Last one out, turn off the lights
Copied from my LJ-5/14/2005Rough night. I got a call from my folks last evening and learned Mom has pneumonia. She has other troublesome health problems that are ongoing, and I went to bed worried about her. I had bad dreams all night and kept starting awake. I finally gave up about 4am and got up to watch TV. I must have fallen back to sleep around 6. I always have a hard time sleeping when I know I have to get up early, and I worked 10-3 today.
I was hoping to stop somewhere on the way to work this morning for an unhealthy breakfast, but the fast food drive-thru near my house was backed up to the street. Then the ghetto-ass McDonald's near work was actually CLOSED at a few minutes to ten, with ridiculous hand-lettered signs in all the windows saying they'd be open in a few minutes. (In Detroit, that means the staff is in back of the store smoking blunts.) So I arrived to work hungry, cranky and sleep-deprived.
Lamont wasn't there yet but arrived within a half hour. He pulled an all-nighter and had just gone home to shower and change. Despite the likelihood he may get canned Monday, he is determined to catch up on vast amounts of work this weekend. What he accomplished last night WAS pretty impressive but I'm afraid it's all for naught.
The other guy who works in our department is Tracy. Tracy is Lamont's nephew, except sssshhhhh don't tell anyone, it's a secret! A secret everybody in the building knows. Supposedly key managers and owners don't know, but I have a hard time believing that. Nepotism was practically invented there anyway, but whatever, I promised I wouldn't tell.
Lamont was good enough to get his nephew a job there, yet on a weekend when he's working frantically to make a dent in our backlog and scrambling to save his job, Tracy couldn't be bothered to come in today as promised. Or even call with an excuse. Now that's love. Of course No Show Lo didn't make it in either, after to promising to work today and tomorrow. Lamont told me (not for the first time) that I'm the only loyal employee he has, the only one to show up when I'm supposed to and work hard while I'm there. He assured me he'd keep me if he had to choose among his employees. Nice of him to say, but I'm still not feeling much job security at the moment.
As I was leaving, Lamont learned from a coworker the situation is even more dire than we thought. Instead of being on the hook for nine canceled orders, turns out thirty-one orders were canceled. The client will obtain their books from a third party printer in sufficient quantity so they don't have to rely on us well into the future. The company will see a substantial loss of business over several years. Buzz and Durwood, our resident screaming psychos, are sure to be apoplectic. God only knows what I'll be walking into Monday. Worst case scenario, all four of us could be in the unemployment line.
Music: Prince-Come
Mood: Pessimistic
posted by Sgt Howie @ 5:45 PM
Comments: 0
