It never ends

So I posted on AAM's Friday open thread a preview for this week – a fire, sexual harassment, possible unwanted job changes, four different visits from vendors, and not one, not two, but three actual, literal temper tantrums.

It is now Wednesday. I cannot remember what last week caught on fire. That's bad, isn't it?

In my defense, it is currently a little before 7 a.m., and I have been at work since 2 a.m. We're having a cookout, and because I'm trying to be good at my job, I was here for the 3rd shift feed. I'm going to take just a moment to rant, and say that of the four of us that came in to work this morning, I was the only one at work after 4 p.m. yesterday, and I will be the only one working tomorrow. Ugh.

Up next, we have sexual harassment. As I've mentioned before, we have maybe a dozen women here, including myself and other salaried staff. We also have a zero tolerance policy for harassment of any kind. That didn't stop one guy. Two different girls got to work overtime, because they had the required skills for the job. He does not. One of the girls brushed it under the rug, and refused to confirm or deny anything, which means it turns into a he said/she said. Which is super unfortunate and annoying, because what he said amounted to what were the girls in question doing to who to get overtime. Now personally, I probably would have punched him. And the girl who did come forward almost did. She was angry, and rightfully so. Best we can do is keep an eye on the situation.

As for the unwanted job changes - I overheard our controller talking to my boss one day, and saying that they might make me do some of the file clerking stuff, like handling the invoices. I do not want to do that. I don't like doing that kind of work, and I have more than enough of my own to keep me busy. In addition, I took a pay cut recently (allegedly temporary) and don't want to add more work on when they didn't take any away.

And of course, the temper tantrums. One was from Marvin, who was upset about an untrue rumor that was spreading around the plant. One of the managers, Nori, brought it to his attention, and Marvin politely asked me to leave his office. That means it's going to be bad, and he's going to say some things he doesn't want me to hear. I kind of wish I had a photo of the Nori's face. It was like "I regret ever even opening my mouth." I got the door closed behind me and about two feet down the hallway when I heard the cuss words start flying. I happily went back to my office, where it was much calmer. Not by a lot, but some. At this point I'll take what I can get.

The other two temper tantrums were from the same guy. He's upset that we no longer have a pension program, and likes to gripe about it frequently. He also doesn't super understand how 401ks work, but he has a loan. (Don't ever get one. Trust me.) We had some bumps, and the company that hosts our 401k program, X, is telling him that he owes money. He tells me how much they say he owes. Then says nothing else. It's like, dude. I have literally nothing to do with that, and we are not going to pay money that you owe to a creditor. I can check and make sure that your payments are going from us to them, but that is all I can do for you. So we'll see. With him, somehow it will end up being my fault.

The sun is finally starting to come up, and people are arriving, which means it's way less likely that I'm going to fall asleep at my desk. Not absolutely, but it's better.