Thursday, February 14, 2013

On Work

I haven't had a paying job since I began grad school almost two years ago.

My last job was one in which I was underutilized and often verbally and systematically abused. Since it was a military job, I was contractually obligated to endure it or else leave in a disgrace that could ruin any future employment opportunities I might want to pursue.

Recently, I thought it might build my confidence and sense of well being to ease back into the workforce with some part- time work. I began working at a shop that sells vinyl and compact discs.

I loved working there. I learned a lot about Jazz, the Blues and all these Rock groups I had never heard of. People would come in and we reminisce about bands we liked in the 80s and 90s.

The owner and I got on pretty well.

Although the pay wasn't much, having a job and doing it well meant a lot to me. There's a human dignity aspect to work that's hard to quantify in a dollar amount.

Prior to last Monday, I noticed that the owner would get irritated with me over minor mistakes. He would speak to me like I had just cost him millions with a simple error.I didn't like it at all.

On Monday he left me in charge of things while he went out to lunch. A customer who had been in earlier returned to buy some stereo equipment and told me the owner had said he could have 10% off.

I have a firm grasp of basic math but I have a terrible anxiety when it comes to performing any sort of mathematical function in front of someone. I grabbed the calculator and punched in the price minus 10%. I did it wrong and ended up giving the guy $10 off instead of the $5.50 that was the correct amount.

After he left, another woman came in and brought a box set of 20 Mozart CDs with her. We spoke in Spanish and she asked me to call the owner and see how much he would give her for the collection. He told me he didn't sell much classical music in the store and that he wasn't interested. I told the woman but she was insistent that I call him again and tell him she would give him the CDs for $15. I called him again and he angrily said no and hung up on me.

He returned as she was leaving and the moment she was out of the store he went off on me saying I had embarrassed him in front of a customer earlier.

I was surprised by this and said I was sorry and hadn't realized that I had said anything hurtful.

He had been showing a customer some turntables earlier and had made a sound with his mouth to imitate that noise that the system made when it was turned on. I had turned to the customer then and remarked that the owner loved onomatopoeia.

Whenever the owner was explaining to me how to file some of the CDs and records away he would always make noises to mimic the sounds of those things being shuffled around. I liked this so much that I would make them back whenever we got in new stock and we would laugh about it.

Suddenly, it wasn't funny anymore and was taken as an attack on his character.

Next he asked about the customers who had come in while he was away and I told him about the man who had bought the stereo equipment. He looked at the cash register receipt and asked why the balance was less than the sticker price. I told him I had given him ten percent off.

First he said that he had never told the man he could have 10% off on that equipment. Next he lambasted me for giving him $10 off instead of 10%. I acknowledged my mistake and said I was very sorry. Then he asked if I had given the man two $1-off coupons which we usually give to people who spend over $15. I said I had forgotten and he insinuated that because of this we had probably lost the customer for good and he would never come back. I thought this was going a bit far but I didn't say so.

I went back to filing away some of the new CDs we had received and was treated to two more tirades about my mistake at the register. I felt utterly stupid and worthless. From the way he continued to berate me you would have thought my mistake meant he would be going without meals for the next week.

Tears welled up in my eyes and I considered walking out. Instead, I finished my shift. While I filed away extra copies of records in the back of the store I realized if I stayed on it would mean dealing with random confrontations over things I hadn't realized I had done.

I went home and sent a text message to him saying I thought I needed to look for a job with less math involved. I also said he could just take my earning for that day and apply them to the mistake I made at the register. He wrote back explaining that when an employee makes a mistake they should be told about the mistake so they didn't repeat it. I agree 100%, I just don't think the employee should be humiliated to the point where they experience a sinking dread at the very thought of making another mistake.

Like many other managers, the store owner had been reading books chock full of supposedly helpful rules for establishing manager/employee relationships.

These are very popular in corporate America and have a lot to do with stripping away the employee's humanity and treating him or her like a lab rat. They begin with the assumptions that the employee is lazy, has delinquent tendencies and is in possession of a low IQ.

They turn the manager into a total misanthrope and stop just short of commanding the manager to slap the employee across the face with a rolled up newspaper before rubbing the employees nose in whatever mistake they have just committed.

This one-size-fits-all crap philosophy means that even if you hire a well educated, responsible adult who shows up on time and isn't trying to rob you blind, you still treat them as if this was not the case.

Another popular ploy of these managerial guides is to force the minions employees do team building exercises involving such useful items as a two-by-four, tin can and length of dental floss.

No amount of team building among the "lower order" will ever change the harmful effects of toxic leadership on morale and job performance.

 In my final year in the Coast Guard, those at the top of the hierarchy decided they would allow members to opt out of their contracts and leave the service early.

The belief was that leaders with higher rank would take the early retirement, freeing up positions for promotion. What actually happened was a massive exodus of the lowest ranking individuals in the service, many of whom expressed relief at getting away from the poor treatment and sometime abuse they had received from their respective commands.

 I would like to say this served as a wake-up call to the service but it didn't.

The habit of treating the underlings like excrement and pretending that it's part of a proud military tradition continues.

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