Finally Got A Job

Good luck, DB. Thoughts and prayers with you, brother.

I hope that this job works out for you bud!! Blessings and good luck!!

I wish you luck with it.

Thanks everyone!

Witchfinder wrote:

I used to drive 45 miles one way for my last job.  

That's when I listen to most of my metal now - on the commute -
a 45 minute blast on the way in POW - then back POW !
I'm lucky, there's never stop and go traffic - unless a holiday
However, a motorcycle rider got it, one time, gruesome sight -
traffic was as far as the eye could see both sides -
Even when it snows - metal is perfect -
rain - wind - whatever - just the movement of speed !
Had to share that

I drove 220 miles (110 miles each way) for three years and then 180 miles (90 miles each way) a day for 10 more years. I'm lucky enough to be only driving 30 miles a day (15 miles each way) now though. All for the same company also. I think a lot people drive further then you think sometimes to work. Most of the guys I work with drive at least 50 miles each way.

7thSecond wrote:

I drove 220 miles (110 miles each way) for three years and then 180 miles (90 miles each way) a day for 10 more years. I'm lucky enough to be only driving 30 miles a day (15 miles each way) now though. All for the same company also. I think a lot people drive further then you think sometimes to work. Most of the guys I work with drive at least 50 miles each way.

I have no doubt about that, but most who drive that far for work are probably making more money than me. This is not a high paying job, though it is quite a bit higher than minimum wage (the minimum wage paid by states with common sense that is).

7thSecond wrote:

I drove 220 miles (110 miles each way) for three years and then 180 miles (90 miles each way) a day for 10 more years. I'm lucky enough to be only driving 30 miles a day (15 miles each way) now though. All for the same company also. I think a lot people drive further then you think sometimes to work. Most of the guys I work with drive at least 50 miles each way.

Unless you and your coworkers have very reliable cars, that's a lot of daily wear and tear...

Well the airport job is gone (I can expand if anyone is interested but I prefer to look to the future than dwell on the past-yet learning from it) due to an error in judgement on my part. However, I was already looking for something else and it came along soon after (fired Thursday going for a drug test tomorrow). I will be driving a delivery van for Specs Wines Spirits And Finer Food. I will load the van from the warehouse and deliver to various restaurants, bars, and Spec stores. The benefits aren't as good but I will be driving less than 30 miles to work (vs. the 57 miles I was driving to work with the previous one), will be making $0.40/hour more, and I will be getting overtime (the previous job only scheduled you for 37.5 hours/week). The biggest thing is I will have a lot less stress as the previous job was really eating at my sanity. Which is why I was already looking to move on.

Holy crap DB, you had that job for almost a year if I remember correctly.  What the hell happened?

Just typed up a whole thing about my previous job and when I previewed it, it got erased. I really don't want to re-type it so I will give a condensed version.

To be honest, I'm still confused about the whole thing. Thursday my manager came to me to tell me that I had violated the company's zero tolerance policy on offensive, racially offensive, or vulgar language toward another employee. It was regards to something I did nearly 6 months ago. There was a big problem with people making a mess in the backroom (as a replinisher, ultimately the state of the backroom falls on my shoulders-the night shift guy could get away with it as he has been a terrible worker for over a year without any disciplinary action-as a hard worker, more would be expected from me). My team leader couldn't do anything to curb this behavior because it was the night shift cashiers making the mess and only the night shift team leader could do anything about it and my manager always said he would take care of it but never did.

I did the only thing I could think of and put up a sign asking people to put up their trash when they leave the backroom. Somebody wrote on the sign: "It's not my job to clean up trash." Not thinking and responding in anger, I replied: "Well, it's not my job to clean up after you. I'm not your damn mom!" My manager talked to me about that and rightfully told me that that was unacceptable and I agreed. I made sure any future signs would remain professional (as that sign initially was). The use of the word "damn" was the vulgar language my manager referenced when I was fired. I don't understand why it took that long for it to get back to me, but the fact is I did write it and I have no recourse but to accept the loss.

Really, I was already half way out of the job by the time this happened. The fact is that this was not a good company to work with to begin with. On my first day a cashier told me I would be gone in "one month, two tops". That is not a good sign when you start a job. I soon found out why. Good employees came and gone in numbers I lost count of. Most of the long-time employees (like my night shift counter part) were lazy and complacent and were basically allowed to be so. The company Paradies has a 90% turnover rate so that should give you an idea of what kind of place to work this is.

As I said, my stress levels were through the roof working here. Forget all the stress involved working at an airport, I worked very hard and tried to get management involved to improve things and got nothing but lip service. I tried to keep the backroom organized and clean but found myself cleaning up and fixing the same problems everyday. I got to the point that I was almost ready to just give up and do only the bare minimum. That is one of my main reasons I was looking to get out of the job. I have a strong work ethic and always try to do the best job I possibly can and if I start to lose the drive to do that, it's time to leave.

I would have preferred to leave on my own terms but my previous infraction hastened my departure. I have high hopes for this next job and I just need to avoid previous mistakes. Luckily, this next job is more solo work so it will be easier to avoid those same mistakes.

Well at least it sounds like you've got something else lined up.

As always, good luck DB.

So that was the longest you've held a job since your Wal-Mart days? To be honest, I didn't know what you were doing the last several months because you haven't posted much. Good luck with the new job!

Blows my mind how people can have so many jobs in their life. Not saying anything is wrong with it, but I just don't see how you can do it. I have been lucky to only work for three different companies my whole life. I'm 46 and have been working steadily since I was 17. Not that I was completely happy with them the whole time, but I just adjust and do my job and keep my heard down.

I have been looking for a new job though recently. Think thats why I don't understand going from place to place, because looking for a job is as hard as working at a job most times.

Good luck to you, hope you enjoy the new one.

And speaking as a driver myself, let me just say, don't ever let them try and hurry you up. It's your ticket that goes on your record, not theirs. The place I drive for is always trying to hurry us up. Luckily for me we have a strong union, and they can't get away with that shit.

I changed jobs a lot after I first got married, all by choice. I worked in radio at various stations in Tennessee, Missouri and Florida. It is kind of like the military, you have to move around every few years. The only way to get a raise is to move somewhere else. When I was around 30 I was tired of moving and just burned out on radio as it wasn't the same business I loved years previous. The fun of the business left with automation and consolidation.

In 2005 I "retired" from radio and now work at a Paper Mill. Like Wrecked Neck it is a union job and the company can't do stupid stuff. Most people that work here are "lifers", one guy in my department has been here for 43 years now. If all goes well I will never work for another employer, I have been here going on 13 years now so I don't see myself doing anything else.

People like to talk bad about unions but when you work a union job you get a feel of what they can do for you. I'm proud to be a union member.

My current job is with Hertz as a driver. We are union and so far, I don't mind. It helps keep the wolves in management in check. The union dues kinda suck sometimes, but I guess that's the price paid for a little stability.

I have worked for 3 companies since graduating in 98. I just passed 10 years at my current employer.

Troublezone wrote:

My current job is with Hertz as a driver. We are union and so far, I don't mind. It helps keep the wolves in management in check. The union dues kinda suck sometimes, but I guess that's the price paid for a little stability.

Hertz??? 

I don't think unions are all bad. It does cut down on ridiculous reasons for a company to get rid of an employee. However, it does tend to keep bad employees in good standing with the union from losing their job. Not to mention that union dues don't always go to the running of the union. A lot of unions give this money to groups like ACLU, Planned Parenthood, the Democrat party, etc. And I'm not big on my money going to anything like that. Also there are the cases of forced participation. A lot of jobs with unions require you to pay dues whether you want to or not. I don't think someone should expect union help when they don't pay dues, but they should have the option to opt out.

However, lack of a union is not the problem I have with my last two jobs. It's the arbitrary zero tolerance policies. For stuff like drugs, theft, assault, etc. it makes perfect sense to have policies like that but when you have those type of rules placed on speech it becomes convoluted. Human beings make mistakes and these rules don't take that into account. Let's take Amazon for instance. I was fired for violating the zero tolerance policy on racially offensive language. I did not use the 'n' word but perhaps I said something that sounded similar or I said something someone didn't like and they accused me of saying the word (I suspect that's what really happened). With zero tolerance, all it takes is the accusation or the appearance of being capable of saying it (let's face it, if I were black I highly doubt I would have been fired for that word). You don't get a chance to defend yourself nor do you have the option of a chance to correct the action if you are guilty (penalize in some way and then fire if it happens again). It would be one thing if I or someone else in my situation was running around throwing that word left or right, but to let it slip once or to allow someone to falsely accuse you of it doesn't take into account human error. Also there is no set rule on what constitutes racially offensive. It didn't have to be that specific word. It could be something someone misconstrues as racist and if they find a manager who agrees with them that it's racist then they can drop that employee under the banner of zero tolerance.

Then let's look at the job I just lost and the reason. The zero tolerance policy on vulgar language has no set definition, it's up to the individual co-worker or manager to determine what is vulgar. These days words like ass, damn, and hell or found everywhere (even in some kid's cartoons) and many people overlook it, however if someone wants to cause someone to lose their job they can claim that they find the words as vulgar. I was one of the hardest workers and I had my team leaders and the store manager of that terminal singing my praises. I wasn't a trouble maker and I got along with my co-workers but all it took was that one word for me to lose my job. Now I agree that I should not have written that but I still don't think it was worth firing me for it. There are much worse words that I could have used (and have used) and I'd be more understanding if it was one of those words. Even then, this doesn't take into account human error. Everyone in a moment of passion has used a curse word by accident. It seems harsh to fire them for it for a one time use. It's a different thing if they're running around saying f--- this, f--- that. However, that rule makes no distinction between the two.

If James B. is still around, I agree with you now that in Amazon, I created the circumstances for something like that to happen. It doesn't mean that the person that falsely accused me was in the right nor does it mean the company was right in firing me without proper evidence. However, you do need to be professional at all times and not let a laid back company give you a false sense of security and I failed to do so. Same thing with me writing the word 'damn'. I should never have written that but since I did, I paid the price for it.

To Wrecked Neck, my goal in most jobs has always been long term. When I worked at Wal-Mart, it was supposed to be a temporary job while I went to college but I decided not to pursue it further. I then got another job on top of it to pay off credit debt and later used it just keep me from ever going back into it. However, my dad started worrying that I was going nowhere and wanted me to find a trade to get into so I could become dependent. However, just like college I picked something based on demand (I went for a business degree just because that kind of work is always in demand, not because it was the best fit for me), automotive technology.

I managed to get an automotive job but found out I wasn't cut out for the high pressure and commission based pay. After both automotive jobs failed, I went back to what I knew best, retail. However, instead of the customer side of it I went to the logistics side of it. Despite being a hard dedicated employee, both temp jobs ended my tenure before I could gain any footing.

I went back to automotive and got what I thought was going to be a stepping stone to get my automotive career going again. Despite avoiding my previous mistakes, it turned out I was just hired to get the garage clean and organized because shortly after I was cut. After that I went many months without anything warehouse or automotive. Then I finally got one. However, the hours were not there (absolutely no overtime) and I was ready to get a supplemental job along with that. However, my dad was ready to sell the house and get me on my own. We agreed for me to become a truck driver.

Well, we all know what happened there so there is no need to go back into it. I finally found something in Amazon. I was one of the top employees, I became an ambassador to train new associates, and was on my way into management. This was going to be the company I remained with until my firing. I went into another dry spell with no end in sight. Then I go the Paradies job. I was painted a bright picture about this company and I was ready to settle in with it. I almost left orientation when I found out there would be no overtime, nor even 40 hours. I decided to stick with it and found out my position was exempt from the overtime rule. You worked until your job was finished. I ended up getting too many hours and they wanted me to cut it down, but my manager Rick overruled it and for a while I was getting a full 40 hours with an occasional 0.5-1 hour of overtime. Then one of the good employees, Jacob, a warehouse worker that provided mechandise from the warehouse to our terminal and worked closely with me to keep everything well stocked, quit. A perfect example of a good employee being driven off by poor management. Then many of the cashiers, most the good ones, got their hours cut with talk of doing the same for replinishers. Add to that, Rick started scheduling another replinisher with me, thus cutting my hours back below 40. Living paycheck to paycheck, it wasn't working out. I needed a better paying job, a better company, something closer to home, and some overtime. I have that with this new job I'm getting.

It's time for me to stop dwelling on the past and looking forward to the future. Dropping the last job was a huge weight lifted off of me. I'm excited for this next chapter in my life and I'm actually giddy for the new job. Call it mindless optimism, but I think this will break the chain of job changes.

tohostudios wrote:

Troublezone wrote:

My current job is with Hertz as a driver. We are union and so far, I don't mind. It helps keep the wolves in management in check. The union dues kinda suck sometimes, but I guess that's the price paid for a little stability.

Hertz??? 

Toho will put a Hertz-ing on you Troublezone!!!

A misconception is that union funds go to parties - they don't. They can't. However, you can sign up as a member to contribute to those parties. That is where misinformation comes from that money is sent to political parties when it is the actual members that send the funds. I forget what it is called but I don't contribute. And you can give to Republican Party or Democratic Party. They can support political parties (we support Dems because they are more likely to fight for worker's rights but there are some Republicans that we support as well based on their voting record to stick with unions and the working class). We are USW. Most of the dues collected goes back to us and a small percentage goes to international.

And, as for being forced to pay dues, not in a Right To Work state. We have several non-members here and we have to give them full representation. As for the "bad apples", yes we have them but 90% of the members are hard working honest people. Those that play the system find a way to get fired on their own. Our last few people who were fired were based on absenteeism, fighting and poor work performance. If the company starts a record and does progressive discipline it is pretty hard for a union to fight. However, if they do not document it then fire someone they usually get their job back. Our employer has a low tolerance for missing work. And that is what gets most people fired.

So far I am happy with how it works. Dues are only 1% of our pay so I don't complain, I don't miss one percent at all (and it is capped if you get a lot of overtime).



As you can see, only 1% goes to anything political and it isn't going to a particular party, it is for training and education. I have been to several conferences in Pittsburgh and they are very interesting and well worth the time.

tohostudios wrote:

Troublezone wrote:

My current job is with Hertz as a driver. We are union and so far, I don't mind. It helps keep the wolves in management in check. The union dues kinda suck sometimes, but I guess that's the price paid for a little stability.

Hertz??? 

Hey toho, what's your story with HERTZ?  

Don't get mad at me, I just work there (as a driver) not customer service.

They did not fire because you wrote damn on a sign, but because either you sucked at the job or they did not like you or combination of both. I work for a big corporation, a fortune 500 company, they have a zero policy toward any racist, sexist etc comments. If you get accused of such a thing, they certainly open an investigation on what you may or may not have said, but it does not take six months.

For f**k's sake its not looking into Benghazi, I doubt you got fired for writing damn on a sign.

Also DB, you are a grown man, at this point, when you are working for a company, learn to pick your battles. Not everything is worth fighting over or turning oneself to Braveheart. If it involved money, that is worth speaking up and fighting for. A dirty sink, you complained, they did nothing, move on.

I'll come back and change this.

I'm just going to make a new post:

I'm changing my original reply to Manny. One thing that this recent firing has done in my private life is cause a spiritual awakening. I realize there is a lot of bad behavior and habits that I've picked up over the years and I'm tying real hard to change that. One is reacting to perceived unfounded criticism of my character or an affront to me personally, by lashing out in anger using a loud voice complete with expletives (actually another thing I need to change is my overuse of foul language or avoid using it completely-luckily in my professional life I'm good at not letting anything like that slip). While I avoided the foul language (except the word damn-ooops, there I go again ), still replied in anger. After I cooled down, I decided to either erase it or if not, edit it. Manny, if you saw it before I changed it, I'm sorry I responded without thinking. I'm not sorry that what you posted got on my nerves (I think it was unfounded and uncalled for-you seemed to believe that I was just making it all up or was just a bad immature worker), but I am sorry that I didn't let myself cool off before replying.

When I gave the reason for my firing, it was the exact reason my manager gave me. I know deep down inside it wasn't the writing of that word because you are right, it doesn't take 6 months to make a decision like that. If I were to make a guess of why they kept that note as evidence of use of vulgar language was due to the fact they do have a 90% turnover rate. If there is any indication that I was going to look elsewhere for a job they would have a reason to fire me before I add to that turnover rate. I say this because I made the mistake with a couple of job applications to give permission to talk to my current employer. I can speculate other possibilities, but the 'damn' note is the reason why I was let go, and since I can't deny that I did write that, I accept my fate... like a grown man.

I in no way shape or form sucked at my job. I was very good at what I did and even had the store manager Juanna (she manages every store in E terminal) tell me I was the best replinisher she ever had. Then there was the day shift team leader Tammy who was the team leader of the entire terminal. For a long time she tried to get the night shift and all the upper managers to have a meeting and iron out the problems that persisted. She tried and tried and was shot down everytime. She always defended me and depended on me to make her job easier. This is her reply when I texted that I was fired:



Not something you send to a guy who sucks at his job.

Once I found out she had given up trying to improve matters, I accepted that this company wasn't interested in improving itself and decided that once my year anniversary was up, I'd look elsewhere. Then one of my closest allies from the warehouse, Jacob had enough and quit. The ordering from the warehouse got much worse (there was already problems with night shift warehouse guys who delivered it-such as steeling our hand truck which we needed to take merchandise to the store with, leaving empty U-boats [what our orders come in], etc. this was another thing management didn't see to want to correct). That just made it more imperative that I start looking once I hit one year. Then they started to cut the hours of many of the store associates and I knew it was just a matter of time before I started losing hours (they didn't cut my hours but they gave me more "help" thus assuring my bear minimum of hours). With me literally living paycheck to paycheck I knew I wasn't going to wait until April and start then and there looking elsewhere. However, they went ahead and dropped me before I could quit.

Look, the job was giving me an undue amount of stress and I'm glad to leave it behind. And unlike when I lost my job at Amazon, this one is a blessing in disguise (I was so close to moving up the ladder at Amazon). Specs had asked if I could interview that Friday but since I had to work, I told them I could do it Monday. Since I got fired Thursday, that made it possible for the interview Friday. The interview went real well and the next thing I knew, I had signed the authorization for a background check and driving record check. These things normally take several days (excluding weekends because government barely works on Saturday and not at all Sunday) but Monday I got the call saying it all cleared and I was going to do the drug test Tuesday. Again a drug test takes several weekdays to clear, this cleared today. I start tomorrow. It appears that they wanted to fill that position fast. There is a very good chance that if I didn't interview on Friday or had to give two weeks notice to the other company, I wouldn't have got this job. This is a great opportunity and with the help of my God and my creator it will finally end my journey to professional fulfillment.