I had a rough Saturday night but otherwise it was a very ok weekend and it's leading into a very decent Monday, I hope.
Here are a few reasons I'm loving life this Monday:
1. I slept great last night. Saturday night I didn't sleep at all. Ok, barely. Maybe an hour or so altogether. Last night... truly decent zzz's were had. I think some of my meds were mixed up on Saturday and my body is such a delicate eco-system that I just screwed myself up. I'm much better now.
2. Austin quit his job. I know... not supposed to be happy that my kid is unemployed. The thing is... it had become so difficult to drop him off at work knowing that he was going to be treated poorly by the manager of that store who... for whatever reason is known in our small town for treating employees like poo stuck to his shoe. Austin hung in there for a long time. He never once NOT EVER called in sick or missed a day of work - this is a kid who couldn't attend high school a week in a row without a day off. He worked hard, he was consistent, he went above and beyond what was asked of him and the customers loved him. Saturday Austin worked an earlier schedule than he has ever done before and he had a few questions about what had to be done. The manager was so nasty to him and said things like, "don't you know anything?" and "should I just give up on you?" because Austin asked him which supply closet (there are three) held the cleaners they needed to clean the bathrooms - it turned out they were OUT of cleaner, it wasn't Austin's fault that he couldn't find it. He just got transferred from the meat department to bagging and had never worked that schedule with that set of responsibilities. It breaks my heart because he tried SO HARD and this man - who really needs prayer because there is something seriously wrong with him- took some kind of sick pleasure in mocking him. When he would put Austin under pressure and Austin would struggle to respond - remember my son has autism and has worked hard to develop communication skills and he is VERY well spoken now after a lifetime of coaching but does struggle when he's in a high stress situation - and this manager would mock Austin's speech when he would respond to him. I can say some of these things now that he doesn't work there. They were short on hot dogs one holiday weekend. Austin had made the order but it was his first time doing it and he had no idea he had to increase the order. The store manager told Austin to drive to another location to pick up some more stock (they don't really do that... it comes in refrigerated trucks and you wouldn't really WANT someone transporting hot dogs in their car in the summer, would you?) Anyways, when Austin reminded him that he didn't drive the guy yelled, "THEN TAKE A TAXI"... On Saturday when the jerk asked Austin if he should just give up on him it's because one of the stalls didn't have toilet paper. Again... not something he has been doing. When he asked him that Austin said, "when did you ever have faith in me?" Because he hasn't. The manager asked him if he wanted to clock out and he did. They kept him on the schedule but Austin just couldn't go back and I don't blame him. I couldn't either. There's only so much you can take. The girl that they put in Austin's job in the meat department has to have other employees help to be able to unload the trucks. Austin would do it himself plus order the stock plus many other things in that department making things easier on the guys who actually do the meat cutting. He was a real team player, always being willing to chip in and help. Now those guys have to help this girl do things, she can't help them and the manager thinks that's an improvement. In his mind, apparently, it's an improvement to take his higher paid employees and have them do what a stocker should do, rather than have the stocker be able to complete his job independently and then help out the higher paid employees. Anyways, it's a relief to be done with this guy. Pray that Austin finds a new job - a better job - very soon. I'm glad that the stress of that job is behind him. But change is hard and he feels a lot of pressure to find something fast - obviously - it's very hard for him to introduce himself into new situations so... this is just hard. Keep him in your prayers, please. We have to be very careful to be encouraging and supportive to him without making him feel overwhelmed by the situation. Once he becomes overwhelmed he has "analysis paralysis" and over thinks things to the extent that he can't do anything. Sorry, end of mini-rant in the middle of what I mean to be a positive blog. I just love Monday because my kid has removed that tyrant from his life. Happy Day!
3. Hopefully... since he has a little time off... we can spend some time with my favorite baby girl. We only had her a short time last week since Austin was feeling poorly with his bad tooth and since Cosy had the stomach bug and felt so miserable. (Update! We had a wonderful Cosy/Daddy Monday! Photos on Facebook!)
4. The trees here are beautiful. It's not full on full color yet but that doesn't always happen. We have a heat wave coming this week but then on Saturday it's supposed to be 68 for a high. I'd love to skip those few days over 80 this week but I'm so happy to see those cooler days in the forecast! The view from my nest is slowly changing and I love it so much!
5. There is a cat sleeping on my lap. I love my clingy Little Kitty - most of the time. He gets excited when I get the laptop out because he knows I'm going to be sitting still for a little while. He's sleeping so deep that he's snoring. This is going to sound gross but this cat is so bonded with me that he lets me pick his nose. He gets a little crusty on one side of his nose and I clean it out for him when he's in my lap. On the opposite end of the spectrum... Stubby is not cuddly. He has a nasty cold and I've had to practically sit on him to try to clean his nose so he could breathe. He thrashed around like he was in a fight for his life. In other cat news... I've started feeding the cats a higher protein food without the fillers in it. Most cat food is corn and stuff like that. I have found that if I feed them a higher protein food they eat a LOT less food. So even though the higher protein food is more expensive, they don't go through it as fast. #catladylifelessons
6. I didn't blog about it ahead of time because it was a bit of a surprise (I found out after I had written the last blog post) but we got to see Oliver this past weekend! I took some pictures and posted them on Facebook but... I took about three times as many pictures as I was able to use. He moves SO fast that most of the pictures I got of him were blurry! He was such a little doll. He was running down the hill out back (holding his parents' hands) and thought it was the funniest thing! It won't be long before he's rolling down that hill all on his own. We have the perfect backyard for a little boy to run and play. We just have to have someone posted at the bottom of the hill to keep him out of the lake. He's just such a happy boy and I love spending time with him.
7. I spent yesterday from midnight through around 5pm watching a Downton Abbey marathon. I didn't even look at the news and I almost always at least start the morning with some news. It was a great escape from reality. I had to relive the death of Matthew Crawley but I didn't cry this time - fifth time's a charm. I didn't even mind the constant PBS fundraising breaks!
8. Early voting starts in Georgia this week! I plan to vote today, if not, this week. The odds of me waking up on election day and feeling like going somewhere are pretty low. The place for early voting is easily accessible and I want to get it out of the way. My mind is made up so there's no need to wait. Austin wants to write in "anarchy" for his Presidential choice because he thinks that's our best option. He is not kidding. (Update! We voted! Cosy was really confused by the process but did her civic duty right along with me! Or at least watched...)
I should clarify because I think the tenses in this blog are going to be all kinds of crazy confusing. I started blogging this morning... Austin asked if I wanted to get Cosy so I abandoned the post half way through and have come back to it at the end of the day. Having trouble connecting my thought train and that's why! Anyways...
9. This has been a perfectly wonderful day. Austin installed my new bathroom mirror which is huge and so much nice than the tiny little mirror I propped up against the wall four years ago when we moved in that I had never replaced! Now we've just got to get my new light fixture installed. None of my kids are beating down the door to help me out with it but Austin is going to give it a shot this week. Praying no one gets shocked or starts an electrical fire! He's installed another hard wired in light before and my kids have this natural born understanding of how things work that I promise you, they did not get from me!
This has been a rough year in our family and even in our extended family. It's hard... there are a lot of us but we are spread out quite a bit and we don't always connect the dots like we should. I'm super guilty of that because pain and the other stresses we've had this year have given me a bit of tunnel vision. We - me - all of us - have only so much time and energy to spend and it is hard to check all of the boxes and make sure everyone's needs are being met. That's why these little blog posts are important for me, even if another person never ever saw them. I have to stop and count my blessings periodically and Monday, being the most hated day of the week seems like the best time to do it. We should always have a spirit of thanksgiving but it is hard. Life is hard. Living with pain, feeling isolated and limited in ability makes it harder. I thought that once I stopped working I wouldn't need to search for reasons to love Monday but honestly, I need this more now than I ever did. And because I know that there are some of you reading this who are really at the point of being overwhelmed by the struggles and challenges you're facing and maybe sometimes feel like giving up... just stop, count your blessings, look for things (reasons) to love whatever day it is and I promise, it will make things better!
Until we cross paths again, love and hugs to all of you! I'd love to hear your Reasons to Love Monday too!
3 comments:
Oh my . I feel so bad for Austin. That is harassment 101 in the books. And that kid can make out very well if he can prove it. I hope you documented all of this somehow/ someway for him.
I went through this at my job of almost 4 yrs. I was an asst/ there were two of us *same title* one manager. The new manager came on after my 4th year started. She didn't like me from the get go.... never made eye contact with me, just the other asst. Then there were diet pills brought in and left for me and one other women. We were not the smallest and she let us know! Then reviews were coming up and she wouldn't do mine. She had it written out but wouldn't verbally tell me/ I came in to find it on a back room register for the staff to read. All sorts of things, not letting perform my duties as an asst.... she took it all from me. I sat and documented everything and finally quit. Wrote a letter to my District manager with dates and times and CC'd it to head of Humane resource. Low and behold I was called right away and offered a severence to keep my mouth shut and was able to collect unemployment with out a question.. it was for a full two years. See, NO One has the right to mis treat anyone in the work place! Its my biggest pet peeves. My daughter, as you know has Autism and they tried once to screw her over/ once. didn't happen again.
Good luck to Austin!
R
I would consider filing a complaint with the EEOC regarding how Austin was treated. They will want details on how he was doing prior to the change, how he was doing after the change, and all the specifics on how the manager spoke to him and mistreated him.
I would also see what the grievance policy at the store is and file a claim through that avenue. Human resources departments don't like hearing that their store management is mistreating and discriminating against employees, especially if you make this information public.
If you file a complaint make sure to get letters from coworkers and customers saying how good he was. The manager might try to save himself by lying. It would be a lot of coworker/customers words against one manager.
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