Chapter 18: Now... One bad apple

I hate coming to work.
No one should hate going to work.
We can all dislike it as much as we want, we should never have to hate it.
Every day I arrive at work ten minutes early and I sit in my car and just look at this building. I imagine just driving away, in my daydream I always have a pleasant smirk on my face.
But then I wake up, get out of the car, and walk in.

It's funny how much influence one person can have on such a huge aspect of your life.

My boss, Earl, is awful. He is not a good person. Everyday I work with him I see this more and more.

Earl spends a majority of his day on the phone talking shit about other people and gossiping.
It's sickening.
Then he tries to talk shit to me about people.
I usually just walk away.
 I don't have much to say to him.
Then he talks shit behind my back and thinks I don't realize it.
It always gets back to me somehow.

Want to know how awful he is? Keep reading.....
Over the summer I had a woman working for me part time, Lisa. She was a bit rough around the edges and she enjoyed her booze. Over a couple weeks it started to effect her work so I spoke to my front end manager, Cheryl. We both decided that we need to have a sit down with her and discuss her work. Cheryl then asked me if I would talk to her about her drinking. We talked a little bit more about what Cheryl had been noticing and we agreed that I would bring it up.
We called Lisa to the office and I told her our concerns with her work. I gave her pointed examples and she agreed that she had not been doing her best.
After the work portion I see Cheryl stare at me urging me to bring up the drinking. I say to her, "Lisa, I want you to know the reason you are up here is because we care about you. I wouldn't be talking to you about your performance if I didn't want to see it improve. I need to ask you something else, how's things at home? Are you drinking?"
Lisa stares at me for a couple seconds and replies, "What home, I live in a motel. And no I'm not drinking."
I stare back at her for a couple seconds and plan my response carefully, "Ok, you know we have programs here to help with your home life. We offer the EAP and we also have some programs that can get you money if you need it. As far as the drinking, you can lie to me about that I don't mind. But please don't lie to yourself. Just know that if you need anything, at all, Cheryl and I are here for you."
She says "Nope, I'm fine. Thank you can I go now?" and she gets up and leaves.
Cheryl and I don't discuss it any further we just shrug and move on.
A couple months go by and I go and get married and come back from my honeymoon. I've been gone three weeks.
I walk into the office and the first thing Earl says is "Have you seen the hi-lighter!?" and he laughs and slaps his knee.
I don't follow and he explains that Lisa has turned bright yellow and says it's hilarious.
I just stare at him, I don't know how to respond.
The next day I see Lisa. She is clearly jaundiced. The whites of her eyes are a milky yellow, her hands are yellow, she has circle around her eyes that are yellow.
I wait until her and I are alone and I say to her, "Lisa, what's going on?"
She says she thought about the conversation Cheryl and I had with her and she decided to stop drinking. She says, "THIS is what happened when I stopped, I turned yellow."
I ask her if she's gone to her doctor and she makes excuses. I explain to her what happens when the liver isn't functioning properly (I've done my research just for this conversation). I tell her she needs to go to a doctor asap.
Later on I hand her the number for the EAP. She says she doesn't need it but I hand it back to her and say, "Lisa, your not the first person to have to reach out for help. Even I've called this number before. Take it, call it, it's a 24 hour hotline, call at 2am if you need to." I then tell her I'm not going to leave her alone and the only way to get me off her back is to go to the doctor.
A week later she pops into my office and says You'll be happy to hear I have a doctors appointment for tomorrow." She seems in good spirits. I'm glad.
A couple days later I see her, she looks worse. She is now starting to get bloated around her midsection. I ask her about her doctors appointment, she tells me she went to the doctor and he put her on prednesone.
She's lying to me. I'm disappointed this woman won't get herself help but what can I do?
A month more goes by and it's Thanksgiving week.
Lisa's health has deteriorated and she is having a hard time doing the simplest of tasks.
On Monday Cheryl decides she's had enough of watching this woman die and she asks one of the girls if she will bring Lisa to the emergency room. She then tells Lisa that she needs to punch out and go to the hospital. She tells Lisa she is not to come back to work without a release from her doctor.
Lisa goes outside with the girl, tells the girl she is not going to the hospital, and she leaves.
Three days later no one has heard from her. I call and leave a voicemail telling her if she does not call me back I will show up at her door and get her landlord or the police to open the door if she does not answer.
Later that day we get a call from her mother. Lisa has been admitted to the ICU in Boston. She is experiencing Liver and Kidney failure.
We are all relieved that we know where she is but also concerned.
After Thanksgiving I went on vacation and came back a week later. While on vacation I wondered how Lisa was doing but figured someone would update me if anything happened.
My first day back I walk into the office and say hello to Earl. I ask him how the week went if there is anything I should know about. He says no, it was a smooth week, nothing for me to be concerned with.
Later on that night I'm in the back room taking in a bread load and I get a phone call. As I'm on the phone I look down and under the phone is an announcement: "Services for Lisa, Thursday 5pm"
I run up front and ask one of my part time clerks, what happened to Lisa? He face drops and she says "Oh my God I thought you knew, she passed away last Saturday."
I am appalled that no one told me. I am disgusted. I cannot even look Earl in the face. I avoid him the rest of the day.
I am scheduled to work the closing shift Thursday and Earl tells me he has to leave early. I say okay but then  it dawns on me that now I can't go to Lisa's services. Tom requested teh day off and there is no one else to close.
Thursday I walk into work and go into the office. Cheryl and a couple other full timers are in the office with Earl. Cheryl asks me if I'm going to Lisa's service. At this point Earl laughs, he laughs out loud a whole hearted laugh, and says "Oh my God, please tell me you already knew Lisa died, because this would be a fucked up way of finding out!?"
I am in utter jaw dropping shock. All the full timers turn and look at me eyes wide waiting for my reaction.
I say "Yes I knew, I had to read about it in the back room I meant to say thank you for telling me."
Earl laughs again, "Well, truth is I knew you'd want to go but Tom requested the day off and I needed to leave early. I tried to get it covered but there was no one else. So I decided not to tell you."

And this is my boss.

*********

Yesterday was Sunday.... another 'voluntary' work day. I was involuntarily put on the 8-4p shift, all three of us had to work because it's Christmas week. I didn't say anything, didn't even fight it. I choose my battles and this one wasn't worth it.

Earl and Tom (the other assistant manager) were in the managers office and I was walking down the hall towards them. I guess Tom had an interview with a girl and I didn't realize she was walking right behind me. The way they were looking down the hallway and whispering made me feel so uncomfortable. Then I realized they were talking about the girl behind me and I felt even more uncomfortable FOR HER.

Earl tells her to come in and have a seat while we three are all in the office.
Earl then proceeds to talk about another manager from another store and how awful this person is and how terrible they are at their job right in front of her.
Totally inappropriate! I suggest maybe we drop the conversation but he kept at it.
I could see the poor girl try not to look horrified.
I got up and left the room. I'd prefer not to have an part in that.

Afterwards, I returned to the office. Earl and Tom were both still in there.
We started small talking and Earl wanted to work on the schedules for the next two weeks. He announces that he's taking the next three Sunday's off. That means Tom and I have to do them.  I speak up and say I've done the last four and I'm not doing the next three. Tom never speaks up. Ever.
Earl jumps all over what I just said. Tom joins in, always the follower... How they don't want to do Sundays but they do because they're a team and that's what teams do. Earl then brings up the refrigeration checks, how he had to drive from Easton to Hyannis to do refrigeration checks and he never bitched because that's what we do in this business.

Tom then says he's accepted it and does what he has to do. Earl agrees and now the both of them have completely turned on me. How dare I not accept this?

I told them they can say whatever they want about how a team acts but my life balance matters a whole lot more than working days I shouldn't even be asked to work.
I tell them that it will never be okay with me and if they've accepted it then they can work all the voluntary days they want, they can do unpaid refrigeration checks on holidays we're not legally allowed to be open.
I tell them it's not right and I'm not going to tolerate it.

I then proceed to say that perhaps if more of us spoke up then maybe, just maybe, something might just change. They laugh like it's the funniest thing in the world.

I wonder to myself, who's the leader in this room?

I can't wait to quit.

I have an interview tomorrow.

One thing I excel at is interviews.