symphony of noise: 2007

RANT: THE ANATOMY OF A MADDENING WORKPLACE

--- rant editing began at 7:00pm on 2008.03.05

SECTIONS
JOB DESCRIPTION
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
MANAGEMENT

UPDATES POSTED ON 2008.04.18

JOB DESCRIPTION
When I first started working for the company I am about to write at length about on January Second of 2007, I loved my job. I will not name the company because I am about to bash the fuck out of it. Don't worry, some parts will be kind. Moving on, It was a physical job and hurt quite a lot of the time from the constant work. The people were great and I had a lot of fun regardless of the physical strain. The pay was horrible, though, so I had to force a change in position and pay. It wasn't a choice, more than a requirement to survive.

Where I ended up was in the known asshole of the shipping department: the "each" room. When I started there I kept seeing the word "eaches" on stickers. I thought "that's not a fucking word." Dictionary.com says it's not a word. It isn't in any of the three different brand dictionaries I have. It's not a fucking word. Moving on.

As time progressed I learned how to drive a Tugger. It's an electric pallet jack you stand on and drive, pulling the pallet behind you. The scanner guns we used for inventory control and order pulling based functions were pretty old, as was the system. I will now describe how the area I worked in worked. As well as how the area I helped out in worked, at the time.

EACH ROOM (old)
In the warehouse, there is the each room. That is where I started. The each room at the time I started there was a bunch of shelves seperated in sections of 6 that were pretty well sectioned off by brand and wether it was for horses, pets, etc. That was the extent of the organization though. A lot of it was in order by materiel number, but not really. You pretty much had to have a good idea of where things are, or of where things generally are. After a few weeks of wandering around trying to find items I decided I had enough. I took a pad of paper and during my breaks i drew up a numbering system for all the shelves and racks then wrote down where everything was. I took it home and put it all into an excel file and sorted it out by materiel number. Made a nice sheet so I could look up everything's location by materiel number (item number.)

We rearranged everything, shelves and locations and so on to prepare for the new system that kept being pushed back. This started probably in september. Everything was messed around, some of the stuff still was able to be found by the sheet I made (and kept up on updating the html file i turned the information into by hand) We ended up having to put all of the information into a spreadsheet so it could be copied over into the new system so it would be usable when it went live. They had me use a laptop of theirs. I took that chance to use the data to create a new cheat sheet to use 'till the system went live. Bad thing was, all the work we did getting that new set of information was worthless because the transfer didn't work out.

When the items ran out, or low preferably, we would look in the gun to see if there are any in the primary location. If there were (usually always were,) We would go get the items we needed, scan them out in the system in the warehouse and write down what we scanned out and how many cases. We would then have to go back into the office and run the cases through the computer so they would be broken down into singles (eaches, fucking stupid word) so the computer could pick them for orders and for us to be able to fill them.

I think that was fucking stupid, personally. That there was another step to sync the cases as eaches rather than it being done automatically between the full case system and what appeared to be a seperate system for the eaches. whatever, i never understood how and why no matter how much i tried to ask. it sounded like bullshit to me.

FREIGHT PULLING (old)
The rest of the warehouse was really simple. There were "primary" locations for everything. If the primary ran out, you would look in the gun for the next pallet. they were in order, you would get the oldest plate, or usually the first in line in the gun since they ordered it by age. then you would go to that specific plate and scan it into the primary to replenish it. at the time all the overhead racks were stocked with items that were in the general area. was a really simple, effective system.

The warehouse is set up as follows: the large main area with the primaries has 13 rows of racks on the front 3/4 of the warehouse. there are racks for 3 pallets above the primary. The back 1/4th of the warehouse is a wide row of large primaries for heavy items and things that move pretty fast. (at least that was how I saw it.) Stacked pallets back to back, no racks. There is a store room in the back, behind the main area, which is the width of the main warehouse, and has 8 rows of racks instead of 13. that was the overflow. all racked, no primaries. that's where you would go get pallets to fill the primary with, or to pick full pallets for orders.

There is a new warehouse, bigger than the main one, that has pretty much no racks, that is just three rows of tons of pallets deep stacked 2-3 high. This was where the freight went when it was received and was waiting to be put into the main warehouse overflow or the back store room overflow racks. There were also full pallets pulled from here for orders. Those were the only two reasons to go back into this area. The only time you ever went back there was for a pallet for the primary, overflows, an order or the back storeroom overflow to make room for new shipments. 100% full pallets.

Simple. Fast. Effective. The only problem was when people would pick pallets out of order to fill the primary, this sometimes keeping some old pallets lost in the back of stacks of pallets. Pretty fair, considering how well it worked. Maybe that's just because of hindsight.

N E W C O N D I T I O N S N E W S Y S T E M

OLD SYSTEM
I'll explain how the old system worked, first. I didn't mention this part. Note: This is my explination as best I understand it. It has to be pretty close. I listened to a lot of detailed conversations about this between people who knew thesystem inside and out. This is the only thing that I think can be possible, just a few technical terms and methods are probably not 100% correct.

When an order was taken, it would look at the tally of what we had in stock. It would say "Ok, we have x amount. We're going to place this order." The order would print, and the count of what we had in the building would drop because it has been ordered and no longer counts towards what we have. So next time an order would come through, it would look and see "ok, we have this much to sell."

Now, to be more specific, the orders would be taken no matter what. But when it was time for the orders to be put into our warehouse and shipping system to be processed, picked and sent out, that's when we would have the look at the inventory and everything. It would print the order and have the primaries on it so you knew where to go. And that's when you would get it, or restock it if it was out. Simple. That went for the each room, too. If you didn't have any in the each room, you restocked it. End of story.

NEW SYSTEM
I'm going to start with freight pulling since the new system is 100% eaches, no cases. Some stuff is still in the system as cases for some dumbass reason, but that's just things like displays which can't be broken down and for some really, really stupid fucking reason a number of the buckets.

When the orders would come to be picked, the computer takes the orders, looks at where the oldest stuff in the building was (to keep everything fresh,) and pick it. Sounds good, doesn't it? Keep all the oldest stuff moving out the door so nothing gets old. Lets run through this quick. We'll start with how it's supposed to have worked.

The primaries were changed so that there was room for various pallets. Not wide, but high. Originally it was two pallets high. That wasn't enough so it was changed to three and now four of four high, supposed to be a column of pallets making up the primary. Bottom one being picked off of, then one dropped as they were depleted. One or two people were supposed to be set as stockers. They would have a list fed to them of pallets to pull and transfer into the primary to keep items stocked for the system to pull from. The way that has to work is a full pallet must be transferred into it. If anything on the pallet is spoken for by the system you must move to another pallet to stock the primary. Can you see where this is going?

There was a stocker for a little while off and on the first week. The primaries were whiped out fast. Once the primaries are gone it starts picking, or "biting" off of anywhere the items are. Up in the storage racks above the primaries. In the storage racks in the back store room. Off of pallets in the warehouse where all the pallets are stacked a few high and several deep. Can you see where this is going?

Here's how the system is actually working. This is how it's going, and no matter what they've tried so far while the programmers are supposedly working on a solution, a patch for the system to fix all of these problems.

The system is fed a few hundred orders. Small orders, normal orders, full truck orders. All at once. Not as they come, but they get dumped in. There has so far been no word of that changing. So you could have various pallets picked from at times. A lot of the time it's more than what is available in the primary. So the system picks them one after another. All of them get picked from the primary while things are in the primary. If there isn't enough in the primary, it will continue picking to fill the order from other locations.

So, here is what happens. You will be sent to the primary for two cases, to another pallet for some other cases. Something else and something wonderful the system does which they do not understand, is sometimes it will send you to the primary and two different pallets to make up for the cases you need. What makes this process truly maddening is almost always, you're picking 3 cases from the primary when you see many dozens. Then you go pick a few pallets from a full pallet buried under 2 pallets, behind a half dozen pallets. And you must understand, in order to get to the pallet it wants you to, you have to find it. In the big warehouse where there are no racks, jsut stacks of pallets side to side and back to back, you may have to actually move one pallet at a time if they are too heavy for the forklift you have. So that's moving something 15+ times to get to a pallet you're not even sure is where you are looking. After all, the pallets can be 3 high, ten wide and fifteen deep in parts of the big warehouse. And your pallet may not even be within visual range of a group of pallets of the same materiel number. Great fun.

BUT IT GETS BETTER. It's all in eaches, remember. Here's another thing it loves to do. It will send you to the primary for two cases, to the back room for 8 eaches out of a box off of a pallet you have to pull out of the top rack, and to the each room for 4 more eaches to fill that box to make 3 full boxes. Oh yes. That's how it happens quite often.

NOW: THE EACH ROOM
The way to stock it now is this. Here is the exact method.
1. look in gun to find where there is a case you can take. If there are orders bit off of the primary, you can't take from there. (YES. That's right. There are pretty much ALWAYS orders bit off the primary waiting to be picked.)
2. write down the lot number. you will most likely need it to transfer it into the each room. if you're lucky enough to be able to pull it off of a license plate (which honestly i think is the only way to do it anymore), it's not so vital. but it's better to be safe, because the time you don't, you're fucked and you have to look it up a second time.)
3. go and get the case that you can find which is available (TRY TO GET THE OLDEST SHIT. Yeah right. Some times there are hundreds of pallets. You do the math.)
4 . either scan the license plate (btw: every pallet has a license plate. i guess now they're called "handling units." whatever ,same shit different letter arrangement.) and tell it where it's going as far as which shelf (bin, technically) in the each room.
5. that's all

before, all you had to do was grab one out of the primary. It was R A R E you had to stock a primary to pull a case for the each room. RARE. You would have to catch it at dead empty. Usually freight has 2+ cases of something. So, there would either be one left or many left since someone had to stock it. You know?

So we didn't have time to stock the each room as it emptied out slowly. Plus, right off the bat full cases were being pulled out of the each room for fright. So all of the full cases went really, really fast. And the eaches slowly went away, slowly but surely. My boss and I really had no interest in filling the each room because we knew it would empty pretty fast and turn out to be just total shit. Which turned out ot be even more annoying than ever thought before. Various times we saw people coming for 11 eaches out of a case of 12. 5 out of a case of 6. why? for freight. FREIGHT. Not for the each room. Freight orders should never touch the each room. And speaking of eaches being taken out of boxes in the warehouse, oh yes. open cases EVERYWHERE.

moving out of the each room in how this system is working.......

You would have to get a case from 3 different places, and eaches from one more, at times. And again, you would be pulling the shit out of pretty much full pallets. All of the cases would be spoken for since hundreds of orders are "picked" in the computer, but waiting to be physically picked. So, even still, it makes no fucking sense. There's no reason they can't be picked at the moment someone starts the order. That's the smart way to do it. These aren't files in a computer. These are physical things spread through a warehouse you have to get to and acquire. It's a fucking nightmare. We would be picking 4 eaches from a box in the primary. 4 eaches from a box on a top rack in the back store room and 4 eaches from the each room to make a box of 12. I'm serious. I've had to do it myself a few times. Fucking MADDENING. Would be taping the full case together thinking "I wonder if I can scrape myself to death with the jagged edge of the tape gun that cuts the tape."

HOW THINGS ARE ACTUALLY STARTING TO BE FORCED TO HAPPEN

Myself, I tried digging for pallets. I followed the way it was supposed to be done. We would continually go to the management and people in charge of the transition to the new system. The first thing I was pissed about was they would tout the fact that the new way things worked, we wouldn't have to see a ton of bullshit messages on the orders that didn't actually have anything to do with our part of the life of the order. Like "please leave on porch." That's something for the UPS or Fed Ex delivery guy. or "make sure we have a pallet count not a case count." That's for freight, not for the each room. And they told us, if we see ANYTHING that looks weird, anything that doesn't apply to our job at all, bring it to them so they could get it filtered out. Alright. Fine. So we got something that was seriously not even close to our part of the process. Call before delivery. Uhh, no. That's not us. we could call, sure. But we would be saying "it's leaving the warehouse." They would say "when will it be here?" "Don't know. Have to ask UPS, or look at your tracking number." They mean call before delivering to them phsyically, to them. you know. not our place. So I took it in all happy go lucky, check this out, this isn't for us at all.

"Yes it is."

'nope, we can't do that, that's not a message for us. that's not our department, you said for us to come tell you if we had somehting show up that wasn't our department.'

"that's a shipping message. you're in shipping."

'ok, it's part of the shipping but it's nothing that has anything to do with us, obviously. just another trash message.'

"ok."

'well, you wanted us to bring messages that weren't for us so they could be set to show up at the right time of the order, right?'

"right. but you're in shipping, that's a shipping message."

I smiled and nodded and walked away. I remember that conversation pretty well because that was pretty much the very last time I went in there for any problem I was seeing. A few I started going in for because it was something i HAD to go get fixed. Most I ignored, or learned how to make it not happen, or learned ways to cheat and go around it.

One thing we actually started doing was -- we stopped fucking spending 30 minutes digging for, and refilling the hole we dug through pallets, to get shit. if we saw a whole row of a materiel number, we would try to substitute it. Anymore, it's so much of a gamble that you'll be traveling ALL the way to the office just to sit and probably wait for the lady who can do shit, to be free. we fucking type in manually the handling unit we are "picking the cases from." naturally, we're grabbing what we can see and moving on. Yes, this is RAPING the inventory. But, when you need 3 cases from a pallet that you can't see, but you can see a pallet sitting there with 3 cases, each with different handling units taped to them ... you fucking know, take those three. take those three and you're good. and chances are if you look in the gun those 3 handling unit stickers you can see, dont exist anymore in the computer because they've been "picked." i have tested that theory enough times to not even question it anymore. Why? Because we drive around enough without fucking having to spend even more dozens of minutes a day digging for fucking bullshit numbers when the exact same thing, expiration date, materiel number and lot number are RIGHT FUCKING IN FRONT OF YOU . But, that's starting to show that everyone is just grabbing shit. And they're starting to come down on it. We did 40 million in first two months of the year. They think we're going to do 75% more in the next few months. I don't see how. Well, there are ways they are pushing, and so on, but that's coming later.

SOCIAL STRUCTURE
First thing I noticed when I got to the location I work at now is, it is SEGMENTED. A group of a half dozen people eat together in the office, dont bullshit much with anyone else. A group kind of sits up front on the ship floor. A group sits in one section, another group in another, so four pretty solid groups there. and a bunch of stragglers who go out to eat, go eat in their cars, etc. But what really makes this stand out, is we all work together and people backstab really, really bad. I noticed it right off the bat. I saw backstabbing my first week there. First couple months I saw two people talking who always talk. People up front who stand around for dozens of minutes at a time bullshitting, snitched on them talking in the aisle. They said they were talking for 30 to 45 minutes. There is no way. It was maybe 20 minutes. Yeah. 20 minutes of bullshitting while people are moving around working all around you is kind of fucked up, sure. A lot of people did it during working hours. Who cares? Well, nobody liked one of the two people who were talking.

When they got suspended a few of the guys up front were laughing and telling eachother "YOU'RE NEXT!" like it was a big fucking game. As if they don't sit around up there and talk all the time. In fact, a few times after that they would be talking for HOURS, LITERALLY. Granted, one guy would pick up a pallet and move it onto the wrapper, talk for five minutes, move the pallet over to sit. Meanwhile, the few of us able to pull freight were working. And it was guaranteed, if they saw us talking they would get pissed off and stand up front talking about how they would have more work to do if we would not talk and pull freight faster. All of them could come out and help pull freight. In fact, at the time, those three guys up front. I can cont on my fingers and toes how many times I've seen all of them combined pull freight in the ten months I've been there. Fucking pathetic. But they'll be the first to bitch at you for talking.

Backstabbing: Speaking of which, the person that they hated and snitched out, she is now up there working with them. So now there are habitually four people up front bullshitting and bitching about people talking and moving slow when they have nothing to do. You know, rather than coming out and pulling shit when they're slow 'till things build up for them to do so they can get to work on what they are up there for. That person was friendly with me, and I friendly with them, for the first several months I worked there. I got fucked over once by them, forgave them and kept talking to them. Everyone was warning and warning and warning me. But I'm a nice guy. Second and third time I got fucked over, and In ever bullshit anymore with that person.

Anyway, I ate lunch by myself, stayed in the each room and didn't associate for quite a long time. I learned that one group stays to themselves and does nothing to anyone else. One group acts friendly with people but fucks them over any chance they have if they're even BORED. One group is fairly honest, but has problems coming to you if they have a problem -- that group is the one I ended up conversing and associating with. The big problem there is you're never sure if someone is actually irritated with you or not. you'll hear about it from a third person sometimealong the line, but it's just how it goes. It's either that or talk to the group that will stab you in the back as hard as they can. the other groups pretty much are, you have to work with us. so, those were my choices. backstabbing or chance drama out of nowhere.

The person nobody liked? There was big fucking drama with that fucker just yesterday. The person was put in charge of verifying people's orders. They pick the freight, the person goes through and checks it to make sure it's right. And the guns will tell someone to pick 10 eaches, so they pick 10 eaches. But it was supposed to be 10 cases. It happens. It happens a lot. And the person just refuses to believe it. It can't be the system. They have to be the ones fucking up and the person lets you hear it. Well, I'll say it's a she. And she can be a total fucking snob. The time I came close to jumping off my forklift and beating the fuck out of her was when I was pulling some pallets and something was fucked up on it -- and it couldn't be fixed until the whole order was pulled. I knew what was wrong. I knew how to fix it. I just had to finish the order. It was about twelve pallets to pull. I was maybe five in when she started getting snippy that some handling units were missing and some didn't work. I told her, I know, it's ok we know what is going on with this order. I have to finish pulling it to fix it. SHe was like, well, there's a problem on this other pallet, the count is totally off. I told her, yes I know, as I already told you we know what is going on with this order and will fix it when we get it pulled. She huffed and said whatever and walked off. I was like, well, ok, she's stupid and drove away. When I came back a couple pallets later she was scanning the one I had dropped off when she was pissing around about the pallets a few ahead of that. she stomped and said "UGH, THIS ONE ISNT WORKING EITHER." I was really pissed off at that point. Through the order I saw both of the other front end people up there looking over it and was jsut getting fucking furious. I went up and told the guy who was the checker before her that I knew what the problem was and was going to take care of it but had to finish the order first, he said and i quote "dont worry i'm figuring it out." so I drove away fucking blazing mad. i pulled a few more pallets and stopped again and reminded him, "hey, i know what's wrong with these pallets ok? and i have to finish it, i tried telling her but she wouldn't listen." he said he was checking what was there against what was supposed to be there. He said it calmly. I actually stopped and felt relieved and told him thank you, thank you for actually telling me something rather than being huffy and snooty and just not listening at all. made me feel 100% better, which was weird. and even seeing that they were laughing at me for getting so pissed at the dumb bitch and the guy being able to diffuse it so easily, and pretty much looking down on me because they're so fucking awesome and important and worth while.... anyway

yeah, we all want to kill that bitch. so, again, the bullshit yesterday. we figured out she hates the honking that goes on at work. someone will go beep beep beep, beep. someone a few aisles down will echo the pattern. and after a second a bunch of people are echoing the pattern and adding to it and shit around the warehouse. she gets PISSED. so, soon as we figured that out, guess what? more fucking honking. So yesterday one of the guys I talk to a lot was pretty much laying on his horn. She was getting so mad you could hear her screaming at the top of her lungs like a spoiled little shit with her toys taken away "STOOOOP. STOP HONKING, STOP IT, STOOOOOP RIGHT NOW." so he kept going for a bit and stopped so he could focus on getting the pallet down and getting his cases off, and putting the pallet back up. then, once he did and was pulling his forks down? more honking. not long, she started yelling again, and approached him. looked to me that she was on her way to walk by and was just yelling at him as she was passing. nope, she was yelling, threw a box in his general direction and went to pick it up and whatever. I didn't see it but one of my coworkers did and the guy honking told a few people. so heard it from my coworker then shortly after heard about it from a guy that the honker told. same story from two different directions about what i missed. i told our spineless boss today about it and i'm pretty sure as far as that went was him asking the honker if he had any issues. he said no, because he's scared of getting himself in any trouble so he just keeps quiet. so, i think that's where it died, unfortunately for all of us.

MANAGEMENT
There are three managers. One for each section. There is a guy above them, but he's an office riding ass kissing yes man. He looks like an 8 year old kid, but to my amazement I found out he is actually very smart. The manager we have doesn't scold anyone, really. They call him various names of animals that have no backbone. At first I couldn't figure out why. Now I've seen more than enough to understand. If someone has to get written up that is under him, he has others up in the office that are his rank or higher help out. It's pretty fucking sad.

The guy who runs receiving, who also takes over our side if ours is gone, is a nice guy, but also very quiet. You will hear from him though if you fuck up. That's the good thing. He's pretty fun too, anyway. But the thing that pisses everyone off about him is as long as his side looks good he doesn't give a FUCK about other sides. Production's side or our side. He'll fucking put tons of production pallets above our primaries, where they seriously don't go at all. And when they're unloading trucks, if there is room for 15 or 20 pallets in an area that has a few partial pallets? They'll fucking bury them behind a ton of full pallets. So you'll be squeezing, walking around in between pallets trying to find the materiel you need and BOOM, a mostly empty area with fucking partial pallets behind 3-4 layers of fucking 2-3 pallet high stachs. fucking BULLSHIT. But they don't give a fuck. Instead of using their heads and pulling the partials aside, they just bury the fuckers. I put this under management because he's one of the three guys who do it. And he fucking knows better. He just doesn't give a fuck. Since his side is getting tore apart, he wants the people doing it to suffer. Not like we have a fucking choice.

The third 2nd level guy runs production. He actually has balls and takes care of business. He's the guy I worked for in the company before coming to this location. And the person directly under him is even better. She's fucking awesome. She may be extreme, but she's extreme in the way that if you fuck up she's going ot be so far up your ass she's going to have to go up your ass a second time to be in your ass because she's fifteen feet out of your throat and above you as soon as she gets into your ass to begin with. It's too bad we don't have her on our side. She would tear people in half.

There is a guy at work who was a temp five years ago and now has tons of special projects, pretty much the best forklift on our side and doesn't really have to do shit. is called "the golden boy" by most people because he's always ribbing the boss and they're always talking and he always gets all these bullshit fucking stupid side jobs which i'm sure half of them aren't needed at all. nobody was offered that position, he was handed it because he was friends with the guy who had it before him who actually earned it. this guy is also, somehow, in charge of all the temps who come and go. he determines wether they stay or advance. my first day he told me "stay out of the way of the people on forklifts. they're the ones making the real money here for the company." which i thought, cool, that makes sense. but to elaborate on how he really is, and dont get me wrong he's a charming guy.

I was driving a tugger and knew he was coming out of a trailer i was approaching so pulled to the side so he had a nice clear arching path to drive through as he exited the truck and went by. but what I didn't know was I stopped in his straight path. he told me to go, and I said I stopped to get out of your way, go ahead. he knows, and i figured out pretty quick, forklifts accelerate WAY faster than tuggers. So I was trying to let him get by faster. He said no, go. you're in my way. I said "there is plenty of room." he got really pissed and demanded I went, so I did, and I was saying "fucking plenty of room, like i know what path you plan on taking" I was pissed off. Staying out of his way, still pissed him off and got bitched at. so as I was on my way back by there he was coming out of the trailer again and stopped to bitch at me some more. He was really pissed off and telling me that I need to not give him lip when he tells me to get out of his way and shit. I pretty much told him I can't pay attention to every forklift driver in the building and automatically know where everyone is planning to drive at all times, etc. he said he swore that i should have known he was pulling pallets from where he was, and should have figured that was the exact straight path he was taking. I told him, he's wasting more time bitching at me than he would have if he had just gone around me since i was stopped. obviously waiting to let him by. he said he didn't give a shit now he was pissed and that if i didnt like it i knew where the door was.

so naturally, i went up to the boss and told what happened and let him know, listen, i dont put up with people talking to me like that and i'm not interested in that sort of bullshit at all. my direct boss also told him that she's not going to lose me because of him being an asshole. well, after that, i was free of him being in charge of me directly. i was the mailroom/eachroom's, and all he was was the guy who had to be the go between between me and the temp agency i started from.

Speaking of him and the boss's relationship, recently when the system was switched over we had TONS of stuff that had to be gotten rid of. a few pallets of horse stuff and a bunch of pallets of pet stuff. actually i think it was like 4 or 5 pallets of pet stuff and about 10 pallets of horse stuff. one of them was an over half pallet of dewormer for horses. we were waiting for it to get released so we could all take turns going through and grabbing what we wanted before they started giving the local pet shelters and so on chances to go through and take what they could use. Well I was sick with a really horrible cold that blossomed into bronchitis, and when i came back I made a comment as to why there were only a half dozen pallets back there when there were like 14 or 15 of them full of shit.. My boss laughed and told me what happened. Some peopel volunteered to come in and work the saturday I passed on because I didn't feel good at all. People who were there said all the shit was there just a few dozen minutes before they left for the day. When everyone came in monday morning, ALL the horse stuff was gone. All the wormer. A good full pallet of various kinds of horse dewormer. Pallets, at least six or eight pallets of all kinds of horse goods. feed, shampoo, anti-fly stuff, masks, etc etc etc. Tons of shit. Hoof polish, leather new, fucking tons of stuff. Gone. Just disappeared. The golden boy was asked about it and all he would say was, dont know, it all just disappeared. Later he would come back and be like, you know, i have to do what i'm told, i just have to do what i'm told. so obviously he felt guilty about something. people say they overheard the boss talking about a new fishing hole he spent all of sunday at. so the popular theory is he traded thousands of dollars of horse stuff for some land that has a pretty nice pond or lake with good fishing.

And this, mind you, at the price of at least a dozen people REALLY looking forward to being able to go through and get a bunch of free horse stuff for their horses or close, close friends horses. One of which I know for a fact has a sister with a few horses with CANCER. A couple cases of various medicine that would have seriously helped the horse out. So she bought a big bucket of stuff that would help with her own money taking the 10% company discount. Helped the two horses a WHOLE FUCKING TON, like, massive improvement. for the month it lasted, anyway. just imagine how good the horses could have been for several months if she would have had access to a very small portion of what disappeared.

there are probably many, many more stories that piss me off that go on at the place I work right now. And maybe now some of you who know me understand why I've been more and more and more of a prick over the last few months.

Oh, since this is the management section:

THIS FUCKING MAKES ME GOD DAMN FURIOUS.

We would go up and tell them problems we're having, like being sent all over hell for a few cases when there are plenty in the primary, etc. Asking why the fuck doesn't it pick the shit when it's actually being pulled rather than doing huge batches of shit at once when most of it wont be picked for hours, if not days. thus, fucking making it all totally backwards and time destroying for no good reason at all. We were talking to the biggest guy in the building about it and he seemed to not care at all. Seeming changed entirely when he told my biggest direct boss, the head of the five of us in the mailroom, "well, the system's working how it's supposed to." and kinda half-smiled and nodded and went back into the offices.

Can you fucking believe that? Tell them the total bullshit the system is doing and just being told "system's working how it's supposed to." Explain to them that the system is having us pull cases from sometimes three or even four different locations at different corners of the warehouse to make the number needed, eaches from two different boxes hundreds of feet apart from one another, and the system's working how it's supposed to. So any time people are bitching to me about how the system works, or i'm bitching to someone, i tend to toss in "hey, boss says system's working how it's supposed to."

--- rant editing ended at 9:49pm on 2008.03.05

--- rant addition started at 9:59pm on 2008.03.05

Oh, by the fucking way, as far as management goes. Schedule is 7:30am to 4pm. Got it? Well, you can come in at 7. So I guess it's 7-7:30am to 4. But if we're busy they'll be like, hey, you have to work saturday. Sometimes they'll make saturday voluntary. But during some parts of the year it's manditory a lot. This is one of the slow times of hte year and this is going to be the third manditory saturday in a row. That's right folks, 6 day weeks. And we wouldn't mind so much if they would make us stay late during the week to. Wouldn't you fucking think that if we're REALLY that god damn busy, we would fucking be working early and working later? not just killing one of the days off we have so we can work more? another hour and a half a day is a lot easier to add on than losing a fucking day off.

And speaking of losing days off, we had two vacation days that lined up in a way that we had 2 four day weekends in a row at the end of december. christmas, the day after christmas and the weekend. then new years eve and day off then the weekend. did they happen? you bet your ass they DIDN'T. we had to work on the saturday each time. so we had three day weekends. and one of the saturdays we got screwed out of. the way the pay period happened, we didn't have our time cards to clock in so the overtime was supposed to be tacked on to the next check. was it? nope. did people comment? yep. did it get fixed? nope. but we had paid days off that weren't holidays that we used as flex, so. fuck it, right?

who the fuck are we, anyway. fucking peons, that's what.

--- rant addition ended at 10:29pm on 2008.03.05

--- rant addition started at 4:40pm on 2008.03.07

today the guy that had the box thrown at him was talked into telling our main boss. one of the guys mentioned above, however fucking annoying his decisions can be, found out about the situation and pretty much jumped all over the guy's ass and told him, listen, this bitch gets away with SO MUCH SHIT, you have to go to the boss and tell him what happened. i offered $40, everybody wanted him to. finally he did. what happened? nothing. if any of us did that kind of shit to her we would be suspended at minimum. she does it and she's still there. probably for quite a long while.

And I might add that Saturday is manditory work from 7am-1pm. That is, unless you're one of the favorites and are allowed to get saturday off. Not only get saturday off, but leave at lunch on Friday. Isn't life grand if you're one of the people shown favoritism.

--- rant addition ended at 4:45pm on 2008.03.07

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Since last we spoke various things of astonishing nature have happened. Let me take some quick notes.

- I went to MA about Box Thrower
- Sunday Tattoo
- Two from Dallas
- Saturdays

Went to Ma
The guy above the top guy in the building dropped in one day unannounced. He was wandering around the building and I cought him in the offices. I asked him if he was heading out into the warehouse and of course he said he was. I don't think he was but I believe he could tell I wanted to talk outside of the offices, so he was game. When he got out there I was stumbling on words because I was busy thinking that my direct boss was standing right next to me. I asked MA what his personal policy on box throwing was. He was slightly confused, box throwing? So I explained the situation to him. He asked me who all I went to and told me he would go talk to the head guy in the building about it and I should come up in 5 minutes. It just lead to me going up and telling him about it and him doing absolutely nothing, which is par for the course.

Sunday Tattoo
One week we worked 7-5 all week and I pushed 7-6 on saturday. Sunday was optional and I was so pissed that they even suggested it that I worked it, simply because I was so against it and amazed that it was even an option. The greed running rampant in this company is just staggering to me. I'm sure there is far worse, but this is by far the worst I have experienced. After that I joked that they might as well just put barcodes on us because we're just monkeys to them. So after a while of joking about it I actually got a barcode tattood on my left forearm. People ask me if I'm going to regret it when I don't work there anymore and I just remind them, I didn't get it because I LIKE my job. I get it because I hate how the workers are treated.

Two from Dallas
There had been rumors for a long time that people were going to be sent up from Dallas to help. Or, rather "help." Well Wednesday we had heard that they were going to be here Thursday morning. Everyone was kind of amazed by that. Thursday we found out there was a meeting at 10am where a question was asked "how is the cross training going?" the answer was "what? we were never told that was going to happen nor have we received any transfers of any kind." MA said it had to happen asap at 10:30. At 11 the two people chosen were informed they had plane tickets waiting for them and it was departing at 5pm. They had 6 hours to be ready and at the airport to leave dallas to the omaha metro area. Great company, isn't it?

They came up here and were only here until lunchtime FRIDAY. They were supposed to be training to know how we do things up here so when they came up again they would be A-OK right off the bat to jump into the mess and help us. They're so god damn stupid that instead of getting people actually hired, they are willing to spend money on flying people up, training them, paying for room and board and everything. Isn't that just the craziest fucking thing you've ever heard being done for WAREHOUSE WORK? Are you fucking kidding me?

Saturdays
The thing that angered me enough to make this latest ammendment is the fact that this week, once more, we're forced to work Saturday for absolutely no fucking reason at all. The sign was posted on Wednesday shortly after we heard the Dallas people were going to show up for work Thursday. We figured it was just to flex and show how cool we are that we are forced to work fucking six day weeks all the time. The rumor continued all the way up until the end of the day Friday that Saturday's posted hours were just a theory, so we wouldn't make plans for that chunk of time because it was POSSIBLE that we would have it off after all. Or at least Voluntary instead of Manditory. So the bad part about that is naturally we held some hope that we might not be forced to work it.

I mean, fucking after all, the week before that and for a long period before that you could choose to work hours late every day. There was a second shift running to help catch up. Supposedly we were THREE WEEKS behind at one point. Why would a place get three weeks behind? The new system, as mentioned above. But this week and the tail end of last week, we've been so cought up that we run out of orders by the end of the day and find ourselves fucking off and not really doing shit. This week? We fucking have been working 7:30-4. Not even 7-5 like the weeks before. We have jack shit to do. MULTIPLE times a day in the section I work in we find ourselves out of orders and waiting to see if more, and how much more, is coming out. But we get the bullshit on Wednesday that we may have to work Saturday? We thought, hey, MAYBE they know something we don't. COULD be that there is going to be a bigass bomb of orders on Thursday and Friday.

Thursday, jack shit.

Friday? You guessed it. Jack shit.

Saturday? Yep. We're coming in 7am-noon. Why? So we can "keep caught up so we can start off easily Monday." That's a quote. Another quote about Saturday is "We're coming in no matter what. Even if we get everything done and have to stock all day."

Got that? What's the fucking point, then? We're NOT BEHIND. We haven't even fucking had to work late all week. But for some fucked reason they want to make us come in Saturday? It's not like it's going to matter AT ALL if it waits 'till monday. And if we can't get the fucking shit done during normal hours Monday it's GUARANTEED that there will be a handfull of people BEYOND willing to stay late and finish up. I would MUCH rather work 7am-7pm M-F as opposed to fucking normal hours and losing saturday. People say "Oh it's only five hours." Yeah, but I fucking have to drive a good distance. I fucking DONT like getting up early. Fuck it.

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