Stupid People

The things we allow stupid people to get away with both amazes and frightens me on so many different levels. I’m too tired to go into the details this moment- I’ve just gotten out of work, but the gist of it is disappointing. My fellow employees are more angry than anything that they had to clean up the mess of another but I’m so used to seeing it that I’m more disappointed than anything, not in S (said stupid person) but in the firm belief I have that she will get away with what she’s been doing.

We’re short a worker right now, he got hurt when a pipe fell into the disposal and shot back at him cutting his arm up a bit and so he won’t be back for a few days- maybe a week or two. As a result… well, we were just barely making it by with the workers we had. There were ‘just’ enough of us that we all had to pull our weight and no one could have a day off unless they swapped without someone else. Now though we’re all scrambling to make up for a person we don’t have.

S and I were scheduled today, she lost the coin toss and had to work in the other kitchen- no big deal, we all hate it down there but what has to be done has to be done. She’s a minor so she has to take a thirty minute break off the clock and be out by 10:30 (it’s supposed to be 11:30 but she lied and told everyone she was enrolled in summer school so on weekdays she can get out an hour earlier).

She’s an alright person and is capable of being a decent worker. I don’t give my coworkers compliments lightly because I like to see them do their best even if it means I need to be blunt to help them improve their faults so to say things like alright and decent- it’s a lot and since I’m not really fond of her you know I have to really mean them to be willing to say it. She’s very capable of doing a good job, I’ve seen her do it before but the problem is that capable is an optional sort of word and when she’s given the option she seldom goes the distance.

She screwed the other kitchen over royally. It was already pretty sucky that I had to call in a girl from her other job (you’re a goddess ValVal!) just so we could finish our kitchen by midnight but then we get the call that we had to run down to the other kitchen and finish up everything S left behind because she ran off around 10 without telling anybody… that’s two hours her station was left alone with things piling up the entire time plus end of the night rush!

It gets worse.

She purposely didn’t take her half an hour minor’s break so she would ‘have’ to leave a half an hour early and didn’t tell anyone in her kitchen she was going home. Just walked out without a word.

THEN- she told everyone at our main kitchen that they sent her home because she ‘forgot’ to take her break. *snorts* The only reason she was at the main kitchen in the first place was because she’s a minor and it’s the only place she could manage to bum cigarrets off of people.

I worked my bum off today in my own kitchen, making calls so we would have enough workers and finding rides for those who could make it in. I even offered twenty of my own dollars for someone to go pick up one worker I’d rather have not had to deal with. I almost had to have my husband pick up another person. I had to keep track of my own dish room, shuck corn, pan chicken (don’t mind those last two so much, I love working with food), clean up and then head down and work in the dirtiest kitchen in the world with the most idiotically put together machine any moron can imagine.

I know it’s hard down there, none of us like working in that specific spot and it’s tough. Dirty, cramped, everything requires either arm strength or a ladder to put away and quite frankly it takes a special sort of personality or an acquired taste to get along with much of the staff but we’ve all done it. I know she got the short end of the stick as far as placement went but I and my fellow workers (many of which didn’t have to work today or stick around to help) all pulled our weight. It’s not fair that we had to go clean up her mess on top of it but we didn’t once consider leaving it be. We wouldn’t do that to the people who had to be in later or the chefs who already had to work so very hard.

We took responsibility and picked up the slack, just like we did for our injured worker- the only difference was that he had an excuse. S did not.

I heard so many different remarks about her tonight. How people were amazed she still had her job especially in this economy where another could so easily take her place. I heard how someone wanted very badly to place their foot someplace I’m sure S wouldn’t appreciate it. I heard curses and dark opinions and while I shared many of them… I couldn’t help but not add my own thoughts aside from the following:

She’ll get away with it.

Even though it’s been reported and will be reported again and again throughout the week. I’ve seen worse workers that lasted years. You have to have a specific kind of screw up at our workplace before they get rid of you- either that or you have to be a certain kind of useless and sadly for me she’s not it.

When asked by a fellow worker why on earth they hire people like I replied with a new theroy of mine. It’s cheaper to hire a bunch of second rate workers who will do the bulk of the work and a few first class workers to clean up after them than vice versa. Why? Because if a second rate workeer asks for a raise you have a reason not to give it to them. A first rate worker won’t always ask but if they do you have to be craftier with your excuses.

I speak from first hand experience on too many levels of this one. *sigh*

Tomorrow I have to work with her again. We’re short two workers for the night and have to keep track of four dishrooms, three kitchens with just three people and a few unfortunate cooks. I’m not looking forward to it, worse yet I still have three more days after this one before I have a day off and the day I do have off my Hubby has to go to school.

I don’t like this post. I’ve complained way too much. Where does one draw the line at complaining and venting? Honestly? I hear people complain all day and hold it in until I come home- tell my husband, blog, and then forget about it. I’ve started to tell my workers every time our shift starts that when they work with me they aren’t allowed to complain. It doesn’t do much good but they try to keep it out of earshot of me more and more and that’s all I care about because honestly, I hear it enough inside my own head ad I’m so sick and tired of it.

Anyways, I have a point or three I wanted to make in this post but I’m a bit drained. I might write more tonight and I might not. For now though I’m going to go seek out some snackage, a warm cuddly spot, and a good book to zone out with.

Peace, friends!

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