Sunday, May 23, 2021

Workplace defenses

 Im back! Well I guess you could say that I never left? Anyways I want to take a second to talk about something aside from the usual workplace bullshit! Let us take a second and another to talk about work place defenses...and what I mean by that is how we ourselves navigate workplace conflict? No this not one of those weird work place orientations and im not a teacher to lecture anyone, things like that so breathe!

let me take a second to pick myself back up as my dumbs likes to take hiatus and what not. Lets start with asking ourselves what we have learned about diffusing workplace conflict? You know aside from what they tell us in these awkward policy books that they keep sending home with people that no one reads. I am quite sure some of you have even taken these policies and went home at the end of the day and wiped your ass with it. So from all that what did we learn other than...we can't punch our co-workers because they decide they were going to be annoying, we learned we can't ignore our superiors because well they are our superiors, we learned that we have to be on time even if it kills us...Sound familiar?

Yeah okay whatever let me tell what they ere really saying in-between the lines, they were saying don't be late because you're manager is going to be late as much as they want and there's no point of bringing it up without retaliation, they're saying you can't punch your co-worker in the face even though, he's a racist  and has been making comments all week, they're saying follow the dress code except for the girls and guys who they like and who are going gain a huge amount of positive attention, they're saying bring a fake positive attitude to work, they're saying come be miserable the entire duration of your shift, they're saying leave your problems at home even though they truly meant you. 

They're saying take the lies of your jealous co-workers in stride, they're saying workplace friendships are off limits because , that gets in the way oof numbers, they're saying waste time by looking busy and sweep the floor a couple of dozen times. They're saying you're always going to be wrong even when you have clear evidence that you were right, they're saying they need all of your time and energy, they're saying having fun in there workplace his off limits , they're saying for every day off you will be punished with the workload over and over again, they're saying even though you're right and you can back it up you're still wrong, they're saying take the fall for other worth's they have more of an interest in but dont want to fire ...Should i keep going? I know its a lot to take in but count how many time you had a boss that showed favoritism, or you heard workplace gossip that was racial and sexist to other workers?

Count how many times you were alienated by rules or the way a task was done. Called out in a group meeting by a simple mistake, being talked to about your attendance but you're always seeing your manager come in late, not being able to do much when you start getting followed in the work place and picked on. When you go to HR but they are part of the same team and it docent stop, how far do you go before you decide that enough is enough? Do you wait a fe months? If you're anything like me you probably give to about a year and just keep doing the best you can until they call it quits with you. I want to say that it was a lot easier said than done. Some jobs I absolutely had to walk away from, and I think most of you can relate right? The type of job that interferes with your dignity and what not.

For the most part if you really think about it what can we do? I mean we have those cases where we abide by the workplace rules but still in turn no good deed goes unpunished and its absolutely sick of you ask me. I deduced it too that a lot of these people work long hours and they get so bored and so distant from their usual lives that they come to work and they project these negative insecurities and these negative mindsets and they use it to control whatever weird satisfaction they get, however that's just the tip of the iceberg if you ask me. These concepts get deep...for example what makes a liar at work per se? is it the need for job security? Is it that the individual just isn't compatible with some of the other workers? That same question can be asked in a sense of what exactly makes a kiss ass? Like have you really thought of it outside of the fact that the person obviously wants to be there  long and to move up in the workplace. Once again it can actually get deeper than that? However what time do we truly have to sit down and apply these concepts?

Thats not even fair because most of you weren't given a lot of these tools. I think that's what makes it more of a headache if you think about it. However you can't truly say that either because sometimes you can give some the fundamentals but what's the point if their mind isn't open to it and they want to be stubborn? I think we shouldn't chastise certain behaviors, for example if my boss is telling me some dumb shit that I can't she off I don't think anyone should be punished for walking off and taking a minuet. Small things like that prevent altercations, I don't think its a punishable work offense to defend yourself even if its one against the whole office, I believe everyone has a voice but you know you don't always get the time to speak, especially with the type of people who like to hear themselves talk.

I fell like, if anyone feels like their boss or team lead is accusing and constantly picking on them why is it super problematic when the individual decides to speak up about it? Like why does it always cause a wave in the workplace, I get we all have jobs to protect but lets sit down and get serious for a moment, even if you had a job, explain to me this...was it worth it coming home everyday from your mediocre job feeling like shit for base pay, was it worth giving up your dreams and your dignity as person, for a place thats putting your replacement through orientation, or how did it feel to bust your ass for those long hours jut to end up completely unappreciated? If you can justify to me these things, then I am more then willing to back off and be wrong I guess you could say. However somewhere within that I know that Im not wrong.

This is not about being lazy and not wanting to work because thats majority of us right? No one truly wants to work, and if they do they don't truly want to work for someone else. However its always going to be looked at that way, anyone leaving a job over conflict of interest with their work peers will be told unfortunately by someone in their life that they were just being silly, too sensitive to the situation, they shouldn't want to quit just because someone at work is being an asshole. Ive gotten this far too many times, Ive had people tell me that I need to change my mindset and attitude, however even I can prove that none of those things indeed work. Ive had jobs where came in everyday with a smile on my face and still was treated like nothing, Ive had jobs where I was the kiss ass and tried to build favorable positions with superiors. All at a fail, that quickly goes out the window when someone decides that they just don't like you. It goes out the window when someone is more willing to throw you under the bus.

The point I am m trying make here, is why in this life we make ourselves lesser in the workspace. Why do we let the ideals and opinions of others in the workforce determine who we are at a new job? I think we have a tendency to forget that we didn't leave the bullies in school. They're everywhere. Sure you can job hop but thats sweeping the problem under the rug. These things will never change unless we go out of our way to change them ourselves. So next time you're at work and your job is going out of its way to remind you that are something less then yourself. Tell yourself that, that job is dime a dozen and that you will be okay. Don't stop defending yourself. 


Sunday, May 16, 2021

Minghua (MING - WHA(T THE FUCK)

 Hey everyone its bee awhile but Im back with another workplace narrative. I know I have been away but I have been giving this job some time to sink in and within two and a half moths it has already started to go downhill. So I think we are all aware of the disclosure notice? Names and things will be changed to protect the privacy of the actual people. Although I don't think this will be using any names....All right here goes!

This job has been quite the rollercoaster and somewhere within this I don't actually know where to begin. Let us start with the company, Minghua, a little automobile company located in Fremont Ca. I don't have anything truly positive to say about the company and no that's not me just being a hater thats literally me analyzing the entire warehouse in them last two and a half months. These are the things that Ive seen and experienced forehand so there's no fiction. The work is tedious the people are terrible and there's nothing within it that makes me want to even remotely stay there.

I am a quality control inspector and the entire point of my job is take Tesla bumpers and make sure that the production team is following their process. Sounds easy right? Well It should be but its the management that makes it so difficult to work there. No to mention that the turnover rate in that place is crazy. I see new faces everyday and its incredible how fast you can move up and how much of a snake you turn into in that type of environment. I think of the people they're not much as robots but more like idiots in their own right. A bunch of people who have nothing going on at home, so they come to work and project that. It is bad and it does a lot of good people a negative. It definitely doesn't want to make anyone want to stay any longer then three months I guess you could say.

Of course when I first got there the vibe was great and I wasn't feeling too bad about the place, however that's how it starts in any new place or thing you do. Everything is always great at first but it takes time for the bad the things to set in and it takes time for you to truly understand the environment around you and how some people move in the workplace and how their actions affect others. My lead for example short girl who thinks she knows the job inside and out. I will leave her race out of this as I don't want certain types of opinions formed about her. She was hard to get around and she followed me everywhere so I always felt watched but I made it through the day and usually I have no problems with her but lately it seems that she has been out to get me. Since I guess you could say I am no longer her little lackey to go around and do the things she didn't want to do.

Ever since she came on its been like I have to do her job and mine even though she gets a good bulk of the work done but its that thing where she is over complicating the job and working herself into stress over simple errors of other human beings. I try to turn a blind eye and let it go but it gets annoying because she finds some way to drag me back in. She has me baby sitting other workers. Whenever something goes wrong I get blamed first hand even though there are so any of us. When I make a single mistake I have to get a 10 min lecture every time while the other workers she lets stands there and brushes off. I felt accepted and picked on and it was weird. I was doing my best to conform to it and deal with it  but each day gets harder and harder and I honestly feel like one day I am just not going to show up anymore. I have better things I could be doing with my life.

Let me take you to the actual situation that happened tonight so you can get straight to the idea about what I mean. I get there at work and everything is cool, for the most part I am not in the best of moods so I have been kind of keeping to myself most of the night. I was very stand of is and I wasn't going out of my way to talk to anyone. The energy in the workplace was bad not including the fact that we had a previous issue but I will be taking a different time to discuss that. Everything was fine and I was minding my business, my team gathers too the table and we are instructed where to go. I was sent what we call after polish. What I do there is basically inspect the bumpers that the after polish people put out. Its very tedious and its very boring but I do it. Today in particular already started off weird. There were no after polish pairs put out so my lead literally had me standing around waiting for more. As I did let her know they were out.

First she runs around and talks to another associate after that she runs to back and takes a defective bumper too the back. Once she come up front I stop her and let her know that I am still waiting for the paperwork. She looks at me and says okay and walks off again, this time into the direction of the computers up in  the from of the warehouse. That was fine because that's where we usually print them. I wait there another few minuets just for her to come back and tell me that there was nothing to print and that there was nothing she could do. So after telling me just to adjust another sheet, I walk to the back and I start standing there. By this time there were a few bumpers sitting there so I write them down, the pace was slow so there wasn't a whole lot going on and there wasn't anything to really do. Within I get approached by my co worker who has once again decided to annoy me with conversation even after I told him several times that I dint want to talk. Next thing you know I take off and I go to the bathroom. 

Wasn't in there any longer then 5 minuet as the janitor who so conveniently standing there in the break room eating chips told me to hurry up as he has to take his lunch break, so I am in and out. On my way out of the bathroom I notice that the annoying coworker and now my lead were standing there by my station, once I get in close enough range for my coworker to notice me he whispers something in her ear and promptly walks off. Next thing you know my lead is chewing me out over why I went to the bathroom without informing my peers. For the most part I ignored her because I felt like I had too. I felt that if I told her that he wasn't there to tell and that she was too far away she wouldn't have believed me and that shew would have still in some way found some way to fault me.

I still continue to stand there and I guess you could say I ignore her. Once again I  explain to her that there was nothing on the racks and that me leaving didn't hurt anything but of course once again I was faulted. She takes my sheet and hands me an actual photocopy of the original after polish sheet that she had told me earlier that she didn't have. I was increasingly frustrated and I wasn't sure what to do about it. By this time I do my rounds and it took no more to 5 to 10 min as I said there was no actual pace to go by. Next thing you know I see my lead  come back to me and she tells me that she needed to speak with me upfront and by the time we are making our way there, the production manager buts in and starts walking to the office with us. I look at my lead and ask her what's going on and she told me that are all needed to have a meeting.

The bring me into the office and sit me down, by this time I am not saying anything because I was already upset at the fact that we ended up in the office in the first place. They sit me down and start explaining me that everything I wrote down was somehow incorrect. For the most part of it I wasn't actually saying anything and I just let them go on. It wasn't by the time they starting accusing me of doing it before did I feel the need to finally speak and defend myself. I also sat there and pointed out the fabrications in their story as they didn't have any proof to bring to to the meeting and they kept deflecting when I kept asking how they verified such information. After getting the run around and dicing that I am no longer going to engage in the discourse with these people I shut up and let then hear themselves talk. Within that the supervisor got frustrated and he pulls out his phone and he clocks me at 8:30 and tells me how insubordinate I am being and that I need to leave for the night.

So after being absolutely irritated I decide to give them what they want. Stand up and I freak out and scream that one of my relatives died and I storm out, and I go to the car and leave. Sitting there I ran back the entire situation and went over just fucked up it was. I then sent my lead a long text about how much her and Ali were being assholes to me and they should sit and re-evaluate how they handled that particular situation, I told her not to respond and to actually think about what she did.

So what's the moral of the story boys and girls? Its time to quit and move on to the next job lol was that too vague? C'mon guys I can't keep trying to come up with good morals some of these situations don't have any!!