Posts tagged Employment
Blame it on the alcohol!
Mar 1st
I will try to make this story as brief as I can. It’s so ridiculous. Since Novemeber 2009, I have been going out drinking with my boss..We are both female. We have always gotten along well. I have worked for her 3-plus years. Now my boss meets this male bartender through her female bartender friend. She develops a crush on him. So pretty much, she talks about him often. Asks for advice, etc. I am often with her 2 or 3 nights a week when we go to this bar. However, I would often leave after 2 or 3 drinks so they can spend time alone. She is basically a nice women. Good natured and educated. Anyway, this bartender is quite flirtatious at times. Now I know that’s part of the job. I myself am an on/off again bartender for the past 6 years. She takes everything he says seriously. Now I know pretty much that he is just gassing her up. But I do believe he valued her friendship and business. She begins trying to invite him back to her place. He declines the few times she asks..I give her my honest opinion (gently) but she insists on chasing this guy nearly every night. So now the month of November passes by and now it’s December. He puts his hands on me often enough. However, I do not take it too seriously because it might be part of his “bartender routine”. For the past couple of weeks in early December, she has been feeling rejected by him and also has been getting angry with him and starting arguments. Mind you, he has never made a date with her or called her or anything. She had told me he would be affectionate with her at times and I did witness that a couple of times. But I do simply think it was affection, not attraction. He was kind of leading her on a bit. But keep in mind, lots of bartenders act that way towards their regular patrons who spend money and bring customers in. So now she begins getting very angry with him and she refuses to go there for at least a week. She decides to send me in there for information. To sum it up: He gets me trashed (I know it’s very much my fault for allowing myself to get that way)and we make out in the bathroom. I didnt remember it afterwards. I must have blacked out. He told his friend a few weeks later about it. His friend told me. I didnt remember so I thought he was lying. But when I think back to this night , a portion of it was a blank. I then tell my boss what his friend said because I really didn;t think it actually happened. The bartender tells her it did and had the owner of the bar confirm that I was in the bathroom with him for 10 minutes. I convince her that I really didnt remember and things were ok with us. So I thought. A few weeks later in early FEbruary she starts suspecting we are having an affair behind her back. Keep in mind, she is basically a nice woman, but since November has been drinking nearly every night to sit with this bartender and keep him company. What I am trying to say, is that she has become paranoid…She tells my other coworker about her suspicions . I believe that she thought this because at the time, he was off on Saturday nights. I dont go out on Saturdays much because I have a child. I think she thought I was with him on Saturday nights.I really wasn’t.. she fired me via text message 3 weeks ago. She wished me and this bartender good luck together. I know I am an idiot for allowing this to happen. But keep in mind I did grow to like this guy as a friend and I trusted him so it never crossed my mind he would try to get me drunk and take advantage of me., I am very hurt by this. I was her manager and I wasn’t fired for a business reason. Also, I can understand her being upset. But not to this extent. Her judgement sucks from drinking so much lately. They are not dating. They are just friends ( well actually bartender/patron mostly) and they have never even been intimate at all>Well thats the summary of my story..,I tried to be as brief as possible. i really didn;t even leave out many details at all. Thats basically it in a nutshell…
This post was submitted by Dina.
Workaholics go to meetings
Chapter 2: Nice and Easy (part 2)
Dec 2nd
As I sat there wasting away minutes at useless calculations, I wondered why everything was bundled into one giant PTO pool. Imagine if baseball didn’t break down hits into singles, doubles, triples, and home runs. You’d be as confused reading the back of the baseball card as the manager trying to set the lineup. Being the statistical guru that I am, I separated everything into categories: PTO that is automatic (like holidays), PTO that is granted (like vacation), and PTO that is urgent (like sick time). This made perfect sense – PTO as a single category should not exist if you plan to track it. But no one really tracked it before. People just entered their PTO hours in the weekly time reporter and that was it. No one checked it, no one cared. But I decided that I would.
The owners were on board right away, and I was writing policy change notices before I knew it. Advance request requirements, half day options, the snowball had been pushed off and was barreling down at the speed of light. And in the midst of it all, there I was, like a wizard waving a magic wand, creating rules and policies, setting requirements… Little did I realize, this made life harder on everyone. Not that I cared. I felt power, I felt importance.
What the f**k did I know about setting policies? I wasn’t a business owner now, I had never been one before. I’ve been an employee my whole life, yet I was sitting there with a suit and tie and a smart ass look on my face setting up hoops for everyone to jump through. Everyone but those deemed exempt, those lucky few living outside the black and white of the policy world. And who would decide who is granted membership to this exclusive club? Why, I, of course.
Would you rather quit or be fired?
Nov 13th
If I told you that you were being replaced at your current job, what would you say? And I’m not talking about the immediate shock and anger about the pending loss of your job. Once you’ve had a moment to think rationally, you’ll probably be wondering, “should I ride this out, or should I make a move?” What’s the right decision here?
I think the answer should be based on your long term and short term goals. There are many negatives that come attached to being fired – you may lose your reference, you may be affected psychologically. Every application you’ll ever fill out in the future, the answer to “have you ever been fired?” will now be yes. Quitting before this happens, 
however, has its benefits and negatives as well. For one, you can forget about any severance package you may otherwise have received. In most cases you won’t get unemployment benefits (which in some states are so small, it hardly matters). But you’ll save face, you’ll leave with your chin up, and most likely retain more connections and references from this employment.
The choice between waiting to be fired and quitting is not easy, but once you’ve realized that either one is inevitable, you cannot afford not to take action. Build a plan, apply for other jobs, research business ideas – anything that will put you back on the right path. If you’re ready to give up on the career path that you’ve been following with your current job, then letting the firing happen may not be the worst idea. You’ll switch industries, jump into new job assignments, responsibilities. If you’re planning on moving on to a field that has no connection to your previous employment, it’s more than likely that your new employers won’t even bother contacting the company that fired you. But if you’re planning to continue your career in a similar setting (even if it’s a different industry – think about how different your job responsibilities will be), then you may be better off jumping the gun. Start interviewing as soon as possible. Get out there and push yourself, instead of sulking. Believe it or not, speaking with your boss about your plan will play to your benefit in this situation. The company will be much more inclined to keep you on just a while longer, until you’re ready to move on. Your quitting instead of being fired is a huge benefit to the company – they don’t have to pay your unemployment (their state unemployment insurance is likely to rise as a result of your termination), and more importantly no negative effect on employee morale.
When the time comes, the decision is hard. If you’re prepare yourself, you can think rationally and make a decision that’s right for you.
Loading …Workaholics go to meetings
Chapter 2: Nice and Easy (part 1)
Nov 12th
Sometime deep into a closed door meeting it was decided that employees must be kept happy in their workplace. There was much debate about what mechanism would be used in this endeavor, but one fact was undebatable. Any benefits that were to be put in place, they were to come at a minimum cost to the company while providing the maximum effect for recruitment and retainment. This is nothing new. Every company looks to keep costs down while keeping its workforce intact, growing, prospering. And every company looks to provide a wide enough array of benefits that it believes will satisfy those looking for something special, something that few others receive at their jobs.
The brainstorming made their heads spin and their tongues hurt, and it was then that the first ace was pulled out of a 
sleeve and set the bar for the illusion of comfort and stability. Following in the footsteps of companies that love and appreciate their employees, this firm decided to set a “no limit” PTO (Paid Time Off) policy. Sounds great, doesn’t it? It sounded awesome when I first came across this concept. Just to think that there is no limit on how many days off I can take in a calendar year. No counting, no planning your days off months ahead. It started off that way for sure. No one in the company even gave this a second thought. If someone needed a day off, they just requested it, were granted it, and took it. If they needed a week off, same process. The trick for the supervisors was to look to the work ahead, rather than the amount of days off taken in the past. Nice and Easy.
In the grand scheme of things, however, this policy actually benefited the company as much as it benefited the employees. There’s something about human nature that keeps us civil, keeps us from taking advantage. With a policy devised specifically to be unlimited, it was remarkable how many people chose not to take advantage of it. And that’s where the company ate up the benefits. Grasp your mind around this concept – while there’s no limit on how many paid days you receive in a year, there are also no guaranteed days off. So if Joe Schmo worked his ass off for the entire year and took only 4 days off, there’s no fat check for the remainder coming. There’s no remainder to speak of. If Joe Schmo worked for a company that guaranteed employees PTO, even a basic package of say, 2 weeks vacation and 1 week sick, he would receive a check for the 11 days he didn’t take off. Or the PTO would carry over to the next year. Or if Joe was to quit or get fired, he’d receive a check for all the days that he earned and didn’t take. But not here. Here, if Joe took 2 days off or 12 days off, no one would really notice.
I’m not going to lie – there were plenty of Joes that took advantage. But there were also plenty of Joes that for whatever reason did not. They would wake up, come to work, do their time, and go home. The next day they’d do it all over again. And they only took off a day or a week during the holidays. May be an occasional sick day here and there. The system sparked my interest almost immediately. Are people afraid to ask for time off, I wondered? I had to research this further. It was an enormously useful recruiting and retention tool, yet was in effect a lesser cost than a standard PTO package. My interest was piqued. I had to quantify this phenomenon.
And then I fucked it all up…
Another facebook firing
Nov 12th
Ashley Payne, a teacher from Georgia, claims she was coerced into resignation after school officials received a complaint about content posted on her Facebook page. Payne posted pictures along with some commentary of her recent trip to Europe on Facebook. A student’s mother saw her pictures and complained about one in particular where Payne was holding a drink in her hand. Payne has stated that she “wasn’t doing anything illegal, wasn’t doing anything provocative…nothing that I thought would be unethical or immoral in any way.” The teacher said she was coerced into resignation in lieu of being fired – so that she can save face in a small town community. She is currently suing the school board in hopes of getting her job back.
What is most concerning for all of us here is that Payne had her profile set to private and was not friends with any of
Don't get fired over what you post in Facebook – make sure that your Facebook privacy settings are turned on correctly
her students, parents, or school executives. Most of us who do have Facebook accounts and are concerned about our privacy, should know, that setting your profile to private is not enough. Facebook’s default private settings will still allow most of your pictures to be viewed by the entire Facebook community – so make sure that you look through the settings options carefully and disable all content that you don’t want made public. As we’ve seen so many times before – you never know who’s watching…
Loading …You did WHAT?
Nov 11th
Welcome to our first installment of “You did WHAT?” where we discuss the latest news in the world of stupidity that leads to people being fired.
First up today, Larry Jones has been fired from Feed The Children, the very foundation he started more than 30 years ago. This comes after a year ago Larry tried to fire several top executives, as well as his own daughter who is the general counsel for the foundation. Things turned ugly, courts were involved, and a judge ruled to reinstate the fired executives. The firing came when it was discovered that Jones placed recording devices in several offices. This week, Larry Jones 
fired back with a lawsuit of his own claiming that he was fired because of “reasons of personal malice and spite.”
…this has turned ugly a long time ago and we can expect to continue hearing about this feud…but placing recording devices in people’s offices…come on Larry…
In Boston, a police officer has been fired for allegedly texting a pic of male genitalia to a woman. Officer Michael Gonsalves told the Times in August he did text a photo of male genitalia to a woman, but said it was a joke, according to the paper.
ugh… umm… I’m sure there’s plenty of context missing here, and I’m willing to give Gonsalves the benefit of the doubt here… I guess the bigger question is, who is this woman?… one thing’s for sure – she definitely didn’t get the joke…
Here’s another great story: A Florida middle school teacher has been fired for drawing a map of the United States with Florida resembling a penis. When questioned about the disproportionate looking map by his middle-schoolers, Ryan Haraughty said, “Florida got excited.” The school board claimed that Haraughty created a sexually hostile environment and fired him.
ok, well, obviously it’s not his drawing skill that got Ryan fired, but his comment that followed… it’s clear that there was no intent of wrong doing, and we all know that kids in middle school are already clued in that they weren’t dropped off by a stork… but it’s important to remember that (a) they’re still kids and sexually oriented humor is not appropriate and that (b) you’re in a classroom – an environment where you should at least try to maintain professionalism and respectability.
Finally, in Minnesota, over 1200 janitors employed by ABM have been fired after the company carried out an audit prompted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
1200… wow… imagine if they carry out an audit in California and New York… but that’s a lot of illegals out of a job… but worry not, Minnesottans, there’s plenty more immigrants willing to clean your offices…
