My entries on Sunday and Monday dealt with work ethics and heroes. They grew out of my growing confusion about the mind set of a co-worker of mine. In the interest of maintaining this person’s anonymity I will hereafter refer to this person as “Skipnuts.” Here is a little background on Skipnuts:
- He is near-30.
- He has a wife and three young children.
- He suffers from migraine headaches that occasionally render him unable to come to work.
- Two weeks ago, he was in an accident and injured his back (spasms).
Okay, I think that covers the background, here are the things that make me go “Hmmmm.”
Situation 1: Christmas 2000.
A few days, possibly up to two weeks, before Christmas, Skipnuts bought himself a DVD player and a few DVDs. Cool. As a tech geek, I can understand and respect that. After the holiday, Dee and I asked him what did he get his kids for Christmas, his response: “A cartoon tape.”
BRAINCRAMP
Situation 2: Moving Day.
He had agreed to help Dee move into it back in April. He never showed up. He didn’t call. When asked about it later, he said, “Oh, my wife had already planned my day for me.” Hello?!? It’s not like the moving was something that “just came up;” Dee had asked us if we could help WEEKS before. If something had come up, logic – not to mention common courtesy should kick a person squarely in the ass and remind them Hey… I told so-and-so that we would do X today, but since I can’t make it, I should call. The thought never crossed his mind.
BRAINCRAMP
Situation 3: Fight Night
Jess and I went to Dee’s on Saturday to hang out and to watch the Roy Jones, Jr fight. Skipnuts showed up, too. Odd things about his appearance:
- He called Dee that morning to ask if he was still intending to watch the fight… and then asked if he could come up and watch it. Dee said that would be fine.
- To my knowledge, this is the first time that Skipnuts had been to the house (see “Moving Day” above).
- He drove :45 to get to Dee’s.
- Jess asked him why hadn’t he been at work. He told her about the accident and how it messed up his back and that he couldn’t sit for prolonged periods of time and has to stand up or walk around. Umm… didn’t he have to sit for at least :45 while he drove?
- He then proceeded to sit for over five hours while we watched the fights and other shows… and he only got up three times in that timeframe – twice to go to the restroom and once to refresh his beverage.
- He then had to drive another :45 back to his house after the fight.
BRAINCRAMP
I can sympathize with someone who suffers from an illness that affects their ability to work; I have never suffered from migraines, so I will give the benefit of the doubt and say that I am sure that there are times when he would not be able to effectively be able to execute the duties of his job. I know others who suffer from severe migraines, but they are all right after a day or two – not a week to ten days at a time – and are back at their respective jobs. He exhausts his paid leave, his sick leave and his FMLA-approved leave and is then forced to use unpaid and unscheduled leave…. and then he complains about not having any money. And, I’m sure that buying little goodies for himself have nothing to do with this either. And I won’t even start on how often he leaves early “just because.”
Another issue is the “back injury” excuse for being unable to work. At our facility, our primary job is data entry. DCOs work for fifty-five minutes and then get rotating five- and ten-minute breaks.
work (:55) –> break (:05) –> work (:55) –> break (:10) –>repeat
As I noted above, it seems as though sitting for prolonged periods isn’t TOO much of an issue, at this point. We also have terminals that are configured for working while standing; if he needed to stand, he could do so AND work at the same time. He also has the option of requesting an accommodation for a limited-schedule or extra breaks or extended breaks. His decision: Stay at home, unpaid.
The main thing that… irritates… me is: Skipnuts doesn’t seem to give a flying rat’s ass about doing anything to make his situation any better. He rails about how everything is crashing in on him – bills unpaid, utilities being shut off, not having any money to do anything – but it’s not his fault. I disagree. It’s a conscious decision to go to work or not to go to. Case in point: Another co-worker has a podiatric condition that sometimes makes it painful for him to stand and/or walk. When the pain flares up, he makes a decision whether or not to come in; unless the pain is excruciating and crippling – and sometimes despite that – he comes to work. Some days, he can ride out the pain, some days it causes him to leave early. But, he makes the effort. His motivation: Living up to his responsibilities as a husband, father, and a man of integrity and honor. That I understand. Doing seemingly as little as possible to live up to your responsibilities… or worse, not living up to them? It boggles the mind.
I’m not married nor do I have children, but I do have a girlfriend and two cats. Not the same, I realize, but it’s as close an approximation as I can make. I am responsible for half of the expenses that we incur. I knew and accepted that when we decided to get an apartment together. The thought of doing something – or nothing, as the case may be – to jeopardize what we have is part of what drives me to take whatever steps are necessary to see to it that my part of the expenses, bills and incidentals are covered. And I am glad to do it. And if we had children? There would be nothing that could keep me from seeing to it that they had whatever it is that they needed and as many of the things, within reason, that they wanted. If that meant sacrificing some things that I wanted, so be it. My parents did it for me and I could do no greater dishonor to their examples than to give my children anything less.
Hopefully, this will end this series of diatribes. I know that they may sound rather judgmental, but that was not the intent. I needed an outlet for the irritation and outrage that I have harbored about this situation and this forum provided a perfect medium. I will not say that dam won’t overflow again, but now that I have gotten to the heart of what has been bothering me, I think that the tide has receded. If anyone has a response to this, or any of this week’s other rants, please feel free to comment.
Thank you for your time.
Peace.
