patio and deck. It will be so nice to have an outdoor space to entertain. Oh and I might also mention that there's gonna be a hottub!!! Squeeeeeeeee!!
So, all in all, life is grand. Huh. Guess this post wasn't nearly as ugly as I thought it was gonna be. Sorry terriaminute and wumples . =D