Wednesday, May 11, 2022

People that don't seem to get it when you lay it out for them.

This particular incident goes back about 30 years ago but I have gone through the same type of thing several times in my life.

I was working a tug and barge at the time and making good money on a three weeks on/off schedule. Just for the hell of it I took a job running a water taxi for a little chump change. It didn't pay a whole lot but it was mildly entertaining and not a whole lot of bust ass work went with it.

I interviewed the morning after I got back from a tour and was hired on the spot and put to work. I had been up front about the fact that I was not going to quit my regular job and that was the way it was. I also made it clear to them that if the office called me in early I was going to go back to work at my regular job.

"Oh, yeah. We understand," he said.

It wasn't a week before the boss man started in asking me how I liked the job and it started slyly suggesting I go full time.

That drew an annoyed look and he should have been able to take the hint. The game went on until the day before I had to return to my real job and when I let him know he got upset and asked me why I didn't want to stay.

I was ready for that one. I pulled a paycheck stub out of my pocket and handed it to him and watched his eyes go wide as he saw I was making over three times what he was paying me.

He said, "I can't afford to pay that kind of money!"

"I know," I replied. "And I can't afford my lifestyle on the money you pay me. I took the job for some pocket money and I carefully explained it to you when you hired me."

"But I thought..." he said. Then he got frustrated.

I was somewhat sympathetic. "Your expectations were not real," I said. "You thought I would change and give myself a 3/4 pay cut after I saw how cool the job was."

He grew quiet and I left. I took my pay stub off the desk and walked out. The next day I left for work and when my tour was over I didn't call back in to the water taxi. The juice wasn't worth the squeeze.

Instead I called Manpower and took a few odd jobs there.

Later on I ran into one of my water taxi coworkers and he said the boss bad-mouthed me. I shrugged and got the guy's phone number. A couple of tours later the outfit I was working for was hiring entry level people. I called him and he and two other people quit the water taxi company and went to work on tugs on the East Coast, leaving the taxi high and dry.

I've had to deal with people that had unrealistic expectations before that and since and it is a real pain in the ass.

Posting this thread gave me an idea about a retirement gig. I think I will do odd jobs for Manpower or some temporary job service. The variety should prove to be interesting as there are so many different things they use people for.

I used to do that decades ago and it was pretty good. I hung sheet rock one day, helped put up circus tents the next, and was a hotel maid for a couple of days. I did all sorts of different stuff and it wasn't boring.

Remind me to look into the temporary agencies one of these days. I'd forgotten about that.










To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY

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