Friday the 13th turned out to be interesting to say the least. When I was hired we started with about 20 or so guys. This morning we were down to 5, they fired me and another guy, so that leaves three.
First, I got another job last week that I start next Tuesday with another Freight company. $3 an hour more and day shift rather than this middle of the night/morning shift I have been working. I wanted to finish my week though, so I went to work as normal.
On Tuesday morning I get forced into working 10.5 hours, no problem. At hour 9.5 my forklift runs out of propane at the far end of the dock. I was walking to the middle to get another lift to ferry my tank to the opposite end of the dock in which I was stranded. The OPS MGR. (Who as one vet said is the type of guy that causes workplace violence) says "Are you done with your load?" ME- "No boss, ran out of fuel, going to grab another lift to ferry the tank to fill up." OPS MGR- "You know you can just carry the tank up there?". ME- "Why would I do that?" Do we carry freight? You can carry tanks if you want, but I will use a lift, busting my ass over 9 hours now don't need to punish myself any further." He is visibly pissed and walks away.
Two days later, long story short he pages me in from my break and points our freight I had "bayed up". The 10ft skid of boxes was leaning as the bottom was collapsing since it was not supported properly. He asks if I caused this, I say no. He asks if I left it like this, I again say no. I then offer that the guy next to me was helping me and the loader over there came and took the bill and they can both verify it was standing just fine when I dropped it. He tells me to take it down and repackage it. I say, no problem I will.
Yesterday he sends me down the end of the dock "on a project". A guy that quit last week set up a load improperly and damaged the freight badly, skids broken, freight a mess it was just terrible. He has me report to the SUP on the city side to fix it. The SUP tells me its a two man job minimum, I say he only sent me. We look at it and I say no way am I diving into that with only three weeks experience, it is a mess. I didn't want blamed or to cause further damage because of my inexperience. The SUP agrees and says its a four man job anyways and he will have some of the vets do it at the beginning of the shift. This infuriated the OPS MGR, as I think this was my punishment.
This morning he has another OPS MGR call me in after working 6 hours and tell me that the OPS MGR reviewed my bills per hour and I wasn't cutting it. I say funny you told me I am doing just fine. He says, "While I thing there are some other things." I ask what and he just says, "Well you know Jim." I tell him I won't give him a hard time and I just resigned. He thanked me and said he appreciated working with me and wanted to tell me himself out of respect for me. I thought that was a nice gesture. We chatted a bit and he wished me luck and I left.
Start the new gig on Tuesday. UPS FREIGHT was quite the experience for me. I liked the guys and the job itself. I did not like being hired as "part time" and being forced to work 8.5 hours minimum per day for $12 an hour. The company gets all the benefits of a full time employee and the employee gets none of the such.
Strange way of doing business.
First, I got another job last week that I start next Tuesday with another Freight company. $3 an hour more and day shift rather than this middle of the night/morning shift I have been working. I wanted to finish my week though, so I went to work as normal.
On Tuesday morning I get forced into working 10.5 hours, no problem. At hour 9.5 my forklift runs out of propane at the far end of the dock. I was walking to the middle to get another lift to ferry my tank to the opposite end of the dock in which I was stranded. The OPS MGR. (Who as one vet said is the type of guy that causes workplace violence) says "Are you done with your load?" ME- "No boss, ran out of fuel, going to grab another lift to ferry the tank to fill up." OPS MGR- "You know you can just carry the tank up there?". ME- "Why would I do that?" Do we carry freight? You can carry tanks if you want, but I will use a lift, busting my ass over 9 hours now don't need to punish myself any further." He is visibly pissed and walks away.
Two days later, long story short he pages me in from my break and points our freight I had "bayed up". The 10ft skid of boxes was leaning as the bottom was collapsing since it was not supported properly. He asks if I caused this, I say no. He asks if I left it like this, I again say no. I then offer that the guy next to me was helping me and the loader over there came and took the bill and they can both verify it was standing just fine when I dropped it. He tells me to take it down and repackage it. I say, no problem I will.
Yesterday he sends me down the end of the dock "on a project". A guy that quit last week set up a load improperly and damaged the freight badly, skids broken, freight a mess it was just terrible. He has me report to the SUP on the city side to fix it. The SUP tells me its a two man job minimum, I say he only sent me. We look at it and I say no way am I diving into that with only three weeks experience, it is a mess. I didn't want blamed or to cause further damage because of my inexperience. The SUP agrees and says its a four man job anyways and he will have some of the vets do it at the beginning of the shift. This infuriated the OPS MGR, as I think this was my punishment.
This morning he has another OPS MGR call me in after working 6 hours and tell me that the OPS MGR reviewed my bills per hour and I wasn't cutting it. I say funny you told me I am doing just fine. He says, "While I thing there are some other things." I ask what and he just says, "Well you know Jim." I tell him I won't give him a hard time and I just resigned. He thanked me and said he appreciated working with me and wanted to tell me himself out of respect for me. I thought that was a nice gesture. We chatted a bit and he wished me luck and I left.
Start the new gig on Tuesday. UPS FREIGHT was quite the experience for me. I liked the guys and the job itself. I did not like being hired as "part time" and being forced to work 8.5 hours minimum per day for $12 an hour. The company gets all the benefits of a full time employee and the employee gets none of the such.
Strange way of doing business.
