Crazy Days

These last several weeks have been a madhouse at work! The rumor about the Personal Time "use it or lose it" was true! "Corporate" didn't want to tell the workers about this because everyone would want to take the time off. Our TM went against their decision because many of us had accrued a significant amount of personal time. He felt we had earned and deserved to use that time before losing it. I had 50+ hours of personal time and managed to squeeze in a week off, this month. If possible, I'll use up my last 10+ hours this week otherwise, I'll lose it. I don't mind losing 10 hrs. It's difficult to leave early when I'm putting in OT everyday. As for my vacation time, well I currently have 64 hours that Watkins will pay out at the end of August.

To say it has been stressful at work would be an understatement. Trying to allow people to use up personal time, has left us short staffed. We've also had 1 driver quit without notice and another took 2 weeks vacation. It was either allow the driver the vacation or he would quit. We have another contract driver that decided to call out sick because she wasn't being kept locally. She would have needed to gas up her tractor ($350+) for the 2nd time in a week. This driver is not making the move to FedEx and doesn't care whether freight is delivered or not.

In the office, one co-worker started having seizures last weekend. After several days in the hospital and numerous tests, the doctors have put her on medication to control the seizures. Unfortunately, until they are certain the dosage is accurate and controlling the seizures, the doctors will not allow her to drive for 6 months. That means she can't get to work! She lives about 45 minutes from the office and public transportation, in CT, sucks.

One of our sales reps is also in the hospital with heart palpitations and internal bleeding. So far, there is no word on what is causing either of these conditions.

And if those were enough, a Dock Supervisor was on vacation in FL when his wife fell at the hotel swimming pool and fractured her ankle in 3 places. She is having orthopedic surgery, if FL, and he needs to stay in FL to take care of the kids.

Last week we had "Employee Appreciation" week. This is where Waktins thanks their worker's by filling them with food! Tuesday we had free ice cream bars. I ordered 300+ ice cream and the night workers said they didn't get any ice cream. Apparently someone called corporate and the complaint made it down the "chain of command" to me, that I didn't order enough!! After being told that, I discovered there were still 50+ ice cream bars in the freezer! Apparently the guys decided they didn't like the bars and therefore there was nothing left. For Wednesday, I ordered grinders. Now these are not the average size grinders. These are 16" grinders with atleast 2 lbs of meat on each grinder!! A 1/2 grinder, for a "normal" person is 2 meals. I ordered 115 grinders for 100 people and was told it wouldn't be enough and to order another 50. By friday, I was begging people to take the leftover grinders, home with them!! While the bread had become stale, the meat was still very good and would make excellent sandwiches.

Today is the culmination of Employee Appreciation Week - an outing at High Meadow. Having been to High Meadow when I worked for Wiremold, I know what they provide for rain shelter (yes, it suppose to rain most of the day). There is one covered pavillion where the food and tables are set up and an activity tent. We are sharing the grounds with Hamilton-Sunstrand employees. I have a feeling everyone will be packed into the pavillion. Unless other tents are set up, it's going to be very crowded with screaming kids running amok. While I did want to attend, it doesn't sound like much of a fun time to me. I'll stay home, unless the sun comes out and dries up the ground.

With all the above happening, I did manage to squeeze in a week's vacation to Campobello Island, Canada/Lubec, ME. Thanks to Victoria and Karl it's was a very nice week. They had already rented a cottage and invited me to join them for the week. I took a few pictures and downloaded them to my webshots page. We spent time playing tourist and visiting with another friend, Colin, that is from Lubec.