Through the Looking Glass

So the noise and nasty odors continue as the work crews tear up kitchen flooring and replace the decking, paint, refinish all of the woodwork on the stairs, paint upstairs and in the kitchen and plant new stuff in the patio area. I had to meditate for an hour last night to restore some semblance of equanimity in body and mind. I passed my boss on the stairs this morning and he told me they'll all be finished tomorrow. I just hope all of us can endure it. Actually, I just hope I can endure it. I'm feeling selfish today.

The other big drama on the work front has to do with one of our off-site employees. This person is a craftsperson who's worked for us for around a decade now. He recently worked at one of our branch sites in a different state. When he returned, his previous position had already been filled so we moved him to a different site. The employee, let's just call him The Ladies' Man, used to be a foreman but there weren't any similar positions available. Normally that would mean he would have to take a pay cut, but because he's been with the company for so long, the owner of the company decided to continue to pay him foreman wages. Ladies' Man has always done a great job for our clients and has grown considerably in leadership skills.

Ladies' Man's supervisor, T., told our one of our accounting people that J.A.'s wages should be at the journeyman level (less than a foreman). Information Superhighway, in the acounting office, said okay to that, even though the owner directed her to pay the other rate. The owner doesn't like to have confrontations with employees, so it's easier for him to just make an end run around the people who are apt to put up an argument.

For some reason, T. decided to open Ladies' Man's pay envelope when he delivered the paychecks this week. He noticed right away that the pay level was not what he expected. T. arrived this morning on the war path. He went to The Superhighway and told her that she had no right to pay Ladies' Man at the higher rate. He insinuated that The Superhighway had made a unilateral decision about the pay rate and accused her of always defending The Man. Superhighway pointed out that she defends lots of other employees, too. Finally, she told him to take it up with the owner of the company. The conversation ended there.

When the owner arrived, Superhighway informed him of the situation. The owner told her to take away the extra hourly pay and just start paying The Man a $200 car allowance for the use of his truck. That ended up being even more than he was being paid before. Superhighway said she'd do that, but insisted that Owner has to talk to T. himself.

My boss does not want to talk to T. That's likely to be unpleasant and my boss really doesn't like unpleasantness. That doesn't seem to be a problem right now because T. left the office and hasn't returned.

I have never, ever worked at a company in which the boss has gone to such great lengths to avoid saying what's on his mind. This isn't an across the board kind of thing. If an employee falls from grace for one reason or another, my boss will not only be confrontational, he'll manufacture ways to annoy or otherwise torment the person. Welcome to life through the looking-glass. More later...if I have the fortitude.