Perpetual Ruminations

Monday

I'm working nights again tonight, so I wanted to log in here and get something accomplished before my shift. I did, too. I managed to get my email cleaned up, and now I am getting an entry in here. It will be late when I get done, 10:30 or some where close to that. With the drive home, it will be after 11:00 my time and that means after midnight WdC time.

I got a call earlier from my boss. Our office is in Iowa, and I live and work in South Dakota, so contact with the office is done by phone and email. This is true for a lot of sites except those close to the home office. I was outside with the dogs when he called, but seen I had missed a call. I did not see a voice-mail alert, but he had left a message as well. Since I didn't know this at the time, I returned his call to see what was up.

He informed me that in answer to my question, we are doing drug tests through the Brown Clinic. I was unaware that anything had changed, so it was good to find out. However, it was kind of puzzling because I had not asked about drug testing. I did have a problem a while back, about two weeks ago. I had stopped by the testing site to see what I needed to do to get a possible employee tested. There had been some confusion a while back, and I wanted to get it straightened out before I needed the service.

I had talked to a fill in, who was more watching kids than manning the office, and did not get anything for answers. So, I sent my boss an email and explained the situation. the site wanted us to supply forms, and I didn't have any. We had never needed anything before, they had us on a list of clients and supplied everything.

I had not heard anything back after a couple of days so I stopped again, and this time I spoke to someone who knew a bit more. She actually had the list on her desk, and after a few minutes understood who we were and how our tests where done. When I got home, I sent another email explaining everything, and added that I no longer needed anything done.

The way it was set up, we went to a testing site and gave a sample. They sent this off to be tested at a clinic, and the results were then sent to the home office. All the site we used did was to take samples and send them to a clinic that was used by the home office.

So now, after I get it all cleared up and with no word on anything for two weeks, I get a call and told that we use the Brown Clinic. Okay, I got it, so we no longer go to the other site, and now just go to the clinic, give them the sample, and they take care of the rest. "That's right," he said.

Of course we went on to our shortage on help from here, no explanation as to what changed about the testing. He wanted to know if I had talked to the reference he had emailed to me. I had sent an email yesterday informing him of all current situations, and I addressed that very question. the person he referred had applied a year ago. He could not work mornings or nights, he would not work weekend, and when I asked when he could work, he told me he would have to check with his wife.

That was the end of my interest in this person. I figured he really didn't want to work. Now, he has applied again. I have serious doubts about this person, just based on his past employment history. He has had a slew of jobs over the last few years, and never held one for more than a couple of months. This, to me, indicates some kind of attitude problem, like he just doesn't want to work.

But, we are short on help, and if I don't hire soon, we will be looking at overtime pay. The company doesn't like this, so they want me to hire someone, anyone, just as long as it prevents us from collecting overtime. It doesn't matter if the person is able and willing or not, just as long as a position is filled and we don't need overtime.

Of course, if they don't do a good job, they will want me to do something about that, and if they are not reliable, missing a lot of work, I will have to deal with that, too. The bottom line is, the company says hire anyone, and deal with the problems later. I say, I don't want any problems later, so why hire someone if you know they won't work out?

This same thing happened a couple of years ago. We were working overtime, and the company was doing it's best to fill in one of our openings. they referred a person who I will just call Buck. He showed up for his interview five minutes late, dressed in ragged clothing, and had a firm, I don't give a crap about anything attitude. He didn't actually answer questions, but kind of beat around them, and continually got off the subject with some oddball story.

His application, other than his personal information, was all messed up. Dates did not match, and in checking some of his past work history, was all fabricated. I declined to go any further, and moved on to another applicant, but he was working and needed two weeks to notify his current employer before he could come to work for us.

He seemed like a good prospect, and only needed to change jobs as a result of moving to a new area as a result of getting married. His wife had a career type job and it would have been silly for her to quit hers to move to his hometown. I notified my boss, but he said to call Buck up and set him up to train. I explained my misgivings about him, and he said, "You can deal with that later, right now you need to get someone hired, trained, and working."

So I followed directions, called him up, did the hire paperwork, and set up training. He trained, but when it came time to test, he decided he had enough and quit. He had already received his uniforms, but since he had not worked more than two short days of training, he had not even earned enough to begin to pay for them. So, the company wanted me to get them back and mail them back to the office. I did get them back, but I just had the company bill me for them so I would have a few cloths to lend out when we hire.

Now, it's the same story, just a different "Buck."  All I can say, is this situation is all "Bucked up!"