Picking My Brain

…because really, there’s nothing else that can be done with such a malicious, coniving, pathetic little man.

Except take him down.

I think I will take him down, and laugh all the way.

Anybody who knows me, knows that this is not the way I normally am. But these are not normal circumstances, and I have done nothing to deserve such treatment. I am, of course, speaking of Wawa drama. Something that I try very hard to stay out of, and have now found myself the subject of some particularly nasty issues.

The guy who started all of my problems is Joe, a 22 year old guy who is the same management position as me at work, a CSL. He’s working towards an assistant manager position. When I first met him a few months ago when he helped out our store for a week, I thought he was a nice guy and a hard worker. Then he got transferred permanantly to our store. I thought he would be an assest to our store, after the past few months we needed dedicated, hard-working people.

Things went along well for a few months, then the associates starting buzzing that Joe was talking about them. Every day it seemed that something else he had said about an employee. I noticed after working with him one shift that he seemed to like to gossip and talk about everybody.

A few weeks ago, word finally got around to me that Joe was telling people that I was a slow worker, I didn’t do my job and I don’t know how to manage my associates. I got upset about this, but decided not to say anything. A friend of mine became my informant and she told me that I was being watched. So i got my act together and started working my ass off. I figured that I could simply prove Joe wrong and that would end everything.
Just last week Jon mentioned to me out of the blue that I had shown a lot of improvement and that I was doing a good job. Not only was I proud that my boss had given me that compliment, but I figured that would be the end of Joe’s rumors.

However, I walked in this past Saturday and Lori practically pounced on me about ready to burst. Come to find out, Joe had told one of the other associates that Lori and I were “the two most pointless employees in the store.”

Lori is very impulsive and immediately got on the phone to Jon and I imagine was yelling at him through the phone. I was more rational. I figured I would wait until Monday morning when I saw Jon again calmly tell him what had happened and ask that something be done about Joe.

Now I have to mention here that by this point, Joe had already had a meeting with our area manager about him saying malicious things about another associate to other associates. So this is the second instance since he came to our store that he’s been caught in this situation.

Later on that night, Lori looked at me and looked kind of worried. She said “I didn’t tell you this before because I didn’t want to hurt your feelings, but Joe asked me one night who did I think did more damaged to the store, Ruth Emily or Ellen.”

My mouth fell open for a few seconds, then I just started laughing. Lori looked at me like I was crazy. There was no point in getting overly angry, even though I was. All I had to to was go to talk to Jon, and it would be all over for Joe. The things that he said were malicious and created a hostile work environment. After I filed a complaint, action would have to be taken against him or I could sue.

So as of right now, Joe got written up. Jon informed the area manager of the situation and now we are waiting for her verdict as to how to proceed with Joe. We will have a meeting with Jon, Joe, Lori, me and a guy willing to say that Joe made the comment to him, Joe’s words aren’t just here-say.

The funniest part of the whole thing was that next morning when Joe came in. Both Lori and I refused to talk to him. Joe asked Lori why a few things weren’t done, and after replying no and he asked why, all she would say was, “‘Cause I’m pointless and pointless people don’t do things like that.” I just flat-out refused to talk to him, except where necessary for work. And even then, I spoke in a flat monotone and didn’t even look in his direction. He got the point pretty quickly that we found out what he said and were mad.
So supposedly, Jon wrote Joe up and told Scott and Claire, our asst. area manager and area manager. He also told us that he would schedule a meeting between himself, Joe, Lori, me and the guy who Joe made the comment to, he said that he had to wait until the guy who heard the comment wrote a written statement. However, I found out that he hasn’t even asked the guy to write the statement yet, and there’s been no talk of the meeting.

So now I’m going to have to confront Jon and make sure that he’s going to follow through with this. I want and end put to this guy. He’s done the same stuff at other stores and I’m determined that he’s not going to get away with trampling all over other associates and treating them like crap. That’s not how a manager acts and creates a hostile work environment. I don’t care if he keeps his position now, I just want to make sure that he’s not promoted any time soon because he sure as hell doesn’t deserve it. If Jon doesn’t do anything about it, then my next step is to go to Scott and let me know that we were just brushed off and nothing was done.

So that’s my rant about work for the week. This all happened last Saturday, and this post took me alomost a week to write (today’s Thursday), so my apologies for the long post.

…can you get a better cheesesteak from a greasy, sketchy street vendor than an actual restaurant.

….can you get soft pretzlesfrom any schlub off the street and know that they’re the best around (sorry Meg, though those Amish ones are good, I still prefer the street ones)

…do you know the meaning of “jeet yet?”

…is “yous” a normal part of your vocabulary.

…can you be standing in Wawa at 5 am on January 6 and not wonder why the guy standing in front of you has on red and white striped tights and gold sparkly sneakers.

…do you think “he’s a mummer” of said guy in crazy outfit.

…do you even know what a “mummer” is.

It only took about 5 seconds for me to realize that the goofy-looking man in front of me was a mummer. The Mummers Parade is a long-standing New Year’s tradition in the city and the surrounding areas. The Mummers official website has a great page on what exactly a mummer is. Since New Year’s Day this year was a washout for us, the parade was postponed this year until this weekend. I usually record the parade and watch it on my own time - Ben just doesn’t get it (obviously not from the Philly area…). However, it looks like I might have to miss it this year; I can’t find it listed on my guide to be able to record all 12 hours of it. Oh well, there’s always next year when hopefully, we can actually go to the parade and see some of it live.