Perpetual Ruminations

Monday

Today was definitely a Monday! Normally Monday's are pretty good days at work, and since I don't work on Tuesday, it's kind of my Friday. Today, however, Monday insisted on being a real pain.

It started out a little rushed, but I was at work and clocked in on time. From there, it was a pretty typical Monday morning. There was very little for yard traffic, except for venders coming in and some deliveries. It started to get a little busier around eight thirty, and I had my first return for the day show up. Normally this is no problem when it's slow, but when it's busy it can be a real pain.

Today it was a whole new experience for me. I had one of the guards show up to talk to me. I could tell it wasn't going to be anything pleasant by her demeanor, and knowing this person's history, I had a pretty good idea what was up. She had just started working at the beginning of the month, and I had second thoughts about hiring her at all. She had worked for me last summer, and from the first day, she put more effort into finding a different job than she did in doing her current one. It wouldn't have been so bad, but she kept it very concealed, so I had no idea that she was aggressively seeking other work. In fact, it was just the opposite by what she informed me.

As the summer progressed, it just got worse. She began having problems with the schedule and needed it changed constantly, she didn't put much effort into the job, and I eventually found out she was looking for another job. By the end of the summer she was leaving to work a different job, but the deceit was so bad I never did learn what was really going on. I knew she was keeping a lot of information back from me just by her posts in Facebook, and by the end of the summer, I was actually glad to see her leave.

This spring, she contacted me, needing a job. It seemed there had been a lot of changes in her life and she needed a job real bad. I had a long talk with her about what I expected, and that there would not be a repeat of last year. She assured me that she was not the same person, that she would be responsible and dedicated to her job, and had no plans to pursue any other work until next spring at the earliest. I had my doubts, but decided to give her another chance. She started the first part of June.

By last week, she was already needing to change out a day to go to the clinic with her son. She knew the procedure, but did not follow it. Instead she called me on my time off and needed me to arrange for her to take time off in a couple of days. We went over the procedure and I was nice, set up a change for her, and thought that was the end of it. But, it came back and bit me, bad.

First of all, the person she switched with has had a history of not getting to work on time, and had been removed from doing any opening shifts. But, she worked opening, so he got a second chance to prove himself, and assured me he would not mess it up. He did, however, manage to mess it up. I was called at a little after six, no one had shown up to open the guardhouse. I had to scramble to get someone in there, so I had Rhonda call around while I dressed and got ready to run in.

By the time I was ready to head out the door, the person who was suppose to open had shown up, an hour and forty-five minutes late. I decided not to go in and talk to him, since I was pretty riled. Instead I contacted my boss and informed him by e-mail what had taken place. I then set about to do the paperwork and corrective action that was required and spent almost half my day working for nothing as a result of this switch. I also had a feeling that things had changed, or the new person would not have asked for time off this soon. I didn't have anything to show this, but I felt it, just by her tone and attitude. It was just like last year.

So, today she shows up and informs me she is taking a different job, and wants to give me a two week notice. I reminded her of our conversation, and her answer was, "Well, I didn't look for another job. I had applied a while back and they just contacted me now."

I reminded her of her commitment to work through the summer and winter, but she didn't seem to remember much of that. Not that it would have mattered, she had failed to keep her word, proven she had not changed at all, just changed her surroundings and was again repeating the same actions as before. When she was in need, she would say or do anything to get what she needed, but as soon as something else came along, she showed her true nature. So, even if she had changed her mind, it would be too late to change mine. I would rather be short on help than to have someone working who is nothing but problems and never knowing when she will up and leave, or need something different, or want time off, or just call in drunk and tell me she can't work the next day.

After I got that all taken care of, I tried to work on a new schedule to fill her hours, but it was too busy to get much done. Then, the other guard showed up for his shift, and since he had been given a verbal warning a month ago for being late and not opening the guardhouse on time, which results in a pretty hefty cost for our company, I had to give him a second warning. This one was a written warning, that I had prepared on Thursday. It was pretty harsh, putting him into a temporary summer position, meaning his current job will end the weekend of Labor Day.

But, I had already decided to give him a chance to prove himself, and had discussed options with the store managers. They didn't have much for complaints, other than he started taking too long on breaks, and was late to open. There was a little concern that he should check loads closer, but I had already discovered this. So, when he came in, I gave him an official butt chewing, had him read and sign the written warning and gave him the full riot act of what was taking place with his job, and how close he was to losing it.

Then, I offered him a way out, so he wouldn't feel trapped and cornered. I figured it had been pretty negative feedback on his mistakes and problems, so I focused on what he was doing right, and gave him a chance to move forward past this. I told him I would talk to him again about everything in two weeks, and also had that written into his corrective action, I reminded him of the discussion we had when he started, and just asked him if he planned on keeping his job or wanted to look for something else. he wanted to keep this one.

So, I let him know that he has until Labor Day to move past this and do things right. I would be willing to give him a chance to show he can do the work, and if there aren't any more problems I will consider keeping him on. He was pretty shook up over the whole deal, but after working with him for a couple of hours he relaxed and I think started to understand that I would do just what I said and give him a good opportunity to move forward and correct things.

I have a feeling there is going to be more little issues, based on his personality and just the way he tends to do things. But, they are little things and can be overcome as long as he is willing to work at it. His general attitude is good, he is doing fine with most aspects of the job, and I think he is genuine in his sincerity to do better.

I just hope that giving him another chance goes better than it did with the other guard.