Monday, October 03, 2005

I just find tampons really moving

I worked all weekend, which was pretty sucky - we were very busy and I am very tired. Every muscle in my body is tight from making some changes in the store last night, so today, my day off, instead of shopping for groceries, and going to a birthday dinner, I am laying in my bed alternating the heating pad locations from my back to my legs, to my back to my feet. I am very surprised that my shoulders and neck feel fine. It makes me feel old how creaky my body is!

I am feeling a little better about life in general than I was last week, or at least less emo about everything. My friend Ems called me on Friday to say she and Barbie were worried and don't want me to be sad. She asked me if I was doing okay, and I started crying right there in Pharmaprix. Right there in front of the antibacterial handsoap and the toothpaste. I had to do a few laps of the store before going to the cash so the cashier wouldn't think I was crazed. It's bad enough feeling low, but I've never cried so much in my life. Songs make me cry, commercials make me cry, Ems makes me cry in Pharmaprix. I'm surprised I don't drink more!

Also, last week, my ex-boss and friend, Bry, was offered a package to leave my hellhole ex employer. I didn't want to blog about it last week cause I wasn't sure what he was going to do. I can't understand what that bitch is thinking. When I met with her before leaving, before she knew I was leaving, she (the call centre manager) was "committed to finding a place for everyone" in the restructuring that was taking place, because it wasn't about cutting positions, it was about "reappropriating resources". I understand that businesses need to restructure, and was willing to hear out the options she was willing to offer me. But she didn't offer anything - she told me I could apply for jobs (jobs I did not want) and see what happened from there. She told me that she valued me as a resource, but that she didn't have a place that suited my skills for the moment, but that didn't mean in a few months there wouldn't be something there. She was feeding the same line to my boss.

The funny thing is, she was basically demoting both of us. Neither of us have records of corrective action, our performance reviews were always excellent, signed by Queen Bitch herself. We were managers, managing the business, and all the problems and obstacles that came along. Now she wants to put the focus of the call center on monitoring alone - but this was not the focus for either of us. It was part of the puzzle, but not the center, because believe me, that company is cheap, so logistically, they have big problems. These problems affect the customer, and thus affect the agents taking the calls. So, she was basically demoting two people who have been there for three years, have skills and knowledge in all departments of the call center dealing with sales, with the ability to make decisions and give information quickly and efficiently, in favor of one person, who has been there for less than 6 months, who just happens to be a friend of hers.

I made my choice - I saw what was happening and cut my losses when the politics started strangling me in my sleep. But what is really burning me? That the week after I left, another manager left abruptly because she had had it with the bullshit as well. Then, the HR adjoint approached my ex-boss, who by that point had been removed from his position as manager and had been exploring what would happen were he to leave the company, and was asked "do you think you could stay on a few evenings a week as an agent? We're really losing a lot of good people lately." and then, a week later, the new HR Manager, who was just hired, and coincidentally, is also a friend of Queen Bitch (how one person can have so many unemployed friends is beyond me) calls him into his office and offers him a package to leave, and "Oh, can you let me know by 4 o'clock today what you've decided?"

I apologize for the rant, and I know I should be over it by now, but I really feel like the people who work there deserve better. They should have some kind of support from the head office who notices what the hell is going on there, but it's like they've been forgotten about altogether. And anyone internal who tries to fight the problems gets penalized or threatened. I guess that's what happens when the people running the show have no degrees or credentials, and the company is too cheap to put money into proper training and development of these people.

Bry, love you, and things will work out fine!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I LOVE YOU!! Just thought i'de remind you of that.

-Sara

Anonymous said...

Love you too Jules, just hope more people leave before they go through the shit we went through.

~Bry

Anonymous said...

Hey Jules,

Just thought I would let you know that not one thing has changed and it has gotten worse, so congrats that you got out. Miss you tons and love you too.

jenn
xoxo

P.S. anytime u need something, call me, even if it is to bitch about life

Anonymous said...

Jules,

By the way, i don't know if Queen Bitch is the one who used the words "reappropriating resources" but i can't find reappropriating as a valid word. Is It???

Jenn