Back when our Albertan economy was booming two or three
years ago, Chris was in charge of our shipping and receiving. Chris had a university
BA and figured that shipping and receiving was beneath his dignity and
intellect and he spent his time doing as little as possible. He was, without
question, The World’s Biggest Dog Fu Pooch Screwer. When he wasn’t trying to
bend my ear on world geopolitics, he was schmoozing with the delivery truck
drivers and lecturing on Keynesian economics. I usually had a pile of crap on
my plate and tried not to talk to him as he could literally eat up half an hour
of your time before you managed to politely break free.
How to deal with an employee that won’t work? Hire another
one, or that seemed to be The Crack’s idea. And since he couldn’t hire anyone
smarter than he was (he saw intelligent people as a threat and rightfully so) –
instead he hired dummies. No chit – he put an Urban Outdoorsman in the back to
help out Chris and the poor guy couldn’t take the monotony of the job coupled
with Chris’s lecturing. Then we hired a crack head who constantly hummed to
herself and lived in her own little world. She lasted half a year and screwed
up anything she laid a hand to – putting us even further behind the 8 ball. After
that we hired a big fat ugly lesbian and she got in bare knuckle fist fights
with the vibrant delivery drivers that couldn’t even speak English. And the
customers got ever more and more enraged with us as we lost their stuff, or
charged them for stuff they never sent in, or found new and incredibly
offensive other ways of tweaking their noses.
One day, in a rare fit of mediocrity – The Crack hired
Shelley. She wasn’t much to look at – she’s a couple years older than I am
(late 50’s), overweight, with bad feet and a bad back. Where else would ya put
such a woman to work but in a shipping/receiving department where the stuff
that comes in is heavy enough to make a man grunt from time to time?
But Shelley, God bless her – she waded right in and did her
best. When Chris was out back smoking and holding court with the truckers and
passersby – Shelley would do the jobs Chris wouldn’t. She would limp and waddle
out there with her bad feet and bad back and make sure chit got done. Wonder of
wonders – we had somebody back there – finally – that Gave A Chit.
Her home life was a train wreck. She was divorced, making
peanuts working for us – and she supported both her elderly mother and a drug
addicted sister with all the problems and heart ache that goes along with that.
Last week she found out she had cancer and needed an
operation – NOW. She will be off for the next little while and will have a rushed
recovery – assuming she has one at all. She goes in next week or the one after –
but she’s still back there, schlepping boxes and working like a trooper as if
nothing was wrong. She had Big Al break the news to the rest of us rather than
doing it herself because she gets teary and weepy and didn’t want us making a
big fuss over her. This morning I stopped by and told her that we all love her
and are rooting for her – and she started to weep. I fled, fearing I’d cloud up
myself. Maybe I shouldna done it. Gee – ya think, Filthie? I am a damned dunce,
sometimes.
JFC. As an outhouse Christian of sorts, stuff like this
makes me question my faith (such as it is) on one hand – but reaffirms it on
the other. There has to be a reason for shit like this.
There HAS to.
The devil makes us question our faith, Glen. God then reaffirms our faith. That's how it goes. Wish Shelly the best from the (U.S.) wild, wild West.
ReplyDeleteWill do, Pete.
DeleteAnd thanks, as always, for stopping by.
just prayed for her.
ReplyDeleteThank you Deb, a hundred times. Shelley deserves any break she can get.
Delete