The office: Chatter about your job

Our division got a new uniform policy taking effect 20 February. Instead of a Kroger polo, we can wear our own choice of shirts (without excessive logos or anything offensive on them, of course) and a required Kroger branded blue apron.

We still don't have the aprons in at my store. I'm just continuing to wear the Kroger polos I have and my black apron. Whenever these shirts get too ratty to wear (all of them have tears in the stomach area covered by the apron) I guess I'll just buy some cheap plain shirts because I'm not about to ruin my regular clothes with our chlorinated cleaner and block whitener gel.

I love polo shirts for work uniforms. Most are pretty decent. I used to have to wear a white full button collared shirt. The damn things were so cheap they stained with water and got gry smudge that wouldn't wash out after a month or less. God help if you if you worked at an industrial site.

I realized when I was in high school that I hate polos. I doubly hated the polo I had to wear to work at Domino's after I left home because it was made of spandex and the largest size they had was a size or two too small. But what I did learn while I was there was I finally came to the conclusion that I'm a lot more comfortable keeping my t-shirts as undershirts and wearing a collared shirt over them. I started wearing button front shirts when I was off work, and then eventually I left Domino's and got a job at a place where the uniform was a button front shirt. I loved it. Then I lost that job and now I have to wear polos again. But at least they fit well enough.

Dear client,

This has been quite a journey. Two months ago, you were a borrower with multiple loans and a decent corporate relationship. We've worked long and hard with you, your escrow agent, your counsel, and three different counties in order to pay off the loans, release all of the associated collateral, and move you from corporate to business banking. You and your associates have all been very polite throughout, and I appreciate that immensely, but I will not be sorry when this process is finally over!

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

Ah, uniforms.

My new main job does not make us wear nice cotton shirts like they used to. Now we have weird synthetic nylon-esque t-shirts. I've had to shave off my chest hair because having them plucked out one at a time was driving me up the wall.

On the plus side, I've been in my new armour all week and it's fantastic compared to the stuff the army had in my day.

Also it's black, which looks badass.

How do you feel about wearing a cotton undershirt with your polyester uniform?

I might stick one of my many, many black t-shirts on underneath, see if that helps.

So it turns out that one of the security guards out here at Boeing is someone I used to be in the Navy with and play D&D with, about 8 years ago. Not a close friend, barely an acquaintance. But still one of those weird, small-world moments.

Weird how things work out, like that, isn't it? One of the guys I work with now went through his Admiralty Interview Board at the same time I did; we were both in the intake of navy officers that got shit-canned due to budget cuts a few years back.

I love my new job. I haven't had this much fun in years.

It helps that I'm one half of a pairing that might have been lifted straight from the script of Car 54 Where Are You or a tongue-in-cheek '80s action flick.

So of the 16 people who report to our manager, on Monday 9 of them are moving to a new shift and we're getting brand new people to replace them. Because of this, on Monday I have a trial day as team lead.

I've only been doing this particular job for 4 months, and while I have plenty of experience as a supervisor I had a good general grasp on the supervisor stuff I had to do in the military. Not so much here at Boeing; I know some of the stuff I definitely do not know how to do.

I'm seriously thinking of starting an online store for accessories geared towards Filipino-Americans. Starting with beaded/embroidered headbands, bracelets, and necklaces.

Lerad: It could be a good idea if you can drum up the interest especially in a rarely tapped market.

Oh, totally. I actually have a few places in mind to ask when I want to advertise to the Pinoy diaspora. But that's for later. Right now I'm just thinking of a small batch of things to make and looking at websites for my online presence.

Proper beaded hair snoods that coordinate with flower arranging... Yeah, there's a market.

Another niche demographic to poke at; dancers — ballroom, ballet, tap, modern... not picky. Because they appreciate stuff what looks nice and works.

Actually my thing is going to be Filipino inspired handcrafted jewelry and clothing, but thanks for all the ideas :)

Today, I found out one of my coworkers (an insufferable improv fan that I already kind of hated) is a PewDiePie fan. When I told him about the guy's racist/possible white supremacist views, he said "That's what makes him so funny! He's such a troll."

And like... I'm stuck between confronting this fash-curious bullshit or just letting it go. Obviously I'm going to let it go because I don't want to start a workplace conflict and possibly lose my job, but I hate that I have to work with people like that. It's so hard for some people to maintain even a baseline morality in this day and age.

Edited by ThriceCharming on Sep 11th 2019 at 10:31:32 AM

Apparently this week he made a big donation to the Anti-Defamation League and all his fans are screaming that he must be getting blackmailed by Zionists.

He walked it back. While wearing a jacket with a Nazi cross on it. What a little catch-you-next-Thursday.

Whelp, my employer decided to give a big presentation on new healthcare options, dubbing them "A celebration of the freedom to choose!"

"Freedom to choose" apparently means my $500 deductible plan now becomes a $4,500 deductible plan unless I choose the next tier and pay roughly 300% more per month and still get a $2,000 deductible.

Hope my fellow American workers are faring better

Edited by carbon-mantis on Nov 7th 2019 at 1:19:13 PM

It sounds like the new plan is "choosing to die is free".

Sounds about right. I work at a dang hospital and my health plan is high deductible catastrophe-only bullshit. After about... seven years of squirreling away $25 a paycheck into an HSA I have enough in there that, if I get it by a bus, I can pay most of my out-of-pocket pre-tax.

Most.

Edited by Bur on Nov 7th 2019 at 2:52:44 PM

Well, the day after Christmas went from everything is ok to shit pretty quickly.

First off one of my guys threw a conniption fit after I asked to fix a single line entry on a log. The work of 30 seconds at most. He was acting like he was actually put upon and being harassed. I didn't feel like picking a fight at that moment and this is the first time he has acted out but it means I get to watch him and then have to act if it happens again.

Then after he leaves I discover someone has kicked or pushed in part of the wall by the guard desk and kicked the shit out of the filing cabinet jamming it shut. So my knucklehead not only pitched a fit but utterly failed to note the damage and report it. This was pretty damn obvious. So now I get to bring that up with a now combative employee. Oh, joy.

Turns out after review of the security footage by the client my best guard got cut loose from the site and really any accounts affiliated with the company we were guarding for and banned from the site. Because he was the one who purposefully inflicted the damage on both the filing cabinet and the wall.

And the cherry on the shit Sunday, I have to ding my problem child on at least three different problems. One for constantly bumming cash and not paying people back, improper interaction with client personnel (pestering people working nothing insidious), and making him remove someone's contact number from his personal phone tied to the last one after he refused their request to do so before coming to me.

For the second time in like about a month's time, we got shorted a pallet of whole milk from the goddamned warehouse on a weekend. On top of that, for the third day in a row the OSA report management gave me had the same item that I zeroed out already each of the previous days. Yet management isn't signing off on that for whatever reason. If that Coffee Mate is still listed at 34 on hand on Thurs, I'm just gonna reduce it down in increments before zeroing it.

Woo, lost my job yesterday! It was a shitshow and a half, everyday I went there was a day of kafkaesque existential horror. Of course, the day I thought to myself "Now is the time I need to make an exit strategy" is they day they dump me on my ass. For the classic "Less than stellar work performance" no less, they didn't even think of something cool like "Challenged the president of the company to single combat" or "rode a forklift home". So when you see Tillamook Country Smoker on your beef jerky isle, I want you to think of incompetence and the works of Franz Kafka.

They didn't even give you time to look for another job? Assholes.

I am definitely looking for other jobs. See, my work has a policy where we keep the doors open all the time. Apparently it's to "create a welcoming atmosphere" but customers complain when it's cold... meaning every day in winter. For some reason my bosses don't make the connection. Also, I and the rest of the crew have been low-level sick for the past month. Today I took time off to try and head off a relapse. As soon as I can, I'm getting out. Or at least part timing it.

Also, they're racist. I, an Asian woman with 5 years of experience in the food industry got passed over for a promotion. For who? A teenaged boy who hadn't been working for a full year yet. He wasn't even particularly good at his old position—slow, lots of mistakes, etc. Meanwhile, I get criticized even when I complete my tasks on time with no mistakes while suffering from the month-long cold that their terrible choices gave me.